EURECO Lecture: "Reinventing the European labour market"

EURECO Distinguished Lecture Series 2014 presents a lecture by Jens Arnholtz, Assistant Professor, Employment Relations Research Centre (FAOS), Department of Sociology, the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Copenhagen.

For half a century, the provisions of the free movement of labour have granted Europeans the right to move across borders and work in another country. However, few Europeans have done so and the grant vision of a common European labour market has long seemed an unrealistic utopia. But with the EU enlargements of 2004 and 2007 this changed, as millions of new EU citizens started to move west. Driven by huge socio-economic differences between member-states, the post-enlargement labour migration has shown that a common European labour market may not be that unrealistic. At the same time, the complex problems, political conflicts and marked public debates caused by the new flow of labour as also indicated that a common European labour market might not be a utopia either.