How many is too many? The British Home Office has been grappling with this nettle for many months and yesterday John Reid, the Home Secretary, finally came to a decision about European migration. Mr Reid decided that Bulgarians and Romanians who join the European Union are too many. We are replete of Estonians, Hungarians, Poles and the other seven nationalities that joined the European Union in 2004. Workers from the two nations that join next year will therefore represent a surfeit and Bulgarian and Romanian jobseekers are to be controlled by quotas.
Why is Mr Reid so fearful of Romanians and Bulgarians? Past experience of European migrants has been good. Britain absorbed the last wave of migrants with aplomb; Polish labour is fuelling the building trade in the South East, barely keeping a lid on construction costs while the great Olympic white elephant in East London hoovers up every spare electrician and welder. Moreover, these immigrants from the East are easily absorbed, learn English quickly and pass unnoticed. They don’t seem to want to kill us and they work like Trojans for whatever money they can get. Here is Mr Reid’s problem. The new Europeans represent competition for Britons seeking unskilled or semi-skilled jobs. And it is black and brown Britons that are particularly threatened by the pale-skinned workers from the Baltic and Black Sea. Unemployment among ethnic minorities in Britain is disproportionately high.
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