WIIW The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies - Wiener Institut für Internationale Wirtschaftsvergleiche

In this contribution, we explore labour mobility in the context of enlargement and the functioning of transitional arrangements in the case of France. For that purpose, we examine the patterns of migration from the new European Union member states to France and their economic consequences. Using national statistics, we find that the flows and stocks of migrants from Central and Eastern European countries are low in France, both before and after enlargement. We also find, reviewing the literature, that the economic effects of migration are negligible from the receiving country's point of view. Nevertheless, the French government continued to restrict access to its labour market for migrants from Central and Eastern European countries until July 2008, and will perhaps keep restriction for migrants from Bulgaria and Romania until 2014. It appears that the issue of labour mobility for migrants from the new member states is clearly more of a politic than an economic nature, and that the fears of French public opinion about enlargement are taken into account.