Mobility in Europe since the Eastern enlargement: emergence of a European labour market?

The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the most recent trends in labour mobility after the two waves of Eastern enlargement, within the context of labour market developments mainly in the newly joined Central and Eastern European Member States. The article focuses on the question of how the current economic and financial crisis impacted on these trends, whether a slowdown of labour outflow from the Central and Eastern European Member States could be detected as a consequence. From a policy point of view, it is important to assess the consequences of the new mobility trends not only in the receiving countries, but also in the sending ones, as well as the individuals and families affected. Due to the short time which passed since the enlargement, there is limited empirical evidence, but the paper makes an attempt to highlight those issues in this regard, which could have important policy implications in the future. The analysis is based partly on previous research, partly on the most recent empirical data.