Sorry, minister, but you can't keep EU citizens out

jp · 23-08-2006, 07:36 AM

Quote:

For the past few days, my morning bicycle ride to the Daily Telegraph's Brussels office has been rather surreal. Each morning, I have risen to Today on Radio 4, and heard noisy debates about eastern European immigration into Britain, and whether the time has come to "close Britain's borders to EU migrants". Time is running out, I have heard politicians and campaigners declare. We are already overrun with Poles, and soon it will be Romanians and Bulgarians, when they join the European Union, as early as next January.

We should be like France, Belgium or Germany, MPs and ministers thunder. Those governments did not simply throw open their border to Poles, Latvians and the rest, when the first wave of eight ex-communist nations joined the EU in 2004. They protected their labour markets with strict quotas and work permits.

To quote Damian Green, the shadow immigration minister: "It is vital that we learn the lessons of the unprecedented numbers who came into this country after the last expansion of the EU. The Government should impose conditions similar to those applied by most European countries to the last wave of EU accession countries."

It's all true, I ponder, as I climb on to my Raleigh. Belgium did indeed erect strict barriers to Polish plumbers, Latvian labourers and the rest. And here's the thing, I think, as I pedal through the streets of my neighbourhood, Saint-Gilles - all those robust, stern-sounding controls made not the blindest bit of difference.

You see, my home district is home to thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of Polish workers, most of them illegal. They do not hide themselves. Every other car in my street has Polish plates. One street away is permanently lined with large white panel vans, used as rough and ready mobile homes by day labourers from Bialystok, or plumbers from Poznan, who visit for a week at a time.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/m.../23/do2301.xml

mkpdavies · 23-08-2006, 10:06 AM

I thought that when I was out in Germany. There was a lot of Polish cars driving around and parked outside building sites. If Germany had nil unemployment, you would say so what, but that isn't the case.

Poland must be like a wasteland now, with no young people left.

jp · 23-08-2006, 11:54 AM

But there are some advantages for Eastern Europe:

Quote:

A REPORT by the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) on the crime trends in Bulgaria showed that in 2004 the crime rate has been halved compared to 2001.....

The most important factors for the decreasing crime rate are the fall in unemployment; the aging of the population and the reduction of the number of young males (15-25 year olds) due to low birth rate and emigration; the emigration of many criminals to the EU after the establishment of a visa-free regime with most European countries; and the anti-crime efforts of the police and the judiciary.

http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/rep..._10661/catid_5

mkpdavies · 23-08-2006, 12:01 PM

Lucky them!

23-08-2006, 10:06 AM	#2 (permalink)
mkpdavies Uber Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Woking Posts: 30,604	I thought that when I was out in Germany. There was a lot of Polish cars driving around and parked outside building sites. If Germany had nil unemployment, you would say so what, but that isn't the case. Poland must be like a wasteland now, with no young people left. __________________ http://brits4ronpaul.blogspot.com/ http://wokinglibertarians.blogspot.com/ http://lpuk.org My ignore list Labour, Blue Labour, Lib Dems

23-08-2006, 12:01 PM	#4 (permalink)
mkpdavies Uber Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Woking Posts: 30,604	Lucky them! __________________ http://brits4ronpaul.blogspot.com/ http://wokinglibertarians.blogspot.com/ http://lpuk.org My ignore list Labour, Blue Labour, Lib Dems

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