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The UK was the EU country that saw the highest number of immigrants from Eastern Europe after those countries joined the EU. Ironically that is in big part bec

The UK was the EU country that saw the highest number of immigrants from Eastern Europe after those countries joined the EU. Ironically that is in big part because the UK (along with Ireland) was the only EU country not to restrict it although there was a special provision that allowed it temporarily. It is that influx of migrants that really changed the country's mood on free movement, which indeed the government could do nothing about. Then, Merkel's "open door" policy in the year just before the referendum scared people as well.

FirmwareBurner 3y ago
>The UK was the EU country that saw the highest number of immigrants from Eastern Europe after those countries joined the EU. Ah yes, those evil eastern European coming to take the poor jobs nobody wants and pay taxes, while the unemployed Brits sleep in late in council houses living on benefits. Check out the series 'Benefits Street' on YouTube. >Ironically that is in big part because the UK (along with Ireland) was the only EU country not to restrict it although there was a special provision that allowed it temporarily. That's some major bullshit. The UK had the maximum possible 7 year restriction in place on Romanians and Bulgarians. They joined in 2007 but we're only allowed to work in the UK all the way 2014. I remember the British media made a huge scaremongering about that back then waiting in the airports in January 2014 for the "invasion" that failed to materialize. >It is that influx of migrants that really changed the country's mood on free movement, which indeed the government could do nothing about And now they have a lot more immigrants except not from the EU, while loosing all the EU membership privileges. It's massively hypocritical of brexiters to bitch about the EU free movement when they themselves massively made use of it for work, travel and study. So what did they gain with this anti-Eastern European movement? They now have even more migration but without the EU benefits.
- mytailorisrich 3y ago
  That's a snark that does not bring anything to the discussion. People were dissatisfied with the fact the country could not control immigration from the EU. That's how it was and trying to understand those concerns rather than mocking them might have avoided Brexit in the same way as that might prevent hard-line parties from winning across Europe. > That's some major bullshit No... They implemented the allowed restrictions on the second batch of Eastern European countries because they had not put any restrictions on the first batch (Poland, etc) in 2004 and got a massive number of immigrants from those countries.
  - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
    >That's a snark that does not bring anything to the discussion. Where's the snark? I was being dead serious. >People were dissatisfied with the fact the country could not control immigration from the EU. What for? The UK's major problems were all self inflicted by it's own crooked political class not by the Eastern Europeans coming to work and pay taxes. They were just the scapegoats in a xenophobic driven witch-hunt because blaming some powerless foreigners who can't vote is always the easy way out. Also, if the UK didn't want any Eastern Europeans all they had to do was veto their EU membership when those countries applied to join. Simple no? And now, how did Brexit fix the migration issue? Now you have even more migrants than before except they're not eastern European. Is that better now? How was it all not low-key xenophobia.
- kypro 3y ago
  > Ah yes, those evil eastern European coming to take the poor jobs nobody wants and pay taxes, while the unemployed Brits sleep in late in council houses living on benefits. Check out the series 'Benefits Street' on YouTube. No one wants them because mass migration suppresses wages. For example in the UK we systematically suppress NHS wages to the point no Brit would want to work in the NHS anymore. We achieve this by importing hundreds of thousands of workers from parts of the world with lower per-capita income. And I'm not being critical here. I'm highly in favour of this because it reduce healthcare costs in the UK. But on the flip side it's then absurd to argue that Brits don't want those jobs since we're actively suppressing wages. Like in the past Brits would work in the NHS if we allowed for labour competition. If the NHS was forced to pay more to attract labour then Brits would obviously want to work for the NHS again.
  - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
    >No one wants them because mass migration suppresses wages. But then why did the UK allow them in the EU in the first place? The UK could have vetoed this then. >For example in the UK we systematically suppress NHS wages to the point no Brit would want to work in the NHS anymore. Sorry, but to me that reads as 100% as a problem of the UK NHS for underpaying it's workers in the first place. EU workers taking those lower paying jobs is only the effect but not the cause. So why blame eastern European workers for a problem created by UK institutions? To me it read as targeted xenofobia in disguise. Answer me this: Now that eastern Europeans don't come work in the NHS anymore, did NHS wages rise? Or are they now importing cheaper labor from outside the EU by rubber-stamping work visas like crazy, meaning UK workers are now also wagedumped and also without EU membership benefits? How do those apples taste? Xenofobia has its price you know. Also it's easy to wish for bigger wages for local workers, we all want that, but are British citizens willing to put their money where their mouth is, as in pay the higher taxes and prices to afford those higher salaries for those workers? There's no free lunch here. Higher wages for workers means cost increases up the chain and from what I saw Brits love their cheap prices and services and any small increase in prices leads to a dramatic increase in people living below the poverty line in the UK. You can't have your cake and eat it too as brexiters wanted. Do you want cheap immigrants, or do you want cheap food and services?

FirmwareBurner 3y ago

>The UK was the EU country that saw the highest number of immigrants from Eastern Europe after those countries joined the EU. Ah yes, those evil eastern European coming to take the poor jobs nobody wants and pay taxes, while the unemployed Brits sleep in late in council houses living on benefits. Check out the series 'Benefits Street' on YouTube. >Ironically that is in big part because the UK (along with Ireland) was the only EU country not to restrict it although there was a special provision that allowed it temporarily. That's some major bullshit. The UK had the maximum possible 7 year restriction in place on Romanians and Bulgarians. They joined in 2007 but we're only allowed to work in the UK all the way 2014. I remember the British media made a huge scaremongering about that back then waiting in the airports in January 2014 for the "invasion" that failed to materialize. >It is that influx of migrants that really changed the country's mood on free movement, which indeed the government could do nothing about And now they have a lot more immigrants except not from the EU, while loosing all the EU membership privileges. It's massively hypocritical of brexiters to bitch about the EU free movement when they themselves massively made use of it for work, travel and study. So what did they gain with this anti-Eastern European movement? They now have even more migration but without the EU benefits.

mytailorisrich 3y ago
That's a snark that does not bring anything to the discussion. People were dissatisfied with the fact the country could not control immigration from the EU. That's how it was and trying to understand those concerns rather than mocking them might have avoided Brexit in the same way as that might prevent hard-line parties from winning across Europe. > That's some major bullshit No... They implemented the allowed restrictions on the second batch of Eastern European countries because they had not put any restrictions on the first batch (Poland, etc) in 2004 and got a massive number of immigrants from those countries.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  >That's a snark that does not bring anything to the discussion. Where's the snark? I was being dead serious. >People were dissatisfied with the fact the country could not control immigration from the EU. What for? The UK's major problems were all self inflicted by it's own crooked political class not by the Eastern Europeans coming to work and pay taxes. They were just the scapegoats in a xenophobic driven witch-hunt because blaming some powerless foreigners who can't vote is always the easy way out. Also, if the UK didn't want any Eastern Europeans all they had to do was veto their EU membership when those countries applied to join. Simple no? And now, how did Brexit fix the migration issue? Now you have even more migrants than before except they're not eastern European. Is that better now? How was it all not low-key xenophobia.
kypro 3y ago
> Ah yes, those evil eastern European coming to take the poor jobs nobody wants and pay taxes, while the unemployed Brits sleep in late in council houses living on benefits. Check out the series 'Benefits Street' on YouTube. No one wants them because mass migration suppresses wages. For example in the UK we systematically suppress NHS wages to the point no Brit would want to work in the NHS anymore. We achieve this by importing hundreds of thousands of workers from parts of the world with lower per-capita income. And I'm not being critical here. I'm highly in favour of this because it reduce healthcare costs in the UK. But on the flip side it's then absurd to argue that Brits don't want those jobs since we're actively suppressing wages. Like in the past Brits would work in the NHS if we allowed for labour competition. If the NHS was forced to pay more to attract labour then Brits would obviously want to work for the NHS again.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  >No one wants them because mass migration suppresses wages. But then why did the UK allow them in the EU in the first place? The UK could have vetoed this then. >For example in the UK we systematically suppress NHS wages to the point no Brit would want to work in the NHS anymore. Sorry, but to me that reads as 100% as a problem of the UK NHS for underpaying it's workers in the first place. EU workers taking those lower paying jobs is only the effect but not the cause. So why blame eastern European workers for a problem created by UK institutions? To me it read as targeted xenofobia in disguise. Answer me this: Now that eastern Europeans don't come work in the NHS anymore, did NHS wages rise? Or are they now importing cheaper labor from outside the EU by rubber-stamping work visas like crazy, meaning UK workers are now also wagedumped and also without EU membership benefits? How do those apples taste? Xenofobia has its price you know. Also it's easy to wish for bigger wages for local workers, we all want that, but are British citizens willing to put their money where their mouth is, as in pay the higher taxes and prices to afford those higher salaries for those workers? There's no free lunch here. Higher wages for workers means cost increases up the chain and from what I saw Brits love their cheap prices and services and any small increase in prices leads to a dramatic increase in people living below the poverty line in the UK. You can't have your cake and eat it too as brexiters wanted. Do you want cheap immigrants, or do you want cheap food and services?