Labour contender Ed Balls urges EU immigration limits

[dipsydoodle]

Future immigration from within the European Union needs to be more tightly controlled, Labour leadership contender Ed Balls has said.

Writing in the Observer, he said "too many" British workers had been affected by migration policies under Labour.

He called for temporary controls on the number of workers from Romania and Bulgaria to be extended.

He also criticised the coalition government for failing to address concerns about unskilled EU labour.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/politics/10247644.stm

[non sociopath skin]

1. Attacking from the right, eh, Ed?

Didn't work for Howard. Didn't work for Griffin. Won't work for you.

The Skin

[Jeneral2885]

2. It did

matter for the woman whom Brown uttered the self-destructive remark afterwards during the campaign. It did probably mattter for some parts of the country.

[non sociopath skin]

3. I didn't say it didn't matter.

People deserve explanations. However, I'm glad to say that there no longer seems to be any long term advantage in playing the racist, xenophobia or anti-East European cards.

The Skin

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. I'm puzzled about this, because on my two trips to London

both hotels were staffed entirely by East Europeans (except for the front desk), as were most of the coffee shops and restaurants I ate at.

I began to wonder how an ambitious young UK-born person from a council estate would get an entry-level job if all the hotel maid, hotel bellhop, restaurant server, and coffee bar attendant jobs were taken by Eastern Europeans? Nothing wrong with the Eastern European workers--they were pleasant and competent, but what about a pleasant and competent young Londoner who wants a job and is stereotyped as being a whiny layabout?

This may be similar to the situation of Mexican immigrants in the U.S. The right wing media make a lot of noise about Mexicans coming in and "stealing American jobs," and yet, they resist employer penalties because they like the way that the presence of illegal Mexican workers keeps wages low. Employers complain that Americans "don't want" the jobs that the Mexicans have, but those jobs were held by Americans just a couple of decades ago. The problem is that wages have not kept up with prices. The U.S. minimum wage is about 50% lower than it would have to be to keep up with price inflation since the 1960s.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

7. It's about keeping wages low

It was quite common for a number of Eastern European workers to stay in the same house (maybe 9, 10, 12 in a small house) while they all worked for 12-18 months living meagrely (impoverished even) while saving up their money to take back home.

These workers were living in dire conditions but for a limited period. The wages on offer can barely meet the subsistence needs of a permanent British resident who needs to pay the huge costs of accommodation, with the basic expectations of everyday life.

[Nihil]

8. You'll find exactly the same ...

... if you go to (or near) any charity that tries to give some kind
of a breakfast to the homeless: they have been swamped (i.e., numbers
tripled or more) over the last few years, not by the "usual" homeless
guys but by Eastern Europeans who breakfast there then go off to their
cash-in-hand jobs. The local competition for jobs still has to pay for
their own food & board ...

Yes, there is a lot of resentment brewing and this could easily flare
up if given the wrong kind of fuel.

[fedsron2us]

5. Do try and keep up Balls

Last time I checked eastern European immigration had slowed markedly and all those Brits that had gone to Spain were returning to the UK.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/14/20100527/tpl-figures-show-slowing-immigration-81c5b50_2.html

Of course, the deciding factor here was not any political policy changes but the fact the world economy had gone into meltdown.When that happens most people do not want to be the 'other' in the society where they live.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

6. It doesn't need to be

Why didn't Eastern Europeans go to Sweden with its high wages?

Simply, Sweden is thoroughly unionised and employers have no incentive to hire a non-Swedish worker for lower wages. Whether the boss hires a Swede or say a Pole, they get paid the same.

[Nihil]

9. More than one reason there though A-S ...

One reason why is that it's harder to get into Sweden than Britain.

Having said that, your point about unions (or fair pay in general)
is a lot of what provides the incentive to try in the first place.

Not sure how you think that those service jobs can be unionised though ...?

[Hopeless Romantic]

10. this sums it up