twelve - Enlarging concerns: migration to the UK from new European Union member states

Summary

Introduction

In the UK, as in many other European Union (EU) member states, discussions about the merits of EU enlargement have been dominated by concerns about the scale and impacts of migration from new member states to older ones. Relatively little is said about the economic and political advantages that EU enlargement can bring to existing and new member states. In contrast, public debates on enlargement seem to be dominated, almost fixated, by fears about immigrants from new member states and the impacts they will have on UK labour markets, public services, welfare provision and crime.

In the lead up to the accession of 10 new member states on 1 May 2004, the UK government came under public pressure to limit the right of free movement for workers to protect the UK. In the event, the government resisted these pressures and was one of three existing member states that did not impose restrictions. Two years later, faced with similar pressures to restrict the access of Romanian and Bulgarian workers when their countries joined the EU, the UK government changed its stance and decided to introduce restrictions.

This chapter examines the context in which these two different policy decisions were taken as a way of drawing out some of the complexities and contradictions of migration policy making in the UK. It begins by looking at the environment in which the 2004 decision was made and then reviews the empirical evidence on the scale and impacts of migration from the new member states. It then asks why, in the face of the apparent benefits of a liberal approach, policy makers changed their minds on Romanian and Bulgarian workers. The chapter concludes by considering some of the broader political challenges around migration.

May Day panic

Under the treaties governing the accession of the 10 new member states joining the EU in 2004, existing member states had the option of restricting the access of workers from new member states to their labour markets. This ‘transitional’ period of up to seven years was meant to ease any potential problems associated with the movement of large numbers of people from poorer new members to richer existing members. In December 2002, the UK government announced its intention to allow workers of the eight Central and Eastern European accession states (A8) unrestricted access to its labour market as soon as they joined the EU.