Exploding the myth of Polish plumbers

By Dick Leonard

Date: 13/10/05

How many Polish plumbers have come to France and other EU15 countries, undercutting the wages of native workers and boosting unemployment figures? Far fewer than the public (and French and Dutch voters in particular) seem to believe, while the predicted massive increase in migration from Eastern Europe has just not happened, states a report by the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS).

Written by Julianna Traser and entitled Who's afraid of EU enlargement?, it reviews the situation a year after the entry of the eight countries. Unfortunately, five of the EU15 states (Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Portugal) did not provide any information, so the survey is restricted to the remaining ten 'old' members and the eight new ones.

Cyprus and Malta are also excluded, as their citizens were granted unrestricted access to EU labour markets from Day One of their membership. The other eight new members were made subject to transitional measures that the EU15 countries were permitted to apply, running at most until 2011. Only Sweden chose not to do so (see box).

The report does show that the three countries applying no restrictions received more immigrants than the others, but the flow was much less than anticipated, was confined mostly to 'hard to fill' jobs, and there was no evidence that it led to any increase in unemployment. The much touted 'benefit tourists' notably failed to put in an appearance. Sweden, for example, which received some 21,800 workers up to the end of December 2004, paid out only a total of EUR 18,000 in social assistance.

Although Ireland, which suffers from serious labour shortages, was the most popular target country, in proportion to its own population, it was the UK which received the largest number of migrant workers. The official estimate was 175,000, or 0.4% of the labour force, though research by a German-based think-tank suggests that the real figure is far lower - around 50,000.

Of the migrants to the UK, 82% were aged 18-34, 60% were male and only 5% of the registered workers had dependents in their charge. Large numbers of Polish and Czech electricians, plasterers, bricklayers and carpenters were recruited for the construction industry, which suffers from severe labour shortages. The British National Health Service also took advantage of the opportunity to recruit highly qualified staff for posts it was finding difficult to fill.

Many fewer job-seekers came to France, which issued only 9,994 work permits to nationals of the new member states between May and December 2004. Nor was this surprising, as, for example, only 3% of Poles claim to speak French, while 21% speak English and 16% German.

Another reason why few East Europeans have come to work in France is the formidable bureaucratic barriers that they face. Yet the main reason is the booming economies of the new member states, whose growth rate is twice that of the EU15.

This appears to be repeating the experience of Spanish and Portuguese membership, when severe transitional measures were imposed and were later found to be unnecessary as both Spain and Portugal experienced enhanced growth, helped by the structural programmes of the EU. Both these countries now import as much labour as they export.

The Commission is required to report in 2006 on the effect, so far, of the transitional measures. The ECAS report is valuable, but its lack of resources and imperfect access to national statistics, must to some extent limit its validity.

Unfortunately, it will probably only be when countries like France and Germany have taken the necessary painful steps to remedy their unemployment problems that the scapegoating of Eastern European workers will come to an end.

Analysis feature takes a look at a report on the free movement of workers in the EU-25, published by the European Citizen Action Service on 10 August 2005 under the title 'Who’s afraid of EU enlargement?' The report, drawing on data from 10 old and 8 new Member States, came to the conclusion that the predicted massive increase in migration from Eastern Europe to the old Member States has had just not happened. Author suggests that the report is valuable but that the lack of resources and imperfect access to national statistics to some extent limit its validity.

ECAS: Publications: Report on the free movement of workers in the EU-25. Who's afraid of EU enlargement? September 2005 http://www.ecas.org/file_uploads/810.pdf

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