A UKIP candidate has made headlines this week after suggesting people “adopt the Japanese practice of wearing a face mask” to avoid tuberculosis after barriers to Bulgarian and Romanian immigrants are lifted next year. This incident, among others, has caused a stir, particularly amidst an enveloping political climate that has become increasingly hostile towards immigrants.
The 1st January 2014 will mark the end of the transitional controls on the movement of people between Bulgaria and Romania to the United Kingdom. Effectively the UK, in just over seven months, will be open to everyone and anyone from Romania and Bulgaria.
The issue has become steadily more obsessed about in the press and by political leaders as we approach 2014. Nigel Farage, back in December, in an attempt to rally support against the European Union, claimed that “If I was Bulgarian I’d be packing my bags now, getting ready to come to the UK on an unrestricted basis, in the secure knowledge that if I can’t get work, I’d get benefits and housing.”
Eric Pickles, meanwhile, has declared that he has no confidence in figures published on his department’s website predicting that only 13,000 will arrive. Migration Watch UK has put the predicted figure at 50,000 that will arrive. The reality is that any figure thrown out is mere speculation.
It is important, though, to rise above the numbers game and agenda driven reports and pick apart what the opening of our boarders to Eastern Europe will actually mean.
Many have looked to play down the actual numbers that will ‘flood’ the UK. As Romanian PM Victor Ponta put it, “those who wanted to migrate to the UK have already done it.” In fact, the climate, culture and language similarities have made moves to Spain and Italy more appealing to many ambitious Romanians. The risk that UK services will become over stretched by weight of sheer numbers certainly looks dubious.
Another stick used to hit out against the idea of the opening up of our boarders has been to conflate Eastern Europeans with an apparent welfare and benefits crisis that seems flavour of the month with the centre-right media. Ian Duncan Smith had previously slammed Europeans who “use the free movement rules just to travel around, looking for the best benefits they can get.” Yet, statistics have shown that it is typically inaccurate to brand migrants from Eastern Europe as mere ‘social/ welfare tourists.’ The majority of current Eastern European migrants don’t claim benefits at all, far less than the British population anyway.
Migration has also hugely benefitted the British economy, despite being at an increasingly unsustainable level since Labour’s open door policy. The economic migrants have, on the whole, paid tax, diversified the economy and worked hard, proven by official reports in school performance thus raising the standard of education.
The Forum of Romanian Student Societies in the UK, which the York Romanian Society currently holds presidency of, have gone as far as issuing a press release on the topic that dismisses the ‘radical views’ held in the British press. It is dismissive of reports that Romanians will decrease the minimum wage, take advantage of welfare provisions or that substantial amounts will even come to the UK, as Romanians who wanted to come are already here.
So why, then, has there been such a furore over the further opening of our boarders next year? The problem is that, so far, we have only really encountered mass immigration in the context of educated and aspiring Eastern Europeans.
The likelihood is, though, that it will be the influx of Eastern Europe’s large Roma population which will cause the most and biggest problems. Romania is currently home to over 600,000 Roma, while Bulgaria is Europe’s poorest nation with more than half of the population living below the breadline. The EU regulations that meant Eastern Europeans had to have worked for twelve months before being allowed to claim for unemployment or housing benefits have been scrapped.
It resonates with what Nigel Farage has been shrieking about when he weighs in on his favourite topic of conversation: that a poor Roma family can’t be blamed for claiming what they would have a right to if they resided in the UK, and how officials in Bucharest had told him that the ‘Roma problem’ was now Britain’s.
Standing outside a London nightclub over Easter I was approached by a middle aged woman clutching a few red roses. Through very broken English I learned that she was in fact a Roma traveller originally from Eastern Europe. She was at pains to convey how much better her life was living in Britain. When I eventually bought one of her roses, the resulting sense I got from her was one of relief and gratitude.
However, UKIP do seem to have a point. I spoke to Maddy Cretu, a Romanian student studying in Lyon, about the Roma. “What really disturbs me is their behaviour,” she said. “I know this may sound a bit shallow, but the majority of Roma people who come from Romania are quite well known for their inappropriate behaviour.” She noted “begging” and “dealing drugs” as some of the “inappropriate” activities of the Roma.
What Maddy found most disturbing, though, was the association made by French people between her, a normal Romanian, and the Roma. Again, it all suggests that it isn’t hard working economic migrants from Eastern Europe we should be concerned about, but the potential problems a wave of Roma might bring that have been showcased in France.
France has suffered badly at the hands of the estimated 400,000 Roma living there. Hollande’s Socialist government recently ‘declared war’ on the immigrant communities after a huge rise in complaints about noise and anti-social behaviour. Meanwhile, workers at the Louvre in Paris recently went on strike, closing down the gallery due to the issue of staff and visitor safety. A dramatic rise in pickpocketing and intimidation from mostly poor Eastern Europeans had finally caused frustrations to boil over.
The major problem for Britain in this respect is that any attempts to finance an inclusion of Roma would be difficult due to the lack of intelligence on their actual numbers. This is despite the European Union setting aside billions of Euros for social inclusion projects.
Overall, we must note that it is important to not entertain the perception that the Roma people are the same as many other Eastern Europeans we will inevitably encounter. The likelihood is that we won’t see too many Romanians and Bulgarians arrive in Britain in the next few years anyway. The initial wave we have let ourselves in for looks set to be a steep increase in the number of Roma settling in the country. Who knows what will happen here, and what social problems this might entail, but the major winners from all of this will surely be Nigel Farage and UKIP in the run up to the 2015 General Election.
This article trolls out quite a common line in this area. George, it’s disappointing that you haven’t sought either to challenge the perception of the Roma people, or provide any sort of hard evidence to back up your point. Criminalisation is a common way of marginalising groups in the public eye, and your use of France of an example couldn’t be more illustrative. Both left and right have been drawn into discourse that many in this country would call racist.
Your lack of figures, coupled with your correct observation that the numbers from each group (Romanians, Bulgarians, Roma) entering the country are unknown, backs up the kind of message you’d expect from the far right. Your anecdote from your club night is almost laughable, as it points to the poor stooped woman trying to flog roses to rich boys, so grateful when she finally sells one. A common image, and one upheld by the image accompanying the article (although I appreciate this may have been chosen by editors). Also, when Maddy says her behaviour is shallow, it is! She’s highlighted that they are ‘well known’ for begging and drug crime, which is exactly the kind of public image that politicians and the media propagate of marginalised groups.
But say they are known for begging: perhaps this is the failure of a ‘European’ state to cater suitably for its citizens. And this is where the image issue comes in – the vicious circle cuts the Roma twice as the government can justify their policy of not helping. Why would a government help dirty and noisy beggars?
In the end you have sought to point out that the the ‘influx’ (another word associated with the right) of Eastern Europeans and that this will regrettably help UKIP, and yet you’ve produced many of the arguments, images and language as them. You correctly damn the arguments of those opposing the immigration of one group, while failing to provide anything more than hear-say to damn another.
Tom, you make one or two valid points in your riposte (for example the article does rely a lot on stereotype and anecdote). However, what is disappointing from your point of view is that you have remained too rigidly attached the leftist interpretation of this.
You claim that the article will ‘regrettably’ help UKIP. Nowhere in the article does it point out the author’s stance on this party – it simply points to the fact that they seem to gain the most politically from this debate being aired so publicly and frequently.
You point out a lack of figures used, and also acknowledge then that it is down to lack of intel in this area. Then, though, how can anyone speculate the impact Jan 2014 will have. No doubt there will be an impact, but to stick our heads in the sand on the issue and hope it goes away has been, time and time again, shown by governments of the last 20 years to be a deeply dangerous thing to do.
Finally, you talk of the ‘failure of a European state.’ The Roma have not been suitably looked after, you’re right and it is part of the tragedy surrounding the issue. But why then, should one country be forced into accepting another’s burden. The is no racism in pointing that out. It is simply a ‘c’onservative view of the matter, and people/students have a right to hold these views to their own. Quite how the left of center will deal with this whole issue has been noticeably muted, and one would suspect that there is no logical answer for them. It is an extremely large can of worms…