Posted Sunday, February 22, 2004; 15.21GMT
The tabloid headlines are lurid: FOUR MILLION IMMIGRANTS HEADING HERE predicts Britain's The People; GYPSY CRISIS warns the Daily Express. Keeping out foreigners has long been a neuralgic issue in European politics. But May 1, the date when 10 new, relatively poor countries join the E.U., is bringing a new intensity to dire warnings about a flood of low-paid workers from the East stealing jobs and benefits from the more prosperous West.
That image must come as cold, ironic comfort to 54 Greeks who did not exactly find Britain an employment paradise before they hurried home two weeks ago. Although they are already entitled to work with full legal protections anywhere in the E.U., they were brought as temps to pick daffodils in southwest England, working nine hours a day in the rain and snow. They said they were housed without heating or plumbing in a tent that local officials declared "totally unfit for human habitation," and told by bosses they wouldn't be paid until they coughed up €1,500 each for transport and lodging. After two weeks, they had to be rescued by their embassy. For them, working in a rich, liberal country wasn't exactly the glittering prize the tabloids take for granted.
Between those two visions — a flood of benefit-seeking migrants heading West and the nightmare of exploitation in a rich land — lies Europe's economic and social future. Though the May 1 deadline for enlarging the E.U. by 10 countries and 75 million people was announced in 2002, migration has suddenly become a hot issue. And this isn't the equally controversial migration by Chinese, Africans and other non-Europeans (see following story), but by the citizens of soon-to-be E.U. member states. One by one, the countries already in the E.U. have announced "transitional arrangements" to restrict free entry, which in some cases could last until 2011. As of last week, only Britain and Ireland had planned no limits at all — until Prime Minister Tony Blair bowed to a right-wing press campaign by devising a package expected to require work permits and deny state benefits such as housing to migrants for up to two years.
No, the restrictions don't amount to a new Iron Curtain, but neither do they look like the heady vision of a common European home that was part of the sales pitch for expanding the E.U. On both sides, a kind of buyer's remorse has set in about enlargement — and anxiety about migration is a prominent part. The existing members wonder how many Poles, Czechs and Latvians will come to Hamburg, Lille and Manchester. Will they put current residents out of work? Or do the prosperous nations need computer programmers and ditch-diggers to give their economies a jolt and pay taxes to support their aging populations? Will a big influx give right-wing parties a crude tool for whipping up votes?
Paperwork [June 23, 2003]
The E.U. wants to be bigger, better and stronger. Will its new constitution finally make Europeans care?
Deadly Crossing [Dec. 22, 2003]
TIME tracks a young illegal immigrant's harrowing nine-month journey from Somalia to Italy
Outside Edge [June. 11, 2002]
Immigration takes center stage in the Czech election campaign
Sharp Turn To The Right? [Oct. 12, 2003]
The Swiss People's Party's anti-immigration message could help it win big in next week's elections
Germany's New Recruits [June. 18, 2001]
Indian tech workers are the biggest beneficiaries of expedited work permits to plug the country's skills shortages
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