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rfmcdonaldBy Alan Travis, the article "Flow of jobseekers from eastern Europe dwindles" from The Guardian:
Well. One can hope that Britain will be able to endure this Polish-Lithuanian invasion.
The number of people from the EU's new east European member countries coming to Britain to work has already peaked, according to the first official figures published yesterday.
Data for the first two months since enlargement of the EU on May 1 shows that 24,000 people signed up with the government's worker registration scheme.
The immigration minister, Des Browne, said just over 8,000 of them appeared to be new arrivals. At least 14,400 were in the country before May 1 and had taken the opportunity to "regularise" their position.
Figures for the last two weeks in June are 25% below those for late May, suggesting that the number of people registering has already peaked.
The Guardian revealed yesterday that new migrants from Poland were leaving Britain in droves, with about 8,000 returning home since May 1 after being confronted with low-paid jobs, high living costs and Polish criminal gangs attempting to steal their passports and savings.
Home Office data shows that those who have registered are overwhelmingly young and single.
Most are from Poland (59%), followed by Lithuania (17%) and Slovakia (8%). They work predominantly in the hospitality and catering, administration and management and farming industries.
[. . .]
The Office for National Statistics said the number of people from the EU's eight new east European member countries coming to Britain had risen 25% from 79,000 in May 2003 to 99,000 this year, but that figure included tourists and students.
Well. One can hope that Britain will be able to endure this Polish-Lithuanian invasion.
