Mobile moans

NEARLY a quarter of Spain's workforce—and roughly half of Spain's young people—have no jobs. Unemployment rates in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands, by contrast, are dramatically lower. When Americans are faced with depressed labour markets, many saddle up in search of work. But Europeans are far less likely to uproot, both within borders and, especially, across them (see chart).

There is an obvious reason for that: Europe's linguistic diversity. Language matters. In Canada, for example, mobility is much higher across the country as a whole than it is between French-speaking Quebec and the English-speaking provinces and territories. An analysis of European language borders, by Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln of Goethe University Frankfurt and Kevin Bartz of Harvard University, concludes that language hurdles are better predictors of low mobility than national borders. Europe's demography also counts. Migration does less good to older workers, who have fewer working years ahead of them in which to benefit from moving.