EU mobility

The free movement of people and workers is one of the cornerstones of the EU. Intra-EU mobility has overwhelmingly benefited the citizens of EU member states, both in countries of work and countries of origin. Early concerns in destination countries about welfare migration and the crowding out of lesseducated workers have been broadly refuted. However, EU mobility policies still need a significant deepening and upgrading to deal with special cases of fraudulent contracts and crowding out in sub-sectors. What remains difficult is the full integration of some groups of mobile EU workers because of linguistic and cultural barriers. There is also a new challenge to EU policy: the integration of circular migrants. Here EU countries should be encouraged to harmonise administration and cut red tape.