Regional Economic Integration and Migration: The European Case

Abstract

Since the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1957, economic and regional integration in Western Europe has been achieved. What consequences has this had for labor migration between the member states? What lessons are to be drawn from the EEC experience as to the effect of regional integration on unwanted migration? Would analogous results occur under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)? The development of the European Communities (EC) shows that regional integration can attenuate socioeconomic disparities that induce people to migrate. Increased trade and welfare has had a leveling effect among EC states that has dampened migration. Trade exchanges and competition within the EC occurred more within industrial or product groups than between economic sectors. Thus adjustment to freer trade did not lead to the loss of whole industries and mass redundancies. But NAFTA differs from the EC in many respects. Although there are some similarities, the differences between NAFTA and the EC warn against the facile presumption that Mexico will go the way of Italy after ratification of NAFTA.