THERE is not a lot to do on the outskirts of Targu Lapus, a small town in northern Romania. But Catalin Konolos, a construction worker, is rarely home, so he is making the most of a mid-afternoon game of cards before he returns to Luton, a town north of London, for another spell on the building sites. Mr Konolos and his brother, Viorel, sitting beside him, typically toil for four months at a time in Britain before taking a break at home. They work for other Romanians, and have little interest in integrating. Neither speaks English.
The brothers embody the European Union’s free-movement rights. They, and millions like them, are filling labor needs abroad and improving their wages by many multiples. Much of that income finds its way to Romania, in the form of remittances to family members or via consumption (often of the conspicuous kind, as the flash cars in nearby villages testify).
The system is almost unique. What began in 1957 as a work-permit regime among the EU’s six founding members now allows Europeans to work, study and retire anywhere across the 28-member club (plus a handful of other countries) without a permit or visa. It…
The Economist: Europe
