Still, economic migrants, lured by European riches, keep pouring in illegally, about 500,000 every year according to the Center for Migration Policy Development in Vienna. Europe is the target of twice as many illegal migrants as the United States. Many of them, known as "labor tourists," shuttle across borders seasonally, or commute between home and work — sometimes daily.

It described a new sort of migrant, a "labour tourist", who shuttles "resourcefully back and forth across an EU border, usually from eastern Europe into Germany and Austria, and often earns a living in the Union to support a family outside it.

Since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, a new sort of migrant has begun to appear in Europe, known in the jargon as a "cross-border commuter", "labour tourist" or "incomplete migrant".