Immigration: Should the borders be opened on Jan 1st 2014 to Romania and Bulgaria?
Immigration: Should the borders be opened on January 1st 2014 to Romania and Bulgaria?
On the 1st of January 2014, the borders of the United Kingdom will be opening to Romania and Bulgaria - both EU member states - due to EU rules. Despite both countries joining the EU a number of years ago, the reason why the borders have not opened until now to the UK is because the last Labour Government secured a 7-year stop gap which extended the amount of time that the UK could opt out of the opening of the borders to both countries.
A lot of noise has been made in the run-up to the opening of the borders by Nigel Farage of UKIP, the Labour Party and the Conservative backbenchers that HM Government should do something or halt the opening of the borders - the problem is, due to EU legalities the British Government has no choice other than to withdraw from the EU. Other concerns on opening up the borders concern crime figures for the Roma, housing shortages, youth unemployment and healthcare.
The numbers expected to come are unknown - and the Government are refusing to say how many they predict due to the last government predicting 13,000 Poles a year which ended up with over 800,000 over a period of 5 years. This time the Government say not as many will come as the situtation is different, but MigrationWatch are predicting around 50,000 a year. The Government and supporters of opening the borders argue essentially that only a small number will come into the UK and that the media and other political parties such as UKIP are scaremongering.
But what do you think? Should the borders be opened up to Romania and Bulgaria or are opposition parties like Labour and UKIP right to warn about the dangers of having a total open border policy to 29m very poor people?
Quote:
There are plenty of nifty prizes to be won within this forum. Positive contributions towards official debates will sometimes be rewarded with a month's VIP subscription in a colour of your choice as part of the Top Contributor award. As well as this, reputation will be awarded throughout the debate to those who make valid and constructive posts. Those who make the best contributions within a month win the Debater of the Month award and wins themselves a month's worth of forum VIP and 10 reputation points. Finally, those who create debate topics that generate a lot of buzz and engaging discussion will receive 20 reputation points.
The debate is open to you.