UK Debates Globilization and Immigration

Headlines ahead of the New Year portrayed a country of job seeking-Britons brushed aside by Bulgarians and overrun by Romanians.

“See EU soon,” wrote the Sun. “You can’t stop us coming,” portended the Daily Mail — two newspapers that have made fretting about immigration and its effect on Britain a mission.

While the prospect of masses of Romanians and Bulgarians storming the shores of Britain on Jan. 1 was unlikely, as veteran EU members have not fully opened their labor markets to the newcomers, such worries stem from events of the past few years.

After the last EU expansion in 2004, when Poland and nine other nations joined, Britain was one of a handful of EU nations that opened its doors — and saw a flood of more than half a million newcomers taking jobs as builders, food servers and clerks in London and across the country — confounding official reassurances.

Should countries like Britain want hundreds of thousands of Polish migrants? Many economists say yes, because they make labor markets more efficient and create economic growth. But workers — and politicians — see competitors who keep salaries low.

The British fears about potential Romanian and Bulgarian emigres is part of a wider debate about globalization: Is economic freedom ultimately to everyone’s benefit? Click here.

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