Don't fear the worker

While on May 1 this year Finland, Greece, Portugal and Spain threw open their doors to migrant workers from Poland and the other seven 'new' Central European member states, eight of the 'old' EU15 member states still impose restrictions on workers from the region. Austria has said it will maintain all of their restrictions for at least another three years.

"A high unemployment rate and the situation of the Austrian labor market do not let us fully open the market," said Andreas Khol, speaker of the Lower Chamber of the Austrian parliament. However, according to Eurostat, Austria has the fifth-lowest unemployment rate in the Union at 5.1 percent.

Earlier, the Austrians had justified their move out of fear of a wave of immigrants, pointing out that it has a border with four new EU member states. Yet the anticipated horde of job-stealing Polish plumbers never materialized in countries which have opened their labor markets, and migrant workers actually benefit those countries' economies. A recent report by Ernst & Young Item Club shows that migrant workers had boosted growth in the UK by holding inflation in check and increasing tax revenue. Ireland has steadily maintained Europe's second-lowest unemployment rate (4.2 percent), despite seeing one of the greatest inflows of migrant laborers.

Though it may pay off politically in the short term, Austrian politicians' decision to bend to the vox populi and ignore the hard facts will mean that their economies will continue to suffer from their isolationist policies.