EU’s Free Movement of Workers Constrained: French Labor Policies towards New Europeans.

Abstract

Freedom of movement is known to be a great privilege granted to EU citizens. However, a closer look into this right illustrates that it had some limitations when new countries joined the Union in 2004 and 2007. The work discusses the legal aspects of France’s practice in these two distinguished cases. Additionally, the special focus is made on economic migrants- the Roma, who are the EU citizens mainly from Romania. Recently, the EU Commission and human rights organizations criticized massive expulsions of this minority group from the French soil. Contrary, France argues that the measures taken against citizens of another EU state were in complete accordance with free movement laws. On the example of France this research covers crucial areas of the European concerns, such as enlargement, labor immigration, and minority rights.