Posted on 08/22/2006 2:25:10 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
More than 427,000 eastern Europeans have come to work in Britain since the expansion of the European Union in May 2004, more than twenty times official predictions.
The figures, released by the Home Office this morning, have fuelled demands for an end to Britain's "open-door" immigration policy.
The total number of immigrants who applied to the Government's worker registration scheme from the eight former Communist countries which joined the EU in May 2004 rose to 447,000 by the end of June. Of those 427,095 have been approved.
This figure does not include self-employed workers - thought to cover a significant number of eastern Europeans in the building trade.
If they were counted, analysts believe the overall total would be closer to 600,000.
Research commissioned by the Government had previously estimated that annual applications from the new accession countries would be no more than 5,000 to 13,000.
The influx, led by Poles and Hungarians, has prompted the Conservatives to promise restrictions on immigration when the EU enlarges again to absorb Romania and Bulgaria next year.
Damian Green, the shadow immigration minister, said: "It is vital that we learn the lessons of the unprecedented numbers who came into this country after the last expansion of the EU.
"The Government should impose conditions similar to those applied by most European countries to the last wave of EU accession countries."
Britain was alone among the major European economies in declining to adopt restrictions when ten countries - Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta - joined the EU in 2004.
The Government has yet to decide its policy towards Romanian and Bulgarian workers, but Tony McNulty, the Home Office minister, today welcomed the impact of the new accession immigrants.
"The latest worker registration scheme figures show that migrant workers from the accession states are benefiting the UK, by filling skills and labour gaps that cannot be met from the UK-born population," he said.
Separate asylum figures showed the number of new asylum applications fell by 15 per cent between the first and second quarters of this year.
From April to June there were 5,490 applications, excluding dependants such as spouses and children - the lowest level since the third quarter of 1993, when there were 5,280.
The number of failed asylum seekers removed from Britain was the highest on record.
20 August 2006: Conservatives promise restrictions on immigration
20 August 2006[Money]: Sir Digby Jones on immigration
18 August 2006: Ministers 'turning a blind eye' to illegal labour
They'd be smart to send the muslims packing, and take in even more Eastern Europeans.
zactly
Ping
Thanks.
Exactly so.
Would you please add me to that ping list? Thanks.
The sad thing is that Eastern European have almost as low reproduction rate as the West. So the young, energetic people leave and old or sick people are left. This spells demographic disaster.
Having more children and having jobs for your own countrymen is necessary for long term survival.
I wonder what the "illegal, illegal, illegal" crowd would say if the illegal immigrants to the US were from Eastern Europe?
My guess is that they'd be singing a different tune.
truer words have never been spoken than these:
It's been said that one can't generalize about any nationality--except Hungarians. All Hungarian men are scientists, composers, or philanderers; all the women are great cooks and sex pots. Any two Hungarians in a room will begin to argue, any three will start a revolution. They all love good food. You can delay the revolution by serving Chicken Paprikas. According to Hungarian mythology, paradise is a land of sour cream and paprikas
Well, for starters, these are legal immigrants to the UK. That said, Eastern Europeans are generally educated and speak English very well. So yes, they're hands down better equipped to live here than Mexicans.
Not if they were coming in the huge numbers we're seeing or closing hospitals and draining social services.
My sentiments exactly. I say let the Eastern Europeans into the USA. They will assimilate and become Americans.
Britain should thank its lucky stars. These euro-immigrants will help balance the scruffy moslem hoards no one has had the courage or sense to identify as a threat to the nation.
"It's been said that one can't generalize about any nationality--except Hungarians......"
That's pretty funny and true!
My husband is half-Hungarian and half-Montenegrin Serb & he agrees!
That's one of the problems we don't talk about. We have a lot of illegal immigrants from Europe. The number I heard from Ireland alone (not Eastern Europe, but still...) is about 35,000.
Our immigration problem is not just Mexicans crossing the southern border on foot. But too many are quick to hop on the "problem of the day" and ignore the "rest of the story".
There are many of the same arguments in Western Europe--particularly the United Kingdom--about recent Eastern European immigrants. However small, there is a racist component against illegal immigration that hinders the proper points against aliens coming into the country.
They will assimilate probably to the same degree as other immigrants from across the oceans: European, Asian, or African. Other than that, they would also probably have the same degree of not assimilating.
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