Topic: Why free migration within the EU/EEA area is not a good idea (Read 489 times)

Free migration of workers is a fundamental part of the EU system, as described here: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=457. The free migration of workers also includes three non EU parties to the EEA agreement: Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

As a party political active Norwegian, I have written a blog post on why it is my view that this free migration does more harm than good here: http://kystpartietvestfold.wordpress.com/2015/01/04/why-free-immigration-within-the-eueea-area-is-not-a-good-idea/.

As is natural, I touch the reasons why I conclude that the EEA agreement and free migrationis not good for Norway. However, as I wrote the blog post with the intention to contribute with some arguments that I believe can be useful in other European countries, I chose a broader perspective. One effect of free migration within an area with large economical differenses that one should expect, is that the most skilled workers leave the poorer countries.

The case of Latvia illustrates this, as one can read in the following article: http://www.france24.com/en/20120522-latvia-emigration-population-brain-drain-economy/. If EU/EEA countries replaced the system of free migration of workforce with a politics that included more use of temporary work permits, the situation would be quite different. If it were common that workers from other countries (not only EEA countries, but also countries like Moldova and Albania) could work in countries like for example Germany, UK or Norway for a certain numbers of years, the result would be that their countries were not drained for workforce, but earned capital. My conclusion is that putting an end to free migration would be to all countries’ benefit.