Viktor Orban arriving at EU Summit on migration, April, 2015. Demotix/ Aurore Belot. All rights reserved.For central and eastern Europeans, free movement of people is the most cherished benefit of European integration. Governments in Warsaw or Bratislava have a habit of reacting indignantly to attempts by the UK and others to curb the benefits of migrant workers. They fight tooth-and-nail to preserve the integrity of the Schengen system and rightly speak out against anti-migrant rhetoric from British politicians and commentators.
Yet, so far, they have remained comfortably aloof from bearing any costs that arise from the flip side of Schengen: dealing with the influx of refugees and irregular migrants from the conflict-torn and poverty-stricken southern neighbourhood.
This paradox was in full effect last week as the Commission unveiled the European Agenda for Migration, which includes binding quotas for the resettlement and relocation of up to 20,000 migrants as a way of spreading the refugee burden more evenly across member states.
