Romanians most mobile workers in EU

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Last year nearly one in five working-age Romanians worked abroad in other EU countries, EU statistics agency Eurostat reported on Monday.

Last year, 3.8 percent of EU citizens of working age (20-64) were living in another member state than that of their citizenship, the agency said.

"This share has increased from 2.5 percent 10 years ago," it said. "The situation varies among member states, ranging from one percent for working-age citizens of Germany to 19.7 percent for citizens of Romania."

Data showed the next-largest shares were seen in Lithuania (15 percent), Croatia (14 percent), and Portugal (13.9 percent), while the EU member states with the smallest share of mobile nationals after Germany were the United Kingdom (1.1 percent), followed by Sweden and France (both 1.3 percent).

Eurostat said the free movement of workers is a fundamental principle of the EU.

"EU citizens are entitled to look for a job in another EU country, work there without a work permit, live there and enjoy equal treatment with nationals in access to employment, working conditions and all other social and tax advantages," it said.

Higher degrees, more mobility

Eurostat said higher-education graduates are generally more mobile than the rest of the population, as 30.1 percent of the entire EU population have higher degrees, but they make up 32.4 percent of mobile EU citizens, more than their share.

"For most member states, a higher share of working-age nationals abroad have tertiary education than the home population," Eurostat said, adding:

"This is in particular the case for France (62.5 percent of the French living in another EU member state have tertiary education, compared with 34.6 percent for the resident population of France) and Germany (54.5 percent and 26.7 percent respectively) where the difference reaches 28 percentage points."

Eurostat also stated that the employment rate of mobile EU citizens is also higher than that of the entire population -- 76.1 percent, compared with the total EU employment rate of 72.1 percent.

"For most member states, the employment rates of mobile EU citizens are higher than those of their co-nationals who live in their country of citizenship and higher than the EU average employment rate," it said.

The largest differences are in the cases of Greeks (77.3 percent of Greeks in other EU countries are employed, compared with 57.8 percent of the respective population in Greece; a difference of 19.5 percentage points), Croatians (a difference of 16.2 percentage points), and Spaniards (a difference of 13.4 percentage points), it added.