With the alarm bells already ringing for the British government over the impact of Bulgarian and Romanian workers on the country’s economy, a new finding shows that these immigrants could be nine times better off by moving to the UK next year.
The findings by the MigrationWatch think-tank come amid deepening concern about the number of migrants who may arrive after Britain’s borders and labour market are open for Romanian and Bulgarian citizens in January 2014.
The report is based on minimum wage and benefit levels in Britain and eastern European countries, as well as purchasing-power parity, providing an accurate measure of living standards. It found a family of one worker with a dependent wife and two children would earn the equivalent of 70 pounds a week on the minimum wage in Romania.
In England, where the minimum wage would be boosted by housing, council tax and child benefits, as well as tax credits, the family’s income would be 543 pounds a week. Income supplements in the form of working tax and child tax credits would provide the family with 152 pounds each week, more than double their income in Romania.
Similarly, Bulgarian workers earning the minimum wage with a family and two children would take home 543 pounds a week in the UK, compared with the equivalent of just 62 pounds back at home, an analysis by the campaign group found.
The MigrationWatch has estimated that 50,000 Romanians and Bulgarians will come to Britain every year for five years from 2014. Taking into account the differences in the cost of living, the report also found the economic incentives for Bulgarian and Romanian workers to move to the UK were about twice those for Polish workers.
“With the success of the Polish workers well known to them, it is hard to imagine that the UK would not prove an attractive prospect,” the report said. “The financial incentives to migrate to the UK from both Bulgaria and Romania are very strong, much more so than in the case of Poland.” Sir Andrew Green, the pressure group’s chairman, added, “The wage differences turn out to be simply stunning.”
