On November 3, 2022, a Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung roundtable in Berlin released findings from the report "Workers without borders? The rights of workers from the Balkans in the EU", documenting systematic disadvantages for Western Balkans workers in EU labour markets despite visa liberalisation.

The Migrant Workers' Advocacy Roundtable, organised with European Alternatives, validated the report's conclusions. Aleksandra Lakić, sociologist and Zajedničko Platform programme manager, summarised the finding: "Migrant workers are more exposed to non-standard work arrangements than EU nationals."

What did the report cover?

Researchers interviewed workers from the six Western Balkans accession countries — Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo — employed across the EU. Most respondents worked under temporary contracts, seasonal arrangements, or through employment agencies. Some reported undeclared work.

How does Germany's Western Balkans Regulation shape outcomes?

Germany adopted the Western Balkans Regulation after the 2015 migration crisis. Officials designed it to reduce asylum applications from the region and "re-route" flows via the Balkan route. The regulation lowered thresholds for issuing work permits to nationals of the six countries.

Representatives of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) told the roundtable the scheme leaves critical gaps unchanged:

• Residency and work permits still depend on the contract with the "first employer"
• Workers on contracts or probation below 6 months in Germany face limited access to trade unions and works councils
• Information mechanisms remain unsuited to the scheme's specific profile

What are the consequences for workers?

Western Balkans citizens hold visa-free Schengen access for short stays, placing them in a partly privileged position compared with third-country nationals. They are not, however, treated as EU workers under host-country labour law.

The report documents several outcomes:

• Seasonal workers struggle to claim benefits, blocked by minimum-employment-period rules and gaps between assignments
• Non-EU workers are not issued a European Health Insurance Card, complicating access to urgent treatment in host countries
• Workers switching between EU member states face uneven social security coordination
• Bilateral agreements on benefit transfers to Western Balkans accession countries remain "incomplete or incoherent"

What role do employment agencies play?

Workers interviewed described high reliance on temporary employment agencies to avoid visa complications. Lakić framed the dynamic as a paradox: agency employment is "the only way to find legal employment in the EU" while also "the fastest and easiest way to end up working illegally".

One worker respondent quoted in the report said: "If the agency fulfils 70 per cent of what has been agreed, you can consider yourself lucky." The report documents "fake agencies" — unregistered operators sending workers on tourist visas, supplying contracts in unreadable languages, and abandoning workers after placement.

What reforms are proposed?

The EU's recast of the long-term resident and single permit directives aims to improve mobility and equality with national workforces. The European Labour Authority (ELA), established in 2019, holds a coordinating mandate.

Lakić's recommendations span several fronts:

• Equal employment standards and protection regardless of national origin
• An EU-wide minimum wage and unemployment insurance framework
• A possible European social security number for non-EU nationals
• Mandatory job contracts in a language the worker understands
• Transnational regulation of agency employment, mediation, and platform work
• Advisory centres in sending countries, financed jointly by host states

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has separately acknowledged the exploitation risk for migrant workers in the EU. The report argues for a "people-centered approach" prioritising worker protection over demand for cheap labour.

What happens next?

Findings feed into the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and European Alternatives migrant workers' advocacy programme. Whether the regulation's limitations prompt policy change depends on the EU and member states reorienting labour migration policy from labour-shortage relief toward enforceable standards for mobile workers — including highly qualified young professionals from the region, currently funnelled into precarious contracts and online gig work.