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Setting the record straight on Bulgaria and Romania
October 4, 2006 12:00 AM
In Barking and Dagenham Recorder
In Barking and Dagenham Recorder
This has been an impressively sensationalist week, even by the standards of the British press.
One said thousands of Romanians and Bulgarians have just got the green light 'to invade Britain'. another told its readers that from January there will be 'hordes of Romanians' in Britain, while a third talked about 'a stampede for passports to a new life in Britain'.
It's time to set the record straight.
Romania and Bulgaria will join the EU in January 2007. Their citizens will then be able to enjoy the same rights as British citizens do - to travel, study and live in any EU country. This is a right enjoyed by many young and not-so-young Britons.
The question to be decided is precisely when Romanians and Bulgarians will enjoy the ability that we have to look for a job anywhere in the EU. Whether that is immediately or later, in the case of jobs in Britain, will be decided by our government alone.
Despite what you read in the papers, the vast majority of Romanians and Bulgarians would much rather stay closer to home and find work in Italy, Spain or Greece than the UK.
The main reason more Eastern Europeans came to Britain than had been expected when their countries like Poland joined in 2004 was that there was a failure by most of the existing EU to open up its job market immediately. If our government put some time into persuading other EU countries to open their doors to workers there would be a better distribution of new workers.
Up to half of those that applied for registered work in 2004 did so for temporary work - many have gone back already. Opening our doors in 2004 boosted economic growth, contributed to falling unemployment and filled essential skills shortages in London.
Scare stories are unhelpful, and untrue.
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