Is Globalization Stealing EU Jobs?

Increasingly, Europe finds itself struggling to answer the question of how it can simultaneously endorse free trade and preserve traditional industries and the jobs associated with them. In an age of inexpensive Asian imports, outsourcing, and bids for corporate takeovers from foreign entities, Europe is understandably worried about the effects of globalization on its job base. Europe’s struggle has irony: Free trade ostensibly serves EU interests disproportionately well. Yet Europe’s labor market has become dysfunctional within the global economy, caught off-guard by the burgeoning growth of China and India. Europe is trapped by contradictory impulses: support for free trade on one hand and a penchant for protectionism on the other. The only way out is the painful process of reform and modernization that has become urgent far sooner than it was ever expected. – YaleGlobal