Recent migration developments in the European perspective

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to evaluate the development of international migration in relationship to the recent economic situation in member countries of the European Union using quantitative methods including cluster analysis. The number of immigration in Europe has declined since the start of the global recession. The main reason was the decrease of demand in many sectors of the national economy, for instance the demand for retail and construction workers. Despite the drop in new immigration, labour markets of the EU countries were hit very severely. Unemployment rates in the most of European countries increased much more in the category of migrants than among natives. Despite the general decline in immigration in Europe during the economic crisis, the number of immigrants employed in educational sector and health care has increased. Also the number of female immigrants has been growing. The cluster analysis uses a multidimensional variable that includes GDP, unemployment, inflation rate and also net migration. We can distinguish two main clusters in 2010. The majority of highly developed West European countries are a part of the first cluster; the second cluster includes the group of post-communist countries. The latter countries form two sub-groups. A relatively independent sub-cluster is formed by some of the EU15 countries that were hit by the financial crisis the most. In general, the main two clusters illustrate that the economic division of established and new member countries of the European Union is still present.