New EU citizens see both benefits and drawbacks to mobility

EurActiv's partner portals examined the public opinion on labour mobility as well as the respective governments' positions. 

Czech Republic: The public discussion on labour mobility is rather limited. As a result of the relatively low cross-border mobility of the Czech labour force, the interest of the public and the media focuses more on foreigners coming to work in the country. 

Political actors from both sides of the spectrum have a very liberal stance on cross-border mobility. The number of workers potentially willing to work in a different member state is marginal and consequently cannot lead to destabilisation of European labour markets. Surveys are supportive to such statements. The mobility of workers is officially supported, e.g. in the National Action Plan for Employment (which includes measures to tackle poor performance of the housing market and to support transport), or in the 2005 Strategy for Economic growth. However, these documents are not binding. In the end it will depend on political will whether measures are adopted or not. 

Hungary: Labour mobility and its effects are small, thus public interest in the question is also small. The issue rarely occurs in public. Discussions tend to be campaign-like, bound to concrete cases (professions). Again, attention focuses more on foreigners coming to Hungary, as is the case of Slovaks in the Northern regions. 

Repeatedly, the Hungarian government has stressed that free movement of persons, including workers, is one of the four basic freedoms of EU. The government tries to keep the issue high on the political agenda and to maintain public discussion on eventual positive and negative effects. 

Poland: A lot of Poles resent the fact that so many people leave their country to work elsewhere. On the other hand they see the importance of chances for young people to find well paid work. The main public concern is that migration constitutes a threat to the unity of the family, when one person leaves Poland to work abroad and the rest of the family stays in Poland. There are whole towns and villages where as a general rule children are being brought up by their grandparents. Mobility of the father is often followed by the chain migration of women. The growing problem of alcoholism among fathers also plays an important role in the discussion. 

For young people, labour migration means a chance for a better start in the life and escape from the unemployment. Therefore, they tend to have more positive attitudes on labour mobility. According to the polls the main critical group are old people with conservative attitudes.

The government in Warsaw is an exception in that Polish authorities do not officially support labour migration. They point to problems caused by the departure of the most active, often highly qualified people, and to already existing labour shortages in certain sectors, such as the healthcare professions. The Polish government tries to minimise labour emigration by reducing taxes and costs of employment and by creating incentives for business activity. 

Slovakia: Official communication stresses the positive effects of labour migration. Slovaks also tend to have a positive stance. According to Eurostat more than 60% think that long-distance mobility is a good thing. However, in many cases it is seen as a matter of necessity and a result of high unemployment and low wages on the local market. Many migrants, especially young people, are ready to take work that is way below their qualification level. 

The former government of Mikuláš Dzurinda, who left office on 4 July 2006, officially supported labour mobility. A "Report on the current social and economic situation in the Slovak regions", adopted by the Dzurinda government in March 2006, stated that "labour mobility plays the key role in the fight against regional living standard differences. The Slovak government will take the necessary steps and implement a policy focused on the increase of mobility, both internal and international, and especially in the border regions." 

Cross-border labour mobility is considered one of the main ways of solving the problem of high unemployment. The new government is not expected to radically change this policy. However, some adaptations and more discussion on possible negative effects may be expected, as the government is formed by parties with their power bases in the poorer regions, which are more vulnerable to youth drain and brain drain.