Bulgarians and Romanians: Workers or moochers?

Have we been trampled yet? asked Aled Blake in the Western Mail (U.K.). The “extremists and the xenophobes” have been shrieking that a horde of jobless Bulgarians and Romanians would descend on the U.K. and other European Union countries on the first of the year. The two countries joined the union in 2007, but their citizens haven’t been allowed to work in most EU countries until now. Here in Britain, the right-wingers are full of questions for the new arrivals. “Are they going to steal the jobs of Britain’s hardworking families? Are they going to impose their cultural identity on our already broken communities?” We know they aren’t coming to claim the dole, because the government already imposed new restrictions on these arrivals. In reality, “they are looking to do none of these things.” They just want to work.

Then let’s make sure they know how, said Patrick O’Flynn in the Express (U.K.). I’m not against all immigration—just that of the lazy or unemployable. Britain should simply be choosy. “Top scientists and entrepreneurs could be made extremely welcome, while unskilled folk with large families and a record of dependency could be politely refused.” Those with merely “bog-standard” skills should be told “to do plenty of work on yourselves before you even merit consideration.”

But making such distinctions is against EU law, said Henryk M. Broder in Die Welt (Germany). EU countries have to let all job seekers from member states in, and the ones who will come will be poor and unskilled. “Just as water runs downhill and warm air rises, so do migrants flow from poor countries to rich.” Wealthy, educated people don’t relocate—unless you count tax dodgers like Gérard Depardieu. Unfortunately, we have no idea how many Bulgarians and Romanians are coming, how many are already here, and how many are on benefits. If statistics exist, they are being “concealed or obfuscated.” What we do know, though, is that German cities such as Duisburg and Mannheim are already “packed with such economic migrants,” and many more of our cities are “overrun with East European beggars,” many clutching infants. Yet our government expects us to cheer the arrival of these people simply because freedom of movement is a human right.

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True freedom of movement “is only possible between countries of similar income levels,” said Dainius Paukste in Delfi (Lithuania). When poor countries join the EU’s free migration zone, it “triggers mass immigration” that is in no state’s interests. Even Bulgaria may end up a loser, said Borislav Zyumbyulev in 24 Chasa (Bulgaria). We can expect an exodus of doctors and nurses, who can earn “20 times more pay” in the U.K., France, or Germany than they can in Bulgaria. To ward off disaster, we’ll have to raise doctors’ pay. So for us, the first consequence of open borders will be “higher health-care costs here at home.”