Regional Economic Integration and Migration: The European Case

Abstract

Since the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1957, economic and regional integration in Western Europe has been achieved. What consequences has this had for labor migration between the member states? What lessons are to be drawn from the EEC experience as to the effect of regional integration on unwanted migration? Would analogous results occur under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)? The development of the European Communities (EC) shows that regional integration can attenuate socioeconomic disparities that induce people to migrate. Increased trade and welfare has had a leveling effect among EC states that has dampened migration. Trade exchanges and competition within the EC occurred more within industrial or product groups than between economic sectors. Thus adjustment to freer trade did not lead to the loss of whole industries and mass redundancies. But NAFTA differs from the EC in many respects. Although there are some similarities, the differences between NAFTA and the EC warn against the facile presumption that Mexico will go the way of Italy after ratification of NAFTA.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

1. The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) was founded in 1960 on the initiative of the United Kingdom by a number of European countries that, in their economic integration in the form of a common market, did not wish to go as far as the EEC. For them a free trade area was sufficient. In the meantime, practically all the former member countries of EFTA have either joined the EC or have expressed their intention to do so.

2. Loukas Tsoulakis , The New European Economy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 29.

3. Peter Robson , The Economics of International Integration (London: Unwin Hyman, 1987), p. 42.

4. André Sapir , Regional Integration in Europe, Economic Papers no. 94 (Brussels: Commission of the European Communities, 1991), p. 11.

5. Figures are taken from Regio, the data bank of the Commission of the European Communities. To allow comparisons between regions, purchasing-power parities are calculated that express for each country the price of an identical volume of goods and services.

6. Figures refer to 1987 and are taken from Mark Wise and Richard Gibb , Single Market to Social Europe (New York: John Wiley, 1993), p. 208.

7. “EC integration, by increasing the possibility for human, material and financial resources to move without hindrance towards the most economically attractive regions, could lead to an increase in regional disparities.” Commission of the European Communities , Completing the Internal Market, White Paper from the Commission to the European Council, 1985, p. 8.

8. Free movement of labor in the EEC Treaty means the “abolition of any discrimination based on nationality between workers of the Member States as regards employment, remuneration and other conditions of work and employment.”

Heinz Werner , “Freizügigkeit der Arbeitskräfte und die Wanderungsbewegungen in den Ländern der Europäischen Gemeinschaft,” Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, no. 4, p. 339 (1973).

10.

George Borjas , “Economic Theory and International Migration,” International Migration Review, no. 3, p. 457 (1989).

11.

11. W.R. Böhning , Studies in International Labour Migration (London: Macmillan Press, 1984), p. 68 ff.

12.

12. The mobility of labor between EC countries thus declined along with the regional mobility within the EC countries. Cf. W. Karr et al. , “Regionale Mobilität am Arbeitsmarkt,” in Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, no. 2, pp. 197 ff (1987).

13.

13. Thomas Straubhaar , On the Economics of International Labour Migration (Bern and Stuttgart: Verlag Paul Haupt, 1988), pp. 127 ff.

14.

14. Cf. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development , SOPEMI Reports (Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, annually).

15.

15. John Salt and Allan Findlay , “International Migration of Highly Skilled Manpower: Theoretical and Development Issues,” in The Impact of International Migration on Developing Countries, ed. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Development Centre (Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 1989), pp. 159 ff.

16.

16. Ulrich Walwei and Heinz Werner , “Europeanizing the Labour Market: Employee Mobility and Company Recruiting Methods,” Intereconomics, pp. 3-10 (Jan.-Feb. 1993).

17.

17. In the Federal Republic of Germany, 440,000 persons applied for political asylum in 1992. Even if the application is rejected, most of them are allowed to stay.