Wpływ ewolucji prawa swobodnego przepływu osób na migracji w ramach Unii Europejskiej. Bilans dwudziestolecia istnienia rynku wewnętrznego UE

Economic integration leads to outflow of production factors from countries relatively well equipped to countries in which they are relatively rare, where it is possible to gain a higher rate of return. This process initiates short-term adaptations of supply and prices of production factors in integrating countries. The total production of these countries should increase, as should the final productivity of labour or capital. It is worth indicating that the possible negative effects of the transfer of capital or migration of labour arising from economic integration will most likely not be significant in comparison to the possible negative results of their ineffective allocation. One of the four freedoms of the internal market of the EU is the free movement of people, including workers, which gives opportunities to migrate and to search for a better job or a better place to live. Under EU law, all unjustified barriers have been eliminated or substantially reduced. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the 1990s, there were still many obstacles in the free movement of workers concerning different implementation of EU law on conditions of employment, mutual recognition of qualifications or coordination of social security and health care. Substantial changes in the legal framework of the free movement of people were introduced only in 2004–2005, when ten new Member States joined the EU. Although many Member States decided to apply restrictions on the free movement of workers, migration from the EU-10 and the EU-2 to the EU-15 considerably changed the flow of foreigners within the internal market of the EU. But it is worth underlining that despite a restrictive policy against foreigners in some Member States, the outside immigration to the EU is still considerably bigger than the internal migration within the internal market of the EU.