The East Looks OK

Newsweek: International Editions - MSNBC.com

"The East Looks OK
Worries about one set of immigrants—Muslims—are starting to ease resistance to those from New Europe.

Feb. 20, 2006 issue - For Vladimir Spidla, it was sweet vindication. Ever since the European Union took in 10 new members some 20 months ago, he has been preaching the merits of open borders to an audience that wouldn't listen. But earlier this month the EU's employment czar finally got the proof he needed: a 12-page report from the European Commission examining the record of the few countries that had taken in workers from the formerly communist east. Remember the outcry, those dismal forecasts of swamped and disrupted labor markets? Plain wrong. To the contrary, their willing hosts are happy—and thriving. "Individual countries and Europe as a whole have benefitted," Spidla boasts."