Germany and Austria still restrict new-EU-member farm workers, de facto breaching the common market.

Evidence

An example of a very specific, highly protective, and very persistent agricultural policy is the regulation of seasonal farm workers from central and eastern European countries (CEEC) who work each year in German agriculture (e.g., Gerdes, 2000). … In de facto, if not de jure, violation of the EU’s common market, Germany and Austria continue to restrict the employment of workers from new EU member states in agriculture and neighboring economic sectors. Under the current regulation for seasonal farm workers from CEEC in Germany, farmers have to apply formally for a certain number of workers several months ahead of the harvest season. Farmers have to prove that they really need these workers on their farms and that they are unable to fill vacant positions with German unemployed persons. — Georg Schreyögg and Jörg Sydow, The Hidden Dynamics of Path Dependence, 985

Categorization

• XREF: Ties to the Reader’s existing work on EU labor-market exclusions, ad hoc member-state carve-outs, and seasonal-worker programs in Hungary, Croatia, and Spain.
• SEED: Angle: ‘The seasonal-worker permit as a de facto border’ — how a technocratic application form quietly reimposes a labor border inside the single market.
• SHARE: Niche enough for someone steeped in EU agri-policy or German farm labor — worth sending to exactly one specialist.