Euromedia

Migration - is it really an economic question

I’ve included two articles from the Guardian. The first is a list of figures and quotes that, taken together, suggest the worry over immigration from new member countries is motivated, more, by racism (it includes and interesting quote about gypsies) and xenophobia, and less, by the valid economic concerns of current member countries. The most interesting figure: “According to one study the economic gain of EU expansion to the existing 15 countries will be about £6bn and approximately £15bn to the newcomers.”
One statistic I do not see here is the UK estimate of the drain a projected influx would have on welfare, health and education. I looked, but could not find these estimations in other sources, but I would like to know what the estimation is because this ‘drain’ seems to be the only strong argument for migration controls.
With this list I’ve included a related article from the Guardian that humanizes the Roma in the Chez Republic. I find it gives new perspective to the migration debate by relaying the views of potential immigrants (who don’t want to move) and the Czech Republic the Prime Minister, Vladimir Spidla (who says “the concern over influx is provoked ‘by silly media’”).
I find the list and the article important because they suggest that the worry over migration stems from the friction between national identities (the Czech preference for “home” is also evident) and the EU ideal.
The article even reaches (for a moment) to address the identity crisis that some individuals experience within their own country. It introduces a man who lost his Czech citizenship – “I'm not Indian. I'm not Polish. I'm nothing,’ he complained bitterly. " And I think this supports Balibar’s conception of the situation.

EU enlargement: facts and fears

Steven Morris
Monday February 23, 2004

· Ten countries will join the EU after May 1: Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Cyprus
· Of the existing 15 members, Germany, Italy and Austria are likely to ban migrants from the 10 new EU states until 2011, as they are entitled to under EU rules. France is expected to take a similar line. Even traditionally liberal countries such as Sweden and the Netherlands imposed restrictions. Britain and Ireland stood alone in their willingness to open their borders to workers from the new member states
· Britain's policy was heavily criticised by tabloid newspapers. Under the headline See you in May, the Sun said "tens of thousands" of eastern European Gypsies planned to settle here. The Express claimed 1.6m Gypsies were "ready to flood in". Referring to an British government advertising campaign in Slovakia asking people not to come to the UK, the Mail asked: "Are ministers living in the real world?"
· Tory leader Michael Howard called on the government to follow the example of its EU counterparts and impose restrictions. During his visit to Burnley last week, he said racial tolerance depended on people knowing that "immigration is controlled"
· In the Commons earlier this month Tony Blair conceded there was a "potential risk" of an influx from new EU states. He said the government was examining rules governing the eligibility to benefits of new migrant workers
· The Home Office believes 5,000-13,000 people a year will enter the UK from new member states. Rightwing group Migrationwatch UK claims soon 40,000 people a year will enter the UK from eastern Europe
· According to one study the economic gain of EU expansion to the existing 15 countries will be about £6bn and approximately £15bn to the newcomers
· Supporters of the UK's open door policy, among them home secretary David Blunkett, believe an influx of new workers will boost the economy. Home Office statistics show legal migrants make up 8% of the UK's population but generate 10% of the gross domestic product.

EU enlargement: facts and fears

'I don't even speak perfect Czech. How would I manage English?'

Luke Harding in Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic
Monday February 23, 2004
The Guardian

There are no traces of the wall that once fenced off Josef Lacko's flat from those of his neighbours. Five years ago locals in the Czech industrial town of Usti nad Labem built the wall to separate their homes from the Roma housing estate across the street. The wall got knocked down.
But antipathy towards the town's 5,000-strong Roma community has proved harder to demolish. With less than three months to go until the Czech Republic joins the European Union, the jobless Mr Lacko seems exactly the kind of migrant worker who might end up in Britain and who, it has been claimed, could soon be sponging off Britain's benefits system.
Except that Mr Lacko doesn't want to go to Britain. "I have my roots here," he said yesterday, sitting in the kitchen of his council flat, a few yards away from the demolished wall, and overlooking a grassy yard where his sons were kicking a football. "I don't even speak perfect Czech. How would I manage to speak English?" he asked. He added: "I admit it would be nice to live in a country where people don't look at you in a funny way all the time. And it would be great to take my grandchildren to the zoo. Here, we are afraid the skinheads will beat us up. But I would worry about my kids. In Britain I wouldn't know what to do if one of them fell sick."
Despite the problems Roma face in finding jobs, Mr Lacko said most of them wanted to stay in Usti, a depressed but picturesque town on the banks of the Elbe, with a ruined medieval castle, three communist-era factories, and a baroque church.
The town in north-western Bohemia (population 100,000) was once a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It was known as Aussig an der Elbe until 1945, when its German-speaking residents were forced out. These days, though, its modern-day citizens are reluctant to migrate anywhere, despite high levels of unemployment.
"I've got to go to France for five days with a Roma folk group," Mr Lacko said. "I don't even feel like going there."
After initially agreeing that Britain would open up its labour markets to workers from all of the 10 new countries that join the EU on May 1, Tony Blair has had second thoughts following a campaign by the tabloid press. The Daily Express has warned of a wave of "benefit tourists" flooding in from eastern Europe and today the home secretary, David Blunkett, will announce how the government intends to regulate the potential increase in migration.
In the Czech Republic the tabloid campaign has been met with rising political irritation. Earlier this month its social democrat prime minister, Vladimir Spidla, said that the British government's concern over an influx of Roma was provoked by "silly media". His deputy, Petr Mares, complained of "hysteria".
An exhaustive study by the Czech government, meanwhile, revealed that the "vast majority" of the Czech population, 82.3%, didn't want to work abroad. Of the 1.6% who were genuinely interested in leaving, most wanted to go to neighbouring Germany. Only a small minority of those - 11.1% - mentioned Britain.
"The whole scare is nonsense," Jan Jarab, the Czech government's human rights commissioner said yesterday. "Under the British system these people are not entitled to welfare benefits anyway. The problem is the Czech media have picked up what is in the Sun - that the Roma will come over in large numbers. The effect is to encourage more people to go. The media is now creating reality rather than describing it."
Not surprisingly, in the snow-covered villages around Usti, where Vietnamese traders invited in during the communist years sell garden gnomes from roadside stalls, the locals are only interested in working in Germany. The border is less than half an hour away by train; German tourists driving BMWs come here in search of cheap skiing and goulash - and, it would appear, bearded garden ornaments.
"I definitely wouldn't go to Britain," Petr Kopecky, a bricklayer from the village of Petrovice, said. "I don't want to be away from my family. But of course if there was a chance in Germany I would take it."
Mr Kopecky spent five years during the 1990s working on housing sites in Germany until his work permits were no longer renewed. Unlike Britain, Germany has refused to allow migrant workers from the new EU states in after May 1. Every other existing EU country except Britain and Ireland has followed Germany's lead.
Mr Kopecky, though, has his own doubts about the wisdom of closer European integration. In the Czech Republic's referendum last summer on whether to join the EU he voted no. "States have to defend their workers," he said. "The problem now is that if I try to get a bricklaying job a Ukrainian will do it for less."
Over at the nearby ski lift Jan Maska, who worked as a roofer in Germany during the post-unification boom, said he was baffled by the idea of moving to Britain. "It is too far away." Business at the lift was poor, but he didn't intend to leave his job selling tickets: "Moving abroad is for young people."
It is, nevertheless, hardly surprising that some of the Czech Republic's 150,000 Roma should fantasise about a better life elsewhere. Outright racism is rarer these days, but a hidden intolerance persists.
Mr Lacko's brother-in-law Josef Kulena recently got out of prison. He said he had stolen "things" from pubs because he did not have any money. Like many Roma Mr Kulena lost his Czech citizenship after the collapse of communism. "I'm not Indian. I'm not Polish. I'm nothing," he complained bitterly. "It took me five years to get it back. What kind of a country is this?"
Mr Kulena said he was "thinking about" trying to find a job in Britain but was uncertain how to go about it. "I don't have the right documents. I don't have papers. They took them away," he said.
Mr Lacko, meanwhile, said the local mayor knocked down the wall around his house following an international outcry. The wall reached two metres in height and lasted for three weeks. "It was silly, really as we could get out round the back. We pointed out that this is what the Nazis did to the Jews."
Asked where the wall was now, Mr Lacko said: "The local zoo bought it. They use it to keep in the animals."

'I don't even speak perfect Czech. How would I manage English?'

Posted by Sarah Neal at February 24, 2004 02:24 AM