Post-enlargement migration and labour market impact

People migrate across borders for different reasons, economic and as well as others. Independent of the motive for migration, it has economic effects. Migration has economic effects for the migrants and for the countries of origin and destination. The effects of international migration are not easy to determine. It means that there is uncertainty regarding the effects of migration from the accession states both before and after the accession has taken place. The uncertainty before the accession is related to both the number of immigrants, the composition of the immigrants and the effects on the country of destination given the size and composition of the inflow of immigrants. But even when the size and composition of the new immigration are known, the effects are not easy to establish. In the first section of this paper we will discuss the type of economic effects an expansion of immigration may lead to. In the second section the dimension and composition of the actual migration in the first two years after the enlargement of the European Union is in focus. In the third section the labour market situation of the immigrants from the accession countries is analyzed. In the pre-accession debate social (benefit) tourism was a key issue. In the fourth section the migrants and the public sector and especially the migrants and the welfare system is discussed. The last section concludes and also indicates some areas for further study. 1. Economic effects of an increased immigration Immigration has economic effects for the country of origin. An enlargement of immigration due to an expansion of the European common labour market may have various effects, positive and negative. The size of these effects depends of course on the size of the increase i