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PARTISAN REVIEW
Hungarians, Poles, and Czechs wou ld want to emigrate into Austria . The
Vienna Institute for Comparative Economic Studies (WIIW) estimates
that their numbers wou ld be about one hundred thousand over a period
of ten years-something a thriving labor market could eas il y absorb.
Currently, the Austrian economy is humming a long successfully. And
its positive growth and low unemployment can largely be attributed to
two factors from outside the country: Austria's entry into the European
Union in
1995,
and the opening up of the East European markets to
Austrian exports and investments. EU membership has led to consider–
able growth of exports to Western countries such as France and Spain.
But it was Eastern Europe's return to capita li sm and democracy that
really got Austria's economy moving. There are thousands of Austrian
joint ventures in central Eastern Europe; of the two hundred U.S. cor–
porations based in Vienna, eighty coordinate their regional business
from here.
Still , not everyone in Austria wants to see these dynamics. A recent
poll among SMU managers in Burgenland (Austria's easternmost
province, bordering on Hungary and Slovakia) said that more than half
of them are pessimistic about EU enlargement. Only a quarter of them
have developed an offensive strategy and hope to gain add itional mar–
kets in the East.
Shortly before Austrians went to the polls on whether to join the
European Union, a large part of the population was sti ll undecided or
even opposed. Haider's Freedom Party-and the Greens-mobilized
for a "no."
In
response, the government and Austria's sti ll-important
socia l partners-industrialists and unions-started a strong campaign
that was not limited to posters and TV ads but went down to the shop
floors where workers and managers knew how important the European
market was for them. The result was a solid 65 percent majority in favor
of the Union.
A simi lar effort might be necessary focusing on EU en largement.
There is no such thing as the autarky of a small European coun try; there
is no place for racism or xenophobia in a modern, internationally inte–
grated industrial society. Austrian workers cannot be assured that they
will keep exactly the jobs they hold today. But they ought to know that
many of their future jobs will be closely tied to those of their colleagues
in the East.
Translated and abridged by Edith Kurzweil
