East-West Labour Migration and Integration : Trends and Prospects for Health Professionals

ABSTRACT
Freedom of moving of people was the subject matter of discussions between the European Union and new potential members. Temporary work contracts for workers from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) were available from the late eighties on. That offer is opening a legal path to the market of labour force of states of the EU for immigrants from the CEE states in the transition period. The present contribution researches different factors and processes, which influence professional inclusion of health workers from Bohemia and Poland in Great Britain and in Germany. Their present and potential employment status is dealt with in relation to request and offer for such employment, the legal frame of the work market, introduction to work itself and the process of regulating such processes, the professional role and the working organisation in it. It is foreseen in the contribution that demands for specialised qualifications and high education in many countries of the EU could lead in the following years to an expansion of employment opportunities for the immigrants from the CEE countries. Advocated is the standpoint of greater convergence in issuing permits for temporary employment among the states members of the EU for the benefit of acquiring a higher degree of protection of the employed, and more impartial treatment of immigrants with such work permits.