Tesi WSJ (Editoriale)
GB, che con IRL e SVE ha
aperto le porte a immigrati paesi Est UE, sta traendo vantaggio dalla
nuova immigrazione.
- Secondo dati ufficiali in un anno sono affluiti 293
mila immigrati dall’Est EU, - ma circa un terzo sarebbero regolarizzazioni di
clandestini, e una parte sarebbero stagionali poi rientrati. - Londra aumenta il suo cosmopolitismo, aggiungendo le
culture dell’Est a quelle asiatiche e africane. - Tabloid londinesi avevano fatto campagna allarmistica:
sarebbe aumentata la disoccupazione, e i nuovi arrivati sarebbero venuti a
caccia di welfare. - La disoccupazione è rimasta intorno al 5%, molto sotto
la media UE, i nuovi arrivati nei primi 12 mesi hanno contribuito £500 milioni
al PIL, occupano posti che gli inglesi non sono disposti o non sono in grado di
coprire (es. 120 dentisti polacchi, con retribuzione iniziale di 72mila £
(oltre 100 mila €). - Svezia, a differenza di GB, ha esteso il suo generoso
welfare ai nuovi arrivati, calcola che su 21.800 permessi di residenza dai
paesi Est UE ha dovuto sborsare un totale di… 18.000 euro in welfare (meno di
un euro procapite!). - Stati EU continentale hanno sovrastimato la pressione
migratoria dall’Est e l’attrattività delle loro economie. Per paesi a forte
invecchiamento la chiusura è controproducente. - In aprile dovranno essere riviste le barriere alla
libera circolazione nella UE, e Blair cerca di convincere gli altri ad aprire.
Ha arruolato il francese Patrick Weil del Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique: EU deve aprire agli immigrati, almeno ai laureati, che altrimenti
andranno a rafforzare le economie di USA, CAN, AUS e JAP.
November 29, 2005
Visitors to London these days will have
noticed the latest newcomers to the British capital. After Pakistanis, Indians,
Jamaicans and others have made this once dull metropolis the Old World’s most
cosmopolitan city, Poles, Lithuanians, Czechs and Slovaks are now adding
another layer of cultures, tongues and flair to brighten up the fog. The
East Europeans also help the British economy to remain one of the EU’s most
dynamic.
After last year’s enlargement of the bloc
eastward, Britain opened its labor market to the newcomers. Along with
Ireland and Sweden, it was the only EU country to extend these membership
privileges. The rest of the Union kept the East Europeans outside a
reconstituted labor Iron Curtain. The French, Germans and others feared a
wave of migrants. What really happened is the interesting bit.
In the months leading up to the expansion of
the EU last year, British tabloids also screamed about "benefit
shoppers" and warned of rising unemployment if the Blair government didn’t
follow the Continentals to block the easterners’ path into the Isles’ labor
market. But the newcomers, mostly young, have ended up taking jobs that British
employers would have had a hard time filling otherwise.
We’re not just talking about unskilled labor,
either. Christopher Thompson, a diplomat at the British embassy in Warsaw, told
AFP that Polish university graduates could help the U.K. solve a serious
health care problem. "Britain has a shortage of dentists," he said. The
U.K. is recruiting Polish and other East European dentists to help fill 1,000
open positions. Given a starting salary of around €72,000, over 120 Poles have
already answered the call and more are to come.
It is true that the number of East Europeans
who have moved to Britain since accession far exceeds initial government
expectations. According to the British Home Office, 293,000 people have so
far signed up to the required Worker Registration Scheme. But the figure
probably doesn’t tell the whole truth. As many as a third have already been
unofficially in the country and used this opportunity to legalize their
status. Others have signed on as seasonal workers and have since gone
home or registered more than once.
Whatever the true number is, the U.K. has
clearly benefited from their presence. Unemployment is still below 5% while
just in the first 12 months of an EU with 25 member states, East Europeans have
contributed a net gain of £500 million to the British economy, according
to the Home Office.
While in the U.K. the number of East European
job seekers exceeded expectations, the old member states generally
overestimate the attractiveness of their anemic economies to potential
immigrants from the economically re-energized states of East Europe. They
also vastly misjudge the willingness of these people to leave their homes,
families and friends — particularly when the income gap between east and
west is quickly closing.
The accusation of "benefit
shoppers," heard elsewhere in Europe as well, deserves some special
attention. Unlike Britain and Ireland, Sweden extended its rather
generous welfare protections to the newcomers. In a report published in
September by Brussels-based NGO European Citizen Action Service, Julianna
Traser cites Swedish figures showing that by the end of December 2004,
Sweden had given 21,800 residence permits to migrants from the new member
states. During that period, the Swedish social security system allocated
a grand total of €18,000 — yes, no zeros are missing — in social assistance
to these nationals. If all Swedish citizens were to make similar sparse use
of the welfare state, Stockholm wouldn’t need to tax away more than 50% of the
country’s GDP.
At last month’s EU summit, British Prime
Minister Tony Blair tried to persuade his colleagues to do away with the
discriminatory restrictions for East Europeans. These
restrictions come up for review next April when governments will have to
decide whether to renew them for three years or lift them. Cleverly, Mr. Blair
chose a French academic, Patrick Weil, to make this case for him.
A senior research fellow at the Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique, Mr. Weil concludes that much of the
rejection to immigration has "racist or corporatist" roots. The labor
flows to Britain, Ireland and Sweden have been "both manageable and
beneficial." He notes that "countries who continue to close their
labor markets find themselves in a counter-productive situation, with new
European citizens immigrating anyway and working illegally."
Given West Europe’s aging population,
closing the doors to East Europeans makes little sense. The old member
states would more intelligently open their borders to migrants, at least to
those with graduate degrees, not only from East Europe but also from other
countries, Mr. Weil suggests. With global competition for the talent furious, they
might otherwise try to find work in the U.S., Japan, Canada or Australia,
he warned.
The message is being heard in some places, at
least. Finland, which will take over the EU’s rotating presidency in the
second half of next year, has signaled that it might drop labor movement
restrictions. In a more enlightened Europe, self-interest alone would
overcome xenophobic instincts and move all member states to swing the gates
open.