I have discussed the great European migration after the EU accession in my previous post .

” … S.Drinkwater et al. have a very interesting paper that looks at the recent wave of migrants to the UK after the May 2004 EU enlargement. Unlike migrants from developed countries which take mostly managerial jobs, EU8 migrants are employed in routine jobs and that average earnings are just under 6 pounds per hour, marginally above to UK minimum wage set to 4.50 in May 2004 and increased to 5.05 in June 2006.

Poles account for 62 percent of EU8 migrants in the UK, and among all migrants 82% are in the 18-34 age bracket. Paper states that particularly in the case of Poles the type of job and wage compared with level of education indicates very poor return on human capital….”.

Yesterday BoE MPC member David Blanchflower published a paper co-authored with other staff members on the impact of labor migration on UK economic situation. Brief summary is below:

“Professor Blanchflower says that the overall macroeconomic impact of immigration – including that from the A8 countries – on inflation and growth is not clear-cut. It would appear that the recent immigration from Eastern Europe up to late 2006 is likely to have acted to reduce the natural rate of unemployment in the UK and helped to raise the supply potential of the economy. In addition, this recent immigration appears to have continued to reduce inflationary pressures”.

This adds to my recent post -thoughts on the speed limit, I believe that (underapreciated) migration (including Great migrations in China, and in Europe after EU enlargement(s)) also increases (and will continue doing so) global speed limit, on top of globalization of business processes and better use of knowledge assets.