New Year immigration blues grip Britain
LONDON: As we come close to 2014, a gnawing fear is creeping into an economically strapped Britain as transitional controls will be lifted on citizens of Romania and Bulgaria from the date, enabling them to move, work and claim state benefits here. The narrative of immigration from eastern Europe is increasingly marked by the same language that is often used for immigration from India and other non-European Union countries: ‘putting a cap on numbers’, ‘limiting benefits’, ‘strain on taxpayers’, ‘jobs for highly skilled’, and so forth. In a move reminiscent of the Leicester City Council inserting advertisements in Ugandan newspapers, asking Indian immigrants not to come to Britain in the early 1970s, the British police have travelled to rural Romania to warn people not to move here without jobs. Prompted by rising public concern over the possibility of a large number of Romanians and Bulgarians moving here from January 1, Home secretary Theresa May wants to restrict free movement within the EU unless new members reach a certain GDP, so that prosperous countries do not become a magnet for citizens of less prosperous EU countries. --- eugene
