Post by Focus on Feb 19, 2013 7:03:18 GMT
Romanian families migrating to Britain next year could be almost eight times better off here working for the minimum wage, a study revealed yesterday.
Similar families from Bulgaria could increase their living standards nearly ninefold, according to the report.
The findings by the MigrationWatch think-tank come amid deepening concern about the numbers of migrants who may arrive after Britain’s borders and labour market are thrown open to citizens of Romania and Bulgaria in January.
Romanian families migrating to Britain next year could be almost eight times better off here working for the minimum wage, a study revealed yesterday
Ministers have come under fire for failing to produce estimates of the levels of immigration expected from the two countries, which joined the EU in 2007 and whose citizens will next year be allowed to travel and work anywhere in Europe.
Before Poland and seven other eastern European countries joined in 2004, Whitehall said 13,000 people a year would come to Britain. Since then, a million and a half migrants from the eight countries are thought to have worked here.
The MigrationWatch report said living standards for Polish families on the minimum wage were four times higher in Britain than in their country – just half the advantage that migration will offer to Romanians and Bulgarians.
The think-tank’s chairman, Sir Andrew Green, said: ‘Given that the economic incentives for Romanian and Bulgarian workers are twice those enjoyed by Polish workers, it would be absurd to suggest there will not be a significant inflow.’
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 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 a week.
Income supplements in the form of working tax and child tax credits would provide the family with £152 of their income each week – more than double their income in Romania.
The family would also be entitled to apply for social housing, at a time when council and housing association accommodation is heavily oversubscribed and one in five socially owned homes in London, for example, are currently occupied by households headed by foreign citizens.
MigrationWatch think-tank findings come amid deepening concern about the numbers of migrants who may arrive after Britain's borders and labour market are thrown open to citizens of Romania and Bulgaria in January
A similar family from Bulgaria would also have £543 a week in Britain, compared with just £62 a week in their country.
The study found that a single Romanian would get £254 on the minimum wage in this country, compared with £55 at home.
The report said: ‘Even a family earning an average wage in Bulgaria and Romania could be three or four times better off if working in the UK at the minimum wage.
‘There would also be considerable opportunities for financial savings, a key driver of migration from eastern Europe.’
MigrationWatch has estimated that 50,000 Romanians and Bulgarians will come to Britain every year for five years from 2014.
Earlier this month the German Association of Cities warned the Government that an influx of Bulgarian and Romanian migrants had led to an increase in organised crime in Germany -- And there you have it in black and white!! - Fx 
