---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Paul Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sep 7, 2006 3:39 PM Subject: [romania-economics] Migration is a two-way street To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Home front By Philip Johnston (Filed: 28/08/2006) Migration is a two-way street There is a group of European nationals who, in their hundreds of thousands, are leaving home to set up in other countries, pushing up property prices, using local services and failing miserably to learn their hosts' languages or to integrate properly into their communities. It is estimated that three million of these people have upped and left to settle elsewhere. Who are they? Poles, Czechs, Latvians? Er, it's us, actually. Historically, we British are probably the most mobile people in the EU, notwithstanding the recent movement of eastern Europeans westwards in search of work since their countries joined in 2004. Some people huffed and puffed themselves up into high dudgeon last week at the prospect of another wave arriving on our shores when Romania and Bulgaria join the EU. One headline asked: "How many more can we take?" Yet this question is largely academic since, as citizens of the EU, they will have unfettered residency rights even if the labour market is closed off to them for a year or two; and if they can travel to this country and live here, they can soon find jobs on the black market if any are available. The alternative is to veto their entry or to leave the EU. But while we seem to get into a lather when the Eastern hordes begin to trek west, we are more sanguine about our right to travel and settle abroad, though nowadays we tend to consider ourselves "expats" when we get there, rather than immigrants. In our hundreds of thousands, we Brits have decamped to French villages, Spanish coastal resorts and further afield, not just to work for a while before returning home, but often for good. And judging by yesterday's ICM poll suggesting 10 million Britons would be happy to go and live elsewhere because they are fed up with Tony Blair's high-taxing government, this trend shows every sign of quickening. It is, of course, arguable that the two phenomena are related: that a lot of Brits are leaving because a lot of foreigners are arriving and they don't like it. But we do seem to operate some double standards here. While we spend a lot of time debating what immigration means to Britain, little thought is given to the wanderlust of this island race. For 400 years, and until relatively recently, Britain was not, as some are wont to describe it, an immigrant nation; it was an emigrant one. Since the Mayflower sailed for the New World in 1620, there have been few occasions when net migration to the UK was positive. Of the millions of Europeans who journeyed from Europe to America in the 19th century, one third were from Britain and Ireland. Passenger statistics show that between 1853 and 1913, an astonishing 13 million British citizens left the land of their birth, bound mainly for North America, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. Some came back; but cumulative net emigration was equivalent to 13 per cent of the population, mostly those aged between 18 and 45. Among the avalanche of population statistics published last week, three stood out. One was the settlement figure for last year, which has risen by an extraordinary 30 per cent. A second was the record number of nearly 500,000 foreign nationals who came to Britain to stay for a year or more, double the number in 1997. But a third statistic indicated that emigration is on the rise once more, with 207,000 British nationals leaving the country in 2004. This was the highest number since before the Great War, when, as A J P Taylor noted in his English History 1914-45, the outflow was running at 300,000 per annum and more young men were leaving the country every year than died on the battlefields of Europe. So while more foreign nationals are coming here and staying on, at the same time more British nationals are leaving. That is why the current trends are so different from those that have gone before. Of course, the Empire saw many Brits settling overseas; but there was little inward migration to Britain at the time. The motor for population growth was the high birth rate. The changes taking place now are unprecedented. This is not, as it has become in recent weeks, a superficial story about cheap plumbers and hard-working Polish waiters. It is about a fundamental and significant change in the way the country looks, sounds, thinks and feels. Cumulatively since 1997, 1.6 million British nationals have left the country and 806,000 have returned. At the same time, 2.93 million foreign nationals have arrived and 1.41 million have left. So, for every two Brits that leave, one returns; but for every two foreign nationals that arrive, only one leaves. In 1998, the net annual outflow from the country of British nationals (ie the difference between those leaving and coming back) had dwindled to 22,000. By 2004, this had risen to 120,000. Over the same period, the net inflow of non-Britons grew from 106,000 to 342,000 a year. Most of the overseas nationals who stay are from the Commonwealth or are described as "other foreign". EU nationals tend not to stay. Between 1997 and 2004, 594,000 EU nationals came, but 412,000 left. Millions of Britons live abroad. There are 250,000 second homes in France that are owned by British nationals, though it is impossible to know how many of these people have made France their permanent base, since they no longer need a resident's permit to settle permanently. According to the Institute for Public Policy Research, which recently launched a project to take a detailed look at the British diaspora and the implications of emigration, one in 12 UK nationals may be living overseas. This renewed departure of so many Britons is exacerbating the demographic and cultural changes that have been wrought by high levels of immigration. In just four decades, the UK has been transformed from a country of net emigration to one of net immigration. Just imagine how will we look 40 years from now. It is a future that needs to be prepared for and an issue that needs to be openly discussed. Isn't it generous of our political lords and masters to give us, belatedly, permission to do so? -- ______________ EuroAtlantic Club monitoring Romania's journey towards the EU http://www.europe.org.ro/euroatlantic_club/ mail to: P.O.Box 13-166, Bucharest 011737 e-mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** sustineti [romania_eu_list] prin 2% din impozitul pe 2005 - detalii la http://www.doilasuta.ro *** Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/romania_eu_list/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/romania_eu_list/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
