Intra-EU Labour Mobility and the Welfare State 77 The two indicators have been created using EU-LFS data. We use information on country of birth12 and labour force status13 to identify labour migrants from Western European and CEE countries. Weights provided in the survey data are used to make the sample nationally representative and population data is used to construct an absolute value, which in combination with data on the size of the labour force is then transformed into a percentage. We construct the variables as a percentage of the labour force for theoretical reasons; as we are interested in labour migration and its effects on labour insecurity, this is more clearly expressed by constructing labour migration as a percentage of the labour force. More detail on the development of these indicators can be found in Fenwick (2021). Tables 4.2 and 4.3 provide the developments in EU13 and EU15 labour migration across countries and over time. The volume of migration varies quite considerably from country to country, however in most countries, stocks of Western European labour migrants stay reasonably stable – an exception is Portugal. For a number of countries, this type of labour migration is actually greater than CEE labour migration. Luxembourg and Switzerland should also be highlighted because of the exceptional size of the stock of labour migrants, which for both countries is over 20 percent of the labour force. In several countries, CEE labour migration is on the rise and each year makes up a larger proportion of the labour force. The United Kingdom especially has seen a steep increase in labour migration from CEE member states, most likely because the UK was one of only three EU countries that decided not to impose labour market restrictions on citizens from the 2004 EU enlargement countries. There are some limitations to the indicators we have created. Unfortunately, we cannot extend the indicators before 2004 as the required data on country of birth is not available. As a result, the years available to us are from 2004 to 2016. Other restrictions are as a result of limitations of the EU-LFS and household survey data in general, e.g., the underrepresentation and nonresponse of migrants. 12 Country of birth is coded into broad regions – e.g. EU-15, EU-13, North America, Middle East, etc. 13 We use those who are recorded as either employed or unemployed in the EU-LFS.
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