BoE confirms what we knew already: migration driving down wages

[Danthus]

The previous labour government messed up by allowing the accession countries free access to our labour markets immediately in 2004. This was the single largest enlargement of the EU ever and only a couple of countries were open to their workers. Madness.

The recent enlargement of the EU to include Romania and Bulgaria was managed, we held controls as long as most other large economies which a) gave time for Romania and Bulgaria to catch up and b) spread migrants over a greater range when they did come.

If it wasn't for the lefty soft hearted ideals of Labour we wouldn't have the immigration debate or parties like UKIP right now.

There was a Tory lead coalition after Labour, what did they do?

 

[ubersonic]

The previous labour government messed up by allowing the accession countries free access to our labour markets immediately in 2004. This was the single largest enlargement of the EU ever and only a couple of countries were open to their workers. Madness.

The recent enlargement of the EU to include Romania and Bulgaria was managed, we held controls as long as most other large economies which a) gave time for Romania and Bulgaria to catch up and b) spread migrants over a greater range when they did come.

If it wasn't for the lefty soft hearted ideals of Labour we wouldn't have the immigration debate or parties like UKIP right now.

There was a Tory lead coalition after Labour, what did they do?

I bolded it for you.

It made a difference because instead of immigrants looking out and seeing only the UK and a couple of other countries with the doors wide open then flooding here like in 2004, they looked out and saw doors shut everywhere, so most of them ignored the UK and headed to more appealing countries.

 

[Danthus]

Managed how, any EU citizen cam come here if they wish.

It is not managed, there are no controls.

 

[ubersonic]

Managed how

Controls were put in place that limited the appeal of the UK to immigrants from Bulgaria/Romania, I.E limits on access to welfare for new arrivals. As a result the UK was a lot less appealing to then than it had been to previous new members when the doors were wide open and other countries were closed (other countries applied limits but we didn't because Labour thought hardly any would come). As the was no benefit to choosing the UK many Romanian/Bulgarian immigrants instead chose countries with better weather than the UK or countries where they spoke the language or shared cultural similarities.

 

[Zethor]

Managed how, any EU citizen cam come here if they wish.

It is not managed, there are no controls.

There's no need for controls. The immigrants coming from the EU are of a 'higher quality' than those that come from the rest of the world, despite the heavy restrictions and requirements the latter have. Do you think that all the Pakistani, Indians and Nigerians who want to enter the UK will suddenly turn into doctors/engineers/software developers just because the country exits the EU?

If immigration is indeed a problem, which I don't think it is, wouldn't be logical to first apply the solution (points system, new requirements etc.) for the non-EU immigrants and, if it works as intended, take it further?

 

[Danthus]

We don't need to control immigration, are you for real?

 

[Zethor]

We don't need to control immigration, are you for real?

Yes, there's no need for it in the EU and there's no evidence that suggests otherwise.

 

[Dave M]

There was a Tory lead coalition after Labour, what did they do?

The decision to not impose controls was made by Labour, that ship had sailed, you can't go back and try again.

I'm not saying a Liberal or Conservative government would have made a different decision but you can't argue that the decision did not have serious and long reaching effects on the country. Labour in-fact changed their opinion on this when it came to Romania/Bulgaria in 2007 - lessons learned I guess but too late to stop it becoming a party political issue.

Those saying leave the EU have short memories and to be honest I suspect are just using any available situation to further their pre-existing preference. If we had taken advantage of the limits the EU made available to us, and that Germany took, we would have had the controlled immigration everyone is demanding now.

Lets face it, given the choice most EU migration is to Germany, they have more jobs, better jobs and better paid jobs - who wants a UK minimum wage service sector job?

 

[GAC]

funny people still claim this isnt a problem.

i work security which has a problem with wage compression and companies have been run out of business locally to me over the past couple of years due to some very dodgy things.
one of them for example would hire mainly african immigrants who are here legally work then 12 hoursa day, 5 days a week, pay them 40 hours a week all at min wage and then charge them for uniform even though legally that should be free from your employer. and the reason they could do this was that the immigrants wouldnt go to toe authorities as they where scared of them from their experiences in africa.

but of course what iv just described isnt happening and its down to the people out of work not looking hard enough.