Since the political and economic transformation in east-central Europe at the end of the 1980s, European Union (EU) countries have been confronted with an increasing migration pressure. This new development has to be understood in the light of the removal of emigration restrictions in the ‘sending’ states and large differences in income and living standards between the east and west of the continent.
In addition, growing unemployment and sporadic ethnic conflicts in the transformation countries contributed to new migration trends. In the light of the enlargement of the European Union, which sooner or later will allow a wholly free movement of people between east and west, EU governments are obviously interested in predicting and managing this movement.
Germany has been the western European country most affected by east-west migration since 1989. This explains the German effort to keep this migration under control, for example demanding restricted freedom of movement from east-central European countries for another seven years even after the next phase of EU enlargement in 2004.
