I haven't discussed integration of EU migrants in my posts....
Its not strictly true that Eastern Europeans came here to do jobs that couldn't be filled by British workers. Many of the jobs were deliberately devalued and workers recruited on the continent to fill them. Those workers were housed by the companies...who bought up cheap properties as an investment...housed 3/4 workers on subsidised peppercorn rent or free (tax deductible). Those workers could then claim WTC and child benefit for the family back home. Their wages were roughly twice what they were paid back home and most sent more than half their wages back to their family....spending only on their basic needs. a UK worker doesn't get subsidised rent and cannot support their family living here on astronomic rent. Whilst it's true they do pay NI most don't earn enough to pay tax...or only a small amount. The companies will subsequently sell these properties ....probably at a profit even after tax.
The fact is when figures for EU migrants are quoted in respect of tax and NI....it is quite true that they pay in more than they take out BUT....those figures include company directors, premiership footballers, football managers, pilots, consultants, nurses, etc ....all of whom earn ( some very sizeable) taxable income but are not those who have been flooding into the country to take up jobs at the lower end of the scale.
The cost of housing and low pay is a very serious problem. The government has tried to alleviate the situation by raising the minimum wage and transferring it to a living wage but subsidised housing for EU migrants means that the rent gets deducted from wages ...effectively lowering the pay. All of this makes EU migrants more attractive than British workers. Many jobs are not even advertised here. Construction gangs are usually all one nationality so there is no communication problem. Similar applies to shipping/dredging companies who used to hire British seamen but refuse to now (although based here and working in our coastal waters nearly all are flagged out). The knock on effect is to create local skills shortages and denying jobs to school leavers who cannot compete,
There is less of a problem of integration with EU migrants as most do learn English at school but such is the problem of volume of migrants in some areas that even normal local businesses such as hairdressing, local shops etc, now require Polish or Russian speakers.
I think it's about time the myth of lazy British workers is put to bed. No doubt some exist but I think it is largely a smokescreen created by businesses who have seen ways and means to exploit the pecuniary advantage of employing Eastern Europeans! It's interesting that none of these problems existed before the old Eastern Bloc countries were admitted into the EU. We were not inundated by French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish etc...although one of the first to exploit the cheap EU labour market with subsidised housing in my area was P&O Ferries (although it ultimately backfired on them!) with Portuguese after they sacked the British crews (except on the Bilbao service where the Spanish half of the crew refused to sail with them!). We have never fought for our British jobs in the same way that they do in France and Spain....since the unions were smashed by Thatcher. However the huge influx of Eastern Europeans can be blamed on Blair....he had the option to initially cap the numbers entering the country as other EU countries did....but declined....
"CONFUSION WILL BE MY EPITAPH...."
