Differentiation of the standard of living in eastern central Europe and east-west migration

Abstract

"In the transformation countries of eastern central Europe, eastern Germany, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary, the political and economic process of reform is well advanced. Eastern Germany is, as a result of the reunification, already fully integrated into the European Union, and negotiations are already underway concerning the entry of the other countries. A considerable obstacle for the rapid inclusion of the eastern central European countries into the common economic and social area is the severe prosperity differential between the west and the east. There are fears that there will be undesirable east-west migrations if the people in the reform countries are granted the same rights of freedom of movement as the citizens of the European Union already enjoy today. Against the background of this problem this article presents the development of the standard of living in the countries mentioned above during the transformation period and describes the migratory movements from these countries to Germany. The basis of the study is firstly official statistics and secondly a random household survey carried out in eastern Germany, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1994/95. In each country around 1000 householders were interviewed using a comparable questionnaire. The data basis was drawn up within the framework of the 'Social Consequences of Transition in Central Europe' project. The work was initiated and co-ordinated by the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. The survey data shows that a rapid reduction in the prosperity differential between the west and the east can not be expected; it also shows that as a consequence of the economic transformation crisis there has been a considerable differentiation of the standards of living between the countries and within the particular societies. Although such a prosperity differential does exist, the fear of undesirable migration processes seems to be exaggerated. For firstly the previous forms of permanent migration due to ethnic tensions and a lack of political freedom are over inthis region, and secondly politics have great scope in their arrangements in order to keep incentives for permanent migration low. In the east the same attention should be paid to bringing the social security systems into line with EU standards as is being paid to bringing the economic structures into line. On the other hand the EU and the member countries must not make the prosperity differential permanent by means of a policy of segregation against the people of eastern central Europe, but should create an institutional framework in which the need for temporary labour migration, which exists without a doubt in the east, can develop in such a way that the benefits are maintained for the sending countries and the possible disadvantages for the host countries are not concentrated in particular areas." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Engfer, U. & Seng, T. (1997): Differenzierung der Lebensverhältnisse in Ostmitteleuropa und Ost-West-Migration. In: Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Vol. 30, No. 3, p. 601-611.