Migration meltdown
Our MPs have betrayed us. They unanimously agreed to let Brussels open our
borders to unrestricted immigration from Eastern Europe, putting many of our
schools, hospitals, local councils and neighbourhoods under severe strain.
In Slough, the local authority has asked for £15m in emergency funding to
cope with the new influx of Eastern Europeans, and in schools up and down the
country cashed-strapped councils are having to find money to pay for foreign
language teaching assistants.
Biggest wave in history
According to John Salt, director of the migration research unit at University
College London, this population movement is the biggest single wave of
migration in British history.
Yet just two years ago the government was predicting that no more than
5,000 to 13,000 Eastern European migrants would come to Britain. Indeed,
the then Europe Minister Denis McShane even forecast that there would be a net
out-migration, with Poles living in Britain returning home!
Even now the government has no idea how many Eastern Europeans have come in to
Britain in the last two years, but their best 'guesstimate' is more than
600,000 with the number rising.
Free movement
All this has happened because we must obey a new European Directive –
eurospeak for law - on the free movement of people.
This Directive created 'a single legal regime for free movement and residence
within the context of citizenship of the Union while retaining the acquired
rights of workers. It applies to all categories of Union-citizens: job seekers,
workers, self employed persons, providers and recipients of services, students,
retired persons and other non-economically active Union citizens'.
This is not a law enabling the free movement of workers following seasonal and
temporary jobs around the continent.
This is about vastly increasing the rights of people to reside permanently in
another member state while vastly reducing the rights of member states to expel
them – even if they commit a serious crime or make claims on the welfare
system.
This Directive might have posed no problem for the established members of the
EU. But when Poland and other former communist bloc countries joined the EU in
2004 the floodgates were opened to unlimited immigration from some of the
poorest countries on earth.
That is why Germany and France sought a temporary exemption from the new law.
But even they must obey Brussels and allow the free movement of people by the
year 2009.
By then, Bulgaria and Romania will have joined the EU and tens of thousands
– possibly more – of their job-starved citizens will make their way
to Britain in search of a brighter future.
Overstretched
When our MPs debated the accession of Poland and other former communist
countries two years ago, no one spoke out about the effect this might have on
our already overstretched public services.
Only now that the damage has been done is the Government waking up to the fact
that unrestricted immigration is putting intolerable strains on our social
fabric.
A leaked Cabinet report by Home Office Minister Joan Ryan showed the Government
fear a break-down in what they call social cohesion.
The Mail on Sunday, which broke the story, said her report revealed
'that every Government department had been ordered to draw up
multi-million-pound emergency plans after being told public services face
catastrophe as a result of the hundreds of thousands of Eastern Europeans
pouring into Britain'.
Having caved in to the EU Directive, the government is now realising that this
so-called 'step change' in the level of immigration could trigger angry
backlashes across the country.
Massive social impact
Labour MP Frank Field, one of the few politicians brave enough to speak out on
this issue, said that:
'Movements of population on this scale are having a massive social impact'.
Field added that if this was not tackled it could have a devastating effect on
the Labour vote – because it 'is in the Labour heartlands that the first
and full impact of mass migration on this scale is being felt.
'Given that new arrivals concentrate in the poorest areas - although the
geographical spread of such areas is on the increase - the sheer numbers
arriving in such a short space of time transform the communities into which
they arrive.
'Within the space of five years, an English working-class community, with
first-generation, settled immigrants and their children, is transformed out of
all recognition. Neighbourhoods in which people have spent the whole of their
days are literally being changed before their eyes'.
While Field urges the Government to put temporary restrictions on new
immigration from Bulgaria and Romania – which are due to join the EU in
January 2007 – there is nothing it can do to stop the flow from Poland
and other former communist countries.
In fact, all restrictions on migration have to be lifted within seven years of
any new country joining, as border controls within the European Union are now
in the hands of Brussels.
The leaked government document, entitled Migration From Eastern Europe: Impact
On Public Services And Community Cohesion, paints a very different picture to
its repeated assurances that immigration is under control. It warns:
- Ministers may be forced to abandon their refusal to grant council houses and
welfare benefits to work-shy new arrivals, creating what Ms Ryan describes as
an extra 'pull factor' attracting further immigrants seeking handouts.
- A new army of English language teachers is required to deal with a huge rise in
the number of Eastern European children since last September.
- East European immigrants living rough are becoming drunk and aggressive, and
flooding homeless hostels.
- The influx of cheap labour is forcing British workers to take pay cuts with
'serious implications' for social tension.
- East European patients are 'blocking' hospital beds because they are ineligible
for social care and benefits if they leave.
- Towns and cities hit hardest by the new immigration are demanding millions of
pounds of extra money to cope.
The document, marked 'restricted', was written by Ms Ryan on July 19, 2006 the
day after she submitted a separate report warning that 45,000 'undesirable'
migrants from Romania and Bulgaria may settle in the UK when the two nations
join the EU next year.
One of the Government's biggest fears is that the courts may force the
Government to scrap its restrictions on East European immigrants applying for
council houses or benefits.
At present, they receive some benefits only if they register for work - which
one in three don't do - and earn full benefit rights after they have worked for
a year.
Ms Ryan says: "The legal basis for this is precarious and there is a strong
risk of a successful challenge. This is a concern."
Many East European immigrants end up homeless, partly because of the welfare
curbs. "This leads to antisocial behaviour, street drinking and aggressive
begging' as well as 'tensions' between vagrants, the report warns. One in six
places in homeless hostels in London is now taken up by Eastern Europeans, who
often arrive with no plans for a job or home.
Ms Ryan says some councils are demanding an end to the ban on housing and other
benefits so they can get people off the street. But the report warns that
dropping the restrictions could create a new 'pull factor for people to come to
the UK unprepared for work'.
Areas with the most East European arrivals - including Slough and parts of
London - are demanding more cash for public services, says the report.
And schools desperately need more help following a sudden rise in the number of
East European children, many of whom do not speak English. Some primary schools
have accommodated up to 50 extra Polish children in one term.
The document says foreign workers have helped fill jobs other workers refused to
do. But it adds: 'There is anecdotal evidence, particularly from Southampton, a
port of entry for Eastern Europeans that the effect of migration...has been to
depress wages for low-paid workers. If this were widely true, or that
perception were to spread widely, the implications for community cohesion would
be potentially serious'.
Some migrants are living in hospitals and mental health units because
"there is no ability to provide access to benefits or housing in which
on-going care duties could be met".
In conclusion Ms Ryan says: 'There are areas in which strains are evident'.
Field calculates that newcomers to Britain are now arriving at such a rate that,
over a five year Parliament, the population increase will be equal to 47 new
Parliamentary constituencies.
On the other hand, the rate at which a number of our fellow citizens are
deciding to go in the opposite direction and make their lives beyond our shores
is equivalent to 26 constituencies.
The result is a turnover in our population of almost a million each year and the
trend is escalating sharply. As Trevor Philips, head of the Commission for
Racial Equality said in recent lecture, this level of migration is dramatically
changing the face of Britain.
Even those with serious criminal records cannot be refused entry. And those who
commit a crime while in Britain cannot be automatically deported – as
their rights are deemed to be more important than the safety of the British
people which the law is meant to protect.
Getting tough
The Home Secretary claims he is going to get tough on immigration. Don't be
fooled. The truth is there is nothing he can do to stop the citizens of Poland
and the other eastern European countries from settling in Britain. That power
has been given away.
John
Reid may be able to restrict the numbers coming from Bulgaria and Romania, but
only for a few years.
If these countries join the EU in January 2007, we will have to open our doors
to unrestricted immigration by 2012 by order of the unelected Commissioners in
Brussels
Can our already crowded island cope with this influx?
Can our schools, hospitals, roads, housing stock cope with strain?
Yes we may need migrants to do hard-to-fill jobs. But it is Britain, not
Brussels that should control the flow.
A country without borders is not a country at all. It is just a region of a
country called Europe. And that is what this is all about.
The only way to reclaim control of our own borders is to demand a referendum.
Only a referendum on returning border controls to Britain can stop us becoming
part of an entirely borderless European Union – a Union in which anyone
from Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and soon Bulgaria and Romania will
have the right to permanently settle in Britain.
If you don't want that to happen speak out now and demand a referendum on
returning border controls to Britain
We believe that if enough people speak out we can get a referendum on the return
of this and other vital powers from Brussels to Britain.
Join the 87% of people who say they want a say in getting these powers back
– and demand a referendum. It is time our elected politicians listened to
the people and stopped slavishly obeying the rules and regulations spewing out
of Brussles.
Footnote
Where percentages have been quoted research was carried out by
Yougov 6th-10th October 2006. 2205 respondents were surveyed. Respondents who
refused to answer or didn't have an opinion have been excluded from the
figures.
Related articles
Migration from Eastern Europe: Second thoughts, Economist Aug
24th 2006:
Click here
For John Salt report see - UK migration 'now at its highest'
BBC July 2006:
Click here
For article on Joan Ryan's ministerial memo see BBC story
Warning over new EU immigration:
Click here
Go to
For more details on John Salt's work:
Click Here
To read more of Frank Field's articles go to:
Click here
Open Europe is an independent think tank producing well
researched and powerfully argued reports on key issues, including two good
papers on eastern European migration:
Click here
Official sites
For information on the impact of migration ON Slough:
Click here
European Commission Directive on free movement of people:
Click here
The Home Office:
www.homeoffice.gov.uk