> mobility between EU countries is a piece of cake.
The whole "different language" thing stands in the way of this. Plus, the Okies never had to deal with Californian "nationalism" in the 1930s, while, on the other hand, if you're Polish, Romanian or Bulgarian and you've gone to Western Europe in search of a better job you're always looked at as a foreigner, a guy who "has come to steal our jobs and destroy our identity".
In some professions (especially construction), the workforce is already mobile inside EU. In most others, it isn't. And this is mostly due to language issues.