People from poor and impoverished EU nations such as Poland, Latvia, the Czech Republic and France have been coming to booming Britain in their thousands to earn money.
But some Poles want their people to come home.
Poland wants its workers back
by LAURA ROBERTS, Daily Mail
1st August 2006
Two Polish workers in Warsaw prepare to get on the bus that will take them to London. Like Ireland and Sweden, Britain has opened its gates to allow in valuable workers from the Eastern European members of the EU, unlike members of "Old Europe", such as France and Germany, which allow in only a certain amount of these workers per year before closing the gates.
Polish workers are being lured back home to fill vacant jobs they left behind in a campaign by their countrymen to stem the tide of mass migration.
Officials from the city of Wroclaw, Poland's fourth largest city, will start in London visiting high-density Polish areas in an attempt to persuade migrants of the benefits of living and working in their homeland.
Between 350,000 to 500,000 Poles are believed to have moved to the UK since Poland joined the EU in May 2004. The government initially predicted that between 5,000 and 13,000 would migrate per year but ministers now expect a further 140,000 migrants in 2007.
If the Wroclaw scheme is successful it will expand nationwide. The city has launched an advertising campaign in Polish papers in Britain under the slogan "Wroc-loves you" as well as setting up an internet site for homesick Poles.
They are particularly targeting educated young people who are prepared to work in low-paid menial jobs in Britain rather than pursue a career in Poland. Around 83 per cent of migrants are under 34.
An anaesthetist in Poland earns £2,500 upwards per year compared to from £45,000 in the UK. More than 5,000 doctors have left Poland in under two years. Unemployment stands at 16.5 per cent (even higher than in France and Germany) and the average wage is £5,226 per year.
Agnieszka Sikorska, president of the Polish Economics and Business Association, said that simply publicising the benefits of working in Wroclaw would not be enough to lure Polish workers home.
She said: "I think that the professional workers who leave Poland are not such a problem as at least they are still paying taxes and supporting the country like that. They come to the UK to get experience and are more likely to eventually go back home.
"It is the people who come to work as cleaners, builders and plumbers who are totally motivated by money that are less likely to go back. They can live better here so why should they?
"The Polish government would really have to get behind a campaign to get them back. Perhaps the best way to persuade Poles to go home would be to make it more difficult for them to stay. The British government should make them pay taxes and make it more difficult to claim special benefits."
Dr Jan Mokrzycki, chairman of the Federation for Poles in Great Britain, said: "I think that both the Polish and the British government underestimated how many people would move.
"It is partly due to unemployment and partly because the Polish media portrayed Britain as the land of milk and honey, which it isn't quite.
"The deficit of skilled workers is a big problem but I think the issue of the brain drain will sort itself out. As people like anaesthetists move out of Poland more students will take their jobs in the country and take their place. There will be hardship of course but Poland will recover."
The shortcomings of the official register for Eastern European workers was higlighted last year when Immigration Minister Tony McNulty claimed there were just 95 Polish plumbers working in the UK. The Daily Mail was able to find that number in just 24 hours within London.
Net immigration into the UK has more than tripled since Labour came to power, from 106,000 in 1997 to 342,000 in 2004.
dailymail.co.uk
But some Poles want their people to come home.
Poland wants its workers back
by LAURA ROBERTS, Daily Mail
1st August 2006
Two Polish workers in Warsaw prepare to get on the bus that will take them to London. Like Ireland and Sweden, Britain has opened its gates to allow in valuable workers from the Eastern European members of the EU, unlike members of "Old Europe", such as France and Germany, which allow in only a certain amount of these workers per year before closing the gates.
Polish workers are being lured back home to fill vacant jobs they left behind in a campaign by their countrymen to stem the tide of mass migration.
Officials from the city of Wroclaw, Poland's fourth largest city, will start in London visiting high-density Polish areas in an attempt to persuade migrants of the benefits of living and working in their homeland.
Between 350,000 to 500,000 Poles are believed to have moved to the UK since Poland joined the EU in May 2004. The government initially predicted that between 5,000 and 13,000 would migrate per year but ministers now expect a further 140,000 migrants in 2007.
If the Wroclaw scheme is successful it will expand nationwide. The city has launched an advertising campaign in Polish papers in Britain under the slogan "Wroc-loves you" as well as setting up an internet site for homesick Poles.
They are particularly targeting educated young people who are prepared to work in low-paid menial jobs in Britain rather than pursue a career in Poland. Around 83 per cent of migrants are under 34.
An anaesthetist in Poland earns £2,500 upwards per year compared to from £45,000 in the UK. More than 5,000 doctors have left Poland in under two years. Unemployment stands at 16.5 per cent (even higher than in France and Germany) and the average wage is £5,226 per year.
Agnieszka Sikorska, president of the Polish Economics and Business Association, said that simply publicising the benefits of working in Wroclaw would not be enough to lure Polish workers home.
She said: "I think that the professional workers who leave Poland are not such a problem as at least they are still paying taxes and supporting the country like that. They come to the UK to get experience and are more likely to eventually go back home.
"It is the people who come to work as cleaners, builders and plumbers who are totally motivated by money that are less likely to go back. They can live better here so why should they?
"The Polish government would really have to get behind a campaign to get them back. Perhaps the best way to persuade Poles to go home would be to make it more difficult for them to stay. The British government should make them pay taxes and make it more difficult to claim special benefits."
Dr Jan Mokrzycki, chairman of the Federation for Poles in Great Britain, said: "I think that both the Polish and the British government underestimated how many people would move.
"It is partly due to unemployment and partly because the Polish media portrayed Britain as the land of milk and honey, which it isn't quite.
"The deficit of skilled workers is a big problem but I think the issue of the brain drain will sort itself out. As people like anaesthetists move out of Poland more students will take their jobs in the country and take their place. There will be hardship of course but Poland will recover."
The shortcomings of the official register for Eastern European workers was higlighted last year when Immigration Minister Tony McNulty claimed there were just 95 Polish plumbers working in the UK. The Daily Mail was able to find that number in just 24 hours within London.
Net immigration into the UK has more than tripled since Labour came to power, from 106,000 in 1997 to 342,000 in 2004.
dailymail.co.uk