Belgrade, Dec. 28, 2009, (Serbia Today) – Serbs can finally travel to EU countries without a visa. While few can afford to do so to see the sights or to visit relatives, there are many who would do so to find seasonal work.
Both EU and Serbian officials minimize the potential impact of migrant Serbian workers, each for their own political reasons. For the Serbian government any possibility for unemployed to make living would certainly help to lower social tensions that now exist in Serbia. On the other hand EU governments are reluctant to admit that policies for migrant labor are being poorly enforced, resulting in an estimated 4 to 8 million workers in the EU illegally in spite of strict controls and large fines for offending employers.
Reports estimate that at the beginning of December there were some 723,000 unemployed citizens in Serbia. Some analysts believe that as many as one fourth of them are willing to work in the EU. Serbs can now stay in EU without a visa for up to three months. Anyone working during that time can earn enough money to live at home unemployed for the remaining nine months of the year. Seasonal jobs in hospitality, agriculture, and construction are the easiest ones to get without an EU work visa. And for many EU companies in these industries the only way to be competitive and profitable is to employ less expensive, illegal workers.
This probable influx of short term, no-visa workers from Serbia into the EU will benefit all concerned. Despite some social (often nationalistic) issues, EU countries will benefit from a less expensive labor force, as they did with workers from Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria. Serbia will benefit from lower unemployment and higher disposable income.
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