Immigration to the EU - Good news or not?

The Sun threatens "floods of gypsies" and claims that with the expansion of the EU in May, Britain has: "pledged to welcome them with open arms". ♣

The Express has the front-page headline: "Forged ID cards are a passport to terror." The article explains how easily fake passports and ID cards can be purchased for use of immigration to Europe and permission to work, "It doesn't matter if you don't have permission to work - with these you can easily get a job," it states.♦

Should this be worrying? What seems more concerning is that it off-handily switches from talk of migrants to terrorists without much separation. Another example that gives the impression that immigration will cause a rise in crime is given in a report from the European crime agency, Europol:  "Warning that organised vice and drug gangs may flood Britain" ♥it states dramatically. However, evidence from the socio-economic research program showed that there was no direct link between immigration and rising crime levels.      "Ignorance is the basis of racism," says European research commissioner, Phillip Basquin, "and this new report should help insure that any future judgments or policies involving immigration issues will take into account the latest facts first."♠

Taking a look on a different point of the argument, it seems that there is more evidence that goes against the papers.

What would happen to the EU if there was a shortage of workers? At a glance there seems to be too much unemployment for this to be possible, however economics researcher, Nigel Harris says:

"Even when unemployment is high, there are areas of great shortages of workers. Anyone who has had the misfortune to work flipping hamburgers, as a dishwasher in a hotel, in gutting chickens in rural factories, knows the desperate scarcity of workers in jobs where the pay and conditions are rotten." •

A shortage of workers in the EU could be caused by a number of things, the main factor being that Europe has an aging population. Europeans are having smaller families, meaning less children to 'take the place' of adults when they retire. Improving health care and knowledge also contributes to people living longer in general.                                                                                          This is why, in December, the British Home Secretary, David Blunkett
said Britain could withstand 200,000 migrants each year without problem.
In fact, Europe needs the workers. The United Nations estimates that
Spain needs 400,000 immigrants a year for the next 20 years to avoid a
shortage of workers (a labour shortage) in the future.Ψ

It is not that there are not enough jobs to accommodate the population, but that there are not enough people who are able or willing to do the jobs available.

Are cleaners important? Ask an office worker working in a dirty office; or someone suffering from food poisoning because a school kitchen wasn't kept clean. Lower paid workers (cleaners, canteen workers, security guards ect.) are essential for the higher paid ones to be able to work. In fact, there is substantial evidence to show that Britain needs migrants to cover many jobs with staff shortages, usually because the work is low paid, with long and inconvenient hours, and therefore not enough British people are willing to do them.
"Britain is giving work visas to farm labourers, nurses, doctors, computer programmers, and short work visas to people doing cleaning and building work," confirms Robert Lancaster, an immigration specialist. ’’Economic studies show that migrants create more wealth than they take from a country, and tend to be the most resourceful and active people in an economy."

So, if immigration would not worsen Europe's unemployment or crime levels, why does the government have immigration controls and why are they worried about the EU’s expansion?

“While nearly 5 billion people live in the poor countries of the world, only immigration controls stop them pouring into the rich world.” Reads an article from The Sun. ♣ The worry seems to be that as soon as immigration rules are relaxed, the EU will be swamped with poor people wanting to live here.

However, Nigel Harris has a logic that will put minds at rest.
“There have been poor and rich countries since countries began, but only controls on movement this century. Why did not all the poor swamp the rich countries then? Even now in Europe where there is supposed to be freedom of movement and freedom to work, people in the poorer countries of the Mediterranean are not flocking to the north.”•

Also, when other poorer countries joined the EU, for example Greece and Portugal, there was no great immigration rise either, so why are we worried now?

After looking at general information about migration, and evaluating both sides of the argument, for and against increasing migration to the EU, I have come to my own conclusion.

It is easy to be taken in to the dramatic headlines and articles of the tabloids, whose messages often boil down to- ‘migrants will mess up our perfect society’, as they ‘invade’, ‘swamp’ and ‘flood’. However, by taking a look at the newer, though less publicised story, I now believe that increased migration is an opportunity to advance the world. By means of businesses, improving unemployment and as a way to stop Europe’s aging population becoming a problem. And also, to give workers an opportunity to send money home to their families in the third world. At last there would be a serious possibility of a real attack on world poverty, and this, to me at least, seems allot more dramatic than any tabloid headline. As says Nigel Harris, “The world belongs to us all.”

Rose Lancaster – Rous   10H