The 'rich man's club' has opened its doors to its less wealthy neighbours. It may seem strange - even presumptuous - for a British writer to welcome the new arrivals.
On May Day, 2004, this coming Saturday, the European Union will have 70 million new inhabitants—and ten new member nations, bringing its total to 25. The ‘rich man’s club’ is opening its doors to its less wealthy neighbours—amid muttering from many of those already settled in its comfortable armchairs.
It may seem strange—even presumptuous—for a British writer to welcome the new arrivals. To the rest of Europe, Britain has sometimes seemed an awkward member of the club, grumbling about the rules, resisting change and casting doubts on everyone else. Although our government championed the enlargement, the prospect has sparked a xenophobia in some quarters which is matched only by attitudes to asylum seekers and refugees. Behind the fears of job-seekers (or worse still, ‘benefit tourists’) flooding into the country lurks a less tangible anxiety about the loss of national identity.
These fears are common to the whole of the old EU. In most countries, an outcry from the Right has led to restrictions on the ability of migrants from the new member countries to find jobs and/or claim benefits while looking for them.
Any influx resulting from the larger EU is likely to be temporary. Similar predictions greeted the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the admission of Spain, Portugal and Greece—and did not materialize. Migration is expected to decline, and eventually reverse, as standards of living rise in the new member states.
And what is all the fuss about anyway, at a time when half a million jobs in the UK stand vacant? The hotel and catering industries are short of workers, small businesses cannot find skilled labour and the health service is searching the world for doctors, nurses and dentists. Why are we so suspicious of those who come to us unsolicited?
In the 1960s, a group of shanty town leaders told the Governor of Rio de Janeiro, ‘We are not one million problems, but two million hands ready to solve the problems.’ The EU’s 70 million new inhabitants may be part of the answer for the ageing, labour-poor societies of the West. The same could be said for asylum seekers and refugees.
From an editorial in For a Change magazine.
NOTE: Individuals of many cultures, nationalities, religions, and beliefs are actively involved with Initiatives of Change. These commentaries represent the views of the writer and not necessarily those of Initiatives of Change as a whole.
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