<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> The aim of this paper is to evaluate the role of intervening obstacles, understood as legal and policy barriers blocking immigrant access to foreign labor markets, in the international migration process. To do so, we use Polish international temporary emigrants in the years 2000-2012, which spans both the pre-accession period, when Polish citizens were not entitled to access other EU labor markets, as well as the post - accession period, when certain countries gradually removed intervening obstacles according to the transnational agreements. </p><p>The findings of this paper undermine the significance of intervening obstacles on Polish migration to EU countries. Instead, the primary driver of Polish migrants was the EU-15 business cycle - and not the opening of EU labor markets.</p></abstract>

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the role of intervening obstacles, understood as legal and policy barriers blocking immigrant access to foreign labor markets, in the international migration process. To do so, we use Polish international temporary emigrants in the years 2000-2012, which spans both the pre-accession period, when Polish citizens were not entitled to access other EU labor markets, as well as the post - accession period, when certain countries gradually removed intervening obstacles according to the transnational agreements. The findings of this paper undermine the significance of intervening obstacles on Polish migration to EU countries. Instead, the primary driver of Polish migrants was the EU-15 business cycle - and not the opening of EU labor markets.

Do Legal Barriers Really Protect the Labor Markets? Empirical Evidence of Polish Migrants after 2004

Institute of International Economics, Warsaw School of Economics

International Journal of Management and Economics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the role of intervening obstacles, understood as legal and policy barriers blocking immigrant access to foreign labor...

Do Legal Barriers Really Protect the Labor Markets? Empirical Evidence of Polish Migrants after 2004

Published Online: Jan 27, 2015

Page range: 114 - 127

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ijme-2015-0006

© 2015

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.