Foreign employees influx has boosted the eurozone economy in recent years, helping to compensate for working hours and lower real wages, according to European Central Bank president,
Migration to its population has increased its population to historically high levels last year, despite birth decline. However, several governments impose restrictions on new arrivals, responding to the discontent within their countries.
Christine Lagarde pointed out that the increase in the number of workers from countries outside the 20 eurozone member states was an important factor in support of the economy, despite the tendency for less working hours and the reduction of living standards in some areas.
“Although foreign workers represented only 9% of the total workforce in 2022, they halfway through its growth in the last three years,” Christine Lagarde said in a speech at the Federal Reserve’s annual Symposium in Jackson Hole in Wyoming. “Without this contribution, the conditions in the labor market would be more limited and the production lower.”
German GDP and foreign workers
As he explained, Germany’s gross domestic product would be about 6% lower than 2019 without the contribution of foreign workers, while stressing that Spain’s strong economic recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic is largely due to the presence of workers from abroad.
The population of the European Union amounted to a historical high of 450.4 million last year, as net migration offset the natural decline in the population for the fourth consecutive year. However, this development was accompanied by political reactions, with voters increasingly turning to far -right parties.
The new German government, for example, has suspended family reunification and resettlement programs in an effort to regain the support of voters attracted by the Alternative party for Germany. Correspondingly, in the United States, the government under Donald Trump had intensified the arrests of immigrants who live in the country, reinforced border controls and removed the legal status from hundreds of thousands of immigrants.
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