Eastern EU migrants are boosting economies in western member states. Photo: TPCOM (flickr)

Since the EU has admitted a dozen Eastern European nations over the past four years, many western European members have fretted that heavy migration of East European workers would cost local workers their jobs.

But a report by the European Union has concluded otherwise. It says migration from Eastern European nations has “contributed significantly to overall economic growth and employment” in the EU. Migrants traveling from their homeland to more prosperous member states are actually helping labor market shortages — "without displacing local workers or driving down their wages."

But future growth in these countries could be constrained by current restrictions on foreign workers.

Because EU states anticipated that a large influx of migrants would negatively affect their economy, some "temporarily restrict(ed) the free access of workers to their labor markets.” For example, in the United Kingdom, there's a limit to how many low-skilled workers are admitted to work in the agricultural and food processing sectors. Denmark, Germany, Austria and Belgium require Bulgarian and Romanian nationals to obtain work permits, employment contracts, residence permits and/or special visas to work in any part of their economies.

The current economic downturn makes lifting restrictions even more vital for Western Europe. Vladimír Špidla, the EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, recommends lifting all labor restrictions on migrants:

"The right to work in another country is a fundamental freedom for people in the EU. Mobile workers move to where there are jobs available and this benefits the economy.... Lifting restrictions now would not only make economic sense but would also help reduce problems such as undeclared work and bogus self-employment."

New York Times columnist David Brooks identified another casualty of the U.S. recession: the new social group Brooks calls "the formerly middle class."

These are people who achieved middle-class status at the tail end of the long boom, and then lost it. To them, the gap between where they are and where they used to be will seem wide and daunting.

Now faced with recession, Brooks writes that members of "the formerly middle class" will need to adjust and start embracing the simpler life. That means no morning latte, no Hawaiian vacation and certainly no more Tiffany jewelry or Coach handbags.

For those who have only experienced life during a time of economic boom or stability, living without the material comforts that have shaped their social identity will be a struggle.

Brooks thinks the pain from this recession won't just be material for "the formerly middle class." Rather, "it will be the loss of a social identity, the loss of social networks, the loss of the little status symbols that suggest an elevated place in the social order."