In my experience, people are more likely to hire US/UK based workers for higher paying jobs than for example Indians or people from countries. Does that happen always? No, of course not. I've had clients from a bunch of different countries. Hell, maybe I'm completely wrong - but that's how it seems to me. Maybe it's just me. I'm not excellent programmer, nor do I claim to be, maybe that's it.
As far as the part about finding work in EU goes, the biggest hurdle (that I've been told) is getting paperwork for someone without college degree.
Maybe I'm delusional, maybe I'm a shitty coder, maybe I just had bad experiences, maybe you're right. I don't know.
Oh and I'm from Bosna/Serbia - don't even get me started about getting a job that pays acceptably in those countries....
For my startup, I hired the whole team through ODesk and Elance. I'm based in Hong Kong, and the rest: Ukraine, Moscow, Prague, Chicago, India, San Francisco.
A really first rate team as well - will definitely hire like this again. It takes a long time to get rid of the time wasters on these sites (fire fast) but very good people can be found, who just want to work from home.
I would hire, for good money, a person from any country who has the right skills to work remotely. Unfortunately it usually falls flat on skills or greed. I work with a guy from Bosnia since two months and it has been good for both!
