Migration in Europe

Extract

Recent developments in the European Union have raised immigration as an issue, especially in the UK. There has been a large wave of migrants into the UK from Poland since its accession in 2004, and as Romania and Bulgaria are preparing to become members of the European Union on 1 January 2007, migration from the new member states to other EU countries has become even more a focus of attention. Concerns over potential immigration towards the old EU member states have been rising because the total population of Bulgaria and Romania is approximately 30 million, a similar size to Poland, and the standards of living in both countries are considerably lower than in the EU-15 member countries, or than in any of the current New Member States. Hence outward migration is more likely to be attractive. The scale of flows will depend upon any restrictions that might be imposed by other member states, but current estimates suggest that 2 million Romanians, for instance, are already at work in the core EU countries.