Iain Duncan
Smith has said Britain faces a "crisis" of
increased immigration from Romania and Bulgaria, as all three major
parties consider their response to the UKIP Eastleigh surge.
Called to the Commons to
explain how the government plans to deal with new immigrants from within the
European Union once some restrictions are lifted next year, the work and
pensions secretary said he was working to "tighten up" what benefits
were payable to new arrivals.
"There
is somewhat of a crisis over this," he said. "Some people want to
come here solely to claim benefits."
Duncan Smith
told MPs that the this approach was "very damaging to the concept
of an EU that works for all its members".
The biggest
question that many MPs are asking and some are even trying to audaciously
answer is how many Romanians will come to this country next year?
It really depends on who you ask this question. Politicians from a party known for its
xenophobia insist that 29 million Romanians and Bulgarians will invade
British shores. Generally I will laugh at these stupid claims, as this figure represents the entire
population of both countries combined (stupid UKIP).
Another
survey confirmed that 0.56% of Romanians are interested to find jobs in
Britain. In both evaluations the total number is 15-20,000 people. Finally, a
report commissioned by the UK Government in 2010 estimates that 8,000 Romanians
will come to Britain in 2014. From 8,000 to 385,000 it is a huge field open to
speculations exploited by tabloid media and UKIP.
14 million
EU citizens live today in another EU country. A poll surfaced that
Britons massively overestimate the number of foreigners in the country - guessing
on average that 31% of the population were immigrants, when the actual figure
is 12%, (a bit like the benefits spending) . But no one in the EU migrates more than British people do.
According to a 2011 World Bank report, 4.7 million British people live outside
their own country, and almost half of them have settled elsewhere in the EU.
There are thousands of British people who work in Romania. Surely, if we claim to
look for work in another country, they should be able to do the same in ours? That is only fair.
So, how many
Romanians will come to Britain in 2014? There will probably be a lot fewer than
in the previous years.
