[size=85:13cjutc8] source The Guardian, Sunday 27 January 2013

Immigration: Romanian or Bulgarian? You won't like it here

Ministers consider launching negative ad campaign in two countries to persuade potential immigrants to stay away from UK

Please don't come to Britain – it rains and the jobs are scarce and low-paid. Ministers are considering launching a negative advertising campaign in Bulgaria and Romania to persuade potential immigrants to stay away from the UK.

The plan, which would focus on the downsides of British life, is one of a range of potential measures to stem immigration to Britain next year when curbs imposed on both country's citizens living and working in the UK will expire.

A report over the weekend quoted one minister saying that such a negative advert would "
correct the impression that the streets here are paved with gold"
.

There was no word on how any advert might look or whether it would use the strategy of making Britain look as horrible as possible or try to encourage would-be migrants to wake up to the joys of their own countries whether Romania's Carpathian mountains or Bulgaria's Black Sea resorts. With governments around the world spending millions on hiring London-based consultants to undertake "
reputation laundering"
there would be a peculiar irony if Britain chose to trash its own image perhaps by highlighting winter flooding of homes or the carnage of a Saturday night A&
E ward.

There are precedents. In 2007, Eurostar ran adverts in Belgium for its trains to London depicting a tattooed skinhead urinating into a china teacup. It remains unknown if any discussions have taken place over personalities who could carry off a similar exercise in anti-nation branding.

On Sunday a Downing Street source said: "
It is true that options are being looked at but we are not commenting on the specific things mentioned ... as obviously it is an ongoing process and we will bring forward any proposals in due course."


The source also said that the government did not think the rule changes would necessarily bring a big influx of people, since Romanians have closer links to Germany and Italy rather than Britain.

Other reported options include making it tougher for EU migrants to access public services. Another is to deport those who move to Britain but do not find work within three months.

The Home Office has not produced an official estimate of how many of the 29 million Romanian and Bulgarian citizens will take advantage of their new freedoms when controls are lifted.

Campaign groups such as MigrationWatch have predicted that 250,000 will come from both countries over the next five years, although these figures are disputed. One Tory MP, Philip Hollobone, has claimed that Romanian and Bulgarian communities will treble to 425,000 within two years.

These figures have been questioned by experts, because they are based upon the numbers of Poles and Czechs who moved to Britain in in 2004. Then, only three countries opened their borders. This time, all of the 25 EU states will lift Labour market restrictions.

Buoyed by Cameron's offer of an in-out referendum, a growing number of Tory MPs now believe the UK should block the lifting of restrictions even if it were to prompt a row with the European commission.

The idea, however tentative, appears to clash with the billions of pounds Britain spent on the Olympics, partly to drive up the country's reputation. It also emerged as the Home Office launched a guide to Britishness for foreigners who would be citizens which opens with the words: "
Britain is a fantastic place to live: a modern thriving society"
.

I would have thought that a better way to do it would be to advertise that people coming to the UK in search of 'a better' life would be entitled to exactly the same benefits, allowances and assistance given to Brits and other expats when they move to Bulgaria or Romania.

Alternatively, they could do what the French (don't you just love them) do. take their details and then say 'Come back in 6 months and we'll reassess your situation'
Ray

So the British Government are telling the Romanians and Bulgarians that they won't like the UK. In reality they aren't the only ones are they, why are there so many of us Expats living here and all over the world having got out of the UK for our own reasons!!!

[size=55:3j6wqsmh]novinite

UKIP Leader Lashes Out at Bulgaria, Triggers Controversy


The UK Independence Party leader has renewed with a vengeance his criticism of Bulgaria in a bid to fuel fears over new immigrants, coming as of 2014.

"
It is completely irresponsible, wrong and stupid to be opening up our doors next January to 29 million people from Romania and Bulgaria,"
Nigel Farage fumed on BBC's Question Time.

In his words nearly 50% of Bulgaria's population are living on or below a very low poverty line, the average monthly salary is EUR 200 a month, while the average pensioner gets EUR 100 a month.

"
This country is in a terrible state – the judiciary is not independent, the mafia basically runs the economy."


Nigel Farage went as far as to say:

"
If I were a Bulgarian, I would be packing my bags now, wanting to come to Britain"
.

Bulgarians and Romanians will gain the unrestricted right to live and work in the UK from December 2013, when temporary curbs imposed in 2005 to protect the British labor market expire.

The UK Independence Party leader urged that British people are given the opportunity to have their say on European Union membership in an in/out referendum "
very quickly."


"
We can not control immigration policy into this country and be a member of the EU,"
Farage said, cheered up by the applauses of the audience in the studio.

The British eurosceptic MP's statement on Bulgaria triggered heated debates in the country and Internet forums are overflowing with anger comments.

On Monday a young Bulgarian lady, who lived and studied in the UK and chose to go back to Bulgaria and build a career here instead of the UK, circulated to the media an Open Letter to Nigel Farage.

"
Although I try and understand your immigration concerns, I must admit that I found your comments on Bulgaria untrue and somewhat insulting. In fact, they are only reaffirming my opinion of the wrongful idea that people in the UK and around the world have about countries in Eastern Europe,"
Ralitsa Behar wrote in the open letter.

After making her case in defence of Bulgaria and Bulgarian people, Ralitsa Behar extended an invitation to Nigel Farage to visit Bulgaria as a guest of her and her family.

"
Thus we can explain to you and you can see for yourself how much the country has changed over the past 20 years;
and for you to see the potential that we have to grow even more in the future,"
Behar said.

Following is the full text of the letter:

Dear Mr. Farage,

My name is Ralitsa Behar and I am a Bulgarian.

I decided to write to you, because I was surprised by your comments on the BBC1's Question Time on January 17, 2013. As a person who is Bulgarian, lived and studied in the UK and chose to go back to Bulgaria and build a career here instead of the UK, I wanted to take a stand on your statement regarding Bulgarian and Romanian immigrants and explain why I chose to go back to my home country.

Firstly, I would like to introduce myself and explain my reasoning behind this letter. When I was 18 years-old and was finishing high-school, I decided to continue my education abroad and applied to several universities throughout the UK. I got offers from 4 universities, but finally decided to take upon the offer from the University of Edinburgh, studying BSc (Hons) Mathematics and Business Studies at the School of Mathematics. It was a very proud moment for me and my family, as at it was, and still is, one of the most elite universities, ranked number 20 in the world at that time.

I lived in Edinburgh for 4 years and finished my studies successfully, gaining a 2:1. I can say that I was one of the active students and tried to get the best out of my time in university. I was participating in university societies and their committees, I volunteered in a charity, raising funds for cancer research;
I also spend 2 months interning in firm in London, and was later on offered a job position.

I have always appreciated everything that the UK has given me. Firstly, as an EU citizen, I was supported by the Scottish government and did not pay any tuition fee. This was a huge financial relief for me and my family, although we still spent over GBP 50,000 for living expenses. As a student, I was also entitled to free healthcare service, although thankfully I never needed it as much. I also appreciate the fact that I had the opportunity to live and study in one of the best places in the world – I find Edinburgh an incredibly charming and beautiful city with great atmosphere;
and the University of Edinburgh – a truly astonishing institution with almost 500 years of history, with great teachers and amazing state-of-the-art facilities.

My strong connection to the UK is the reason why I decided to write this letter. Although I try and understand your immigration concerns, I must admit that I found your comments on Bulgaria untrue and somewhat insulting. In fact, they are only reaffirming my opinion of the wrongful idea that people in the UK and around the world have about countries in Eastern Europe.

I want to clarify, that I am far away from thinking that Bulgaria is doing as well as I hope it would be. I do not live in a bubble where I think that everything here is perfect – I understand our problems with our government, our law system, our education and healthcare systems. Living in the UK for so long only made me realise how much more we need to do, to learn and to grow to make our country better. Nevertheless, I have to disagree with some of the false information that you shared during your appearance on the show.

Firstly, the data that you stated on Bulgaria is untrue:

You said that the average monthly salary in Bulgaria is 200 Euro. According to the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria, the average monthly salary in the country for the last quarter of 2012 is 754 Levs, which is 385.5 Euro, almost double the number that you said.

You said that the average monthly pension in Bulgaria is 100 Euro. The average monthly pension for 2012 is actually 138 Euro.

You said that almost 50% of the people in Bulgaria live in poverty, however, the number is untrue;
it is about 27%, almost two times less.

I was very surprised to hear such false data as I was thinking that a politician as yourself would take the time to check this information, as it is easily accessible online in English.

Nevertheless, I must say that not only the untrue data that you stated on national television bothered me. I believe that statements such as "
If I was a Bulgarian, I would be packing my bags now, wanting to come to Britain"
are bold and somewhat inappropriate. And since you were focusing on the problems in our country and why we would choose to come live in your country, let me tell you why I chose to "
pack my bags, wanting to go back to Bulgaria"
.

Firstly, Bulgaria is a country with great potential. I am a firm believer that young people, who study abroad should come back to Bulgaria to pursue their career goals. Having a degree from a foreign university, I realised that my know-how would be much more needed here, than in the UK. After all, we are the future of our country and I believe that we are the ones who can bring this country forward.

Move forward to next page

Continue from previous page. Admin wouldn't let me print it all on one page

In this respect, I would also add that my knowledge was much more valued in Bulgaria. One cannot deny that there is fierce competition in the UK labour market and it is incredibly hard, even for young people with good education, to get jobs which will allow them to be financially independent.

Furthermore, I believe that Bulgaria provides much more opportunities for businesses. When in university, I wrote my dissertation on family businesses in Bulgaria since the fall of communism in 1989. One of the conclusions from my research was that there was, and still is great demand for the creation of small and medium enterprises in Bulgaria and one of the great benefits of doing this is the fact that we have the lowest flat tax of 10% in Europe and only a 5% dividend tax rate. Additionally, it is easy to quickly launch a nеw company in Bulgaria as the founding capital required is only 1 Euro.

I would like to say that with this letter I wanted not only to correct the false information that you stated on television;
I also wanted to explain that not all Bulgarians and Romanians that come to the UK are "
unskilled workers"
;
and even if they are, they also contribute to your economy. I also wanted to take this opportunity to invite you to visit Bulgaria as a guest of me and my family, so that we can explain to you how much our country has changed over the past 20 years and see for yourself the potential that we have to grow even more in the future.

Finally, I want to clarify that this letter was written with good intentions. I hope that it shed some light on the issues that you discussed regarding Bulgarian immigrants and I would be very thankful if I receive a reply from your behalf.

Yours sincerely,

Ralitsa Behar

Although they are not in the EU but the USA and Australia have about the best policy that I know of.

1. No job to come to = NO Entry
2. Insufficient funds to sustain one-self for a given period = NO Entry.
3. Entry visas issued for business startup schemes are for that specific business only.
4. Selling the BIG ISSUE is no longer classed as being self employed which then entitles the person to a National Insurance Number which then entitles the person to any benefits they wish to claim when they stop being self employed.

But on a more serious note, I don't blame the Bulgarians or Romanians wanting to come here to try and get a better life, or at least the genuine ones that is, not just the gypsies of the countries that have invaded us so far which have also been reported that in the last 12 months have been responsible for 'sorry I forget the number and do not want to just make one up' but just for London and Birmingham it was exceedingly high for criminal activities such as Pick-pocketing, Prostitution, Street Robberies etc etc.

Maybe this so-called bad publicity they should be giving out the true figures of the numbers of homeless people with no property to live in along with true unemployment figures and I don't just mean people registered as out of work, what needs to be included are all the people on the 'forced back to work schemes' 9Training schemes) because these people are not taken into account as being unemployed.
And how many true jobs are available.
Also how many empty properties there are that are fit to live in.

Finally, submit the figures, even just for the known numbers of Brits who have moved out of Britain to places such as Turkey, Bulgaria, Spain, France etc etc and state the reason these people will tell you, which is for a better life and better standard of living.

:Truce:

[size=85:ed7awzm9]source novinite 29.Jan 2013

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

You know the Goverments advert about the weather have got it all wrong! What they should do is take an average day from the News papers and make a show case of them depicting the violence that goes on in the streets and od people being attacked for their pension money by druggies who are out of their minds. Not to mention the gang killings in London amongst teenagers and you cannot walk the streets at night in most cities and towns uness you are very capable of looking after yourself.

Here is the reply from Nigel Farage to the young Bulgarian lady who invited Nigel Farage to go to Bulgaria and see for himself what things are like
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

One of the British newspapers stated that there were 4 Million Bulgarians that were going to go to the UK after 1st Jan 2014.

This I find very interesting as Bulgaria at present has a total population of no more than 7 Million. Now if you work out the population at least 30% will be of pensionable age this means about 2.3 million people at least the same percentage will be below 16 years of age so therefore this totals 4.6 Million people. This leaves 2.4 Million people that are of working age. I think somehow the sums don't add up

Honestly this whole thing is just hype and total rubbish.

No one has said anything about the amount of Bulgarians coming back from the UK either.

There is also the other EU Countries that BG people go to, popular one's are Germany, Spain, Italy and Greece to mention but a few.

tony said, No one has said anything about the amount of Bulgarians coming back from the UK either.

Do you know or have any idea of the figures. it would be interesting to compare with, say Poland. Three years ago we had four various size Polish supermarkets/stores in our town, now we have one. they have made their money and now gone back

Lets have no illusions about Bulgarians making their money. Out of the 5 Bulgarians we know that went to the UK 4 have returned. All have said that they could not afford to live there. One even said that he got work on a when your needed basis and mostly worked 2 days a week. Another worked as a labourer on a building site and was laid off. Hence no income and back he came but this was not first time it had happened to him.

Not sure how anyone could find the real figures but the Bulgarians do not all think that the UK is the land where the Streets are paved with gold. We also know some that have gone to Germany, France and Spain but they have not come back, as yet.

tonyb60 wrote:

Lets have no illusions about Bulgarians making their money. Out of the 5 Bulgarians we know that went to the UK 4 have returned. All have said that they could not afford to live there. One even said that he got work on a when your needed basis and mostly worked 2 days a week. Another worked as a labourer on a building site and was laid off. Hence no income and back he came but this was not first time it had happened to him.

Not sure how anyone could find the real figures but the Bulgarians do not all think that the UK is the land where the Streets are paved with gold. We also know some that have gone to Germany, France and Spain but they have not come back, as yet.

So do we assume from that information that the Bulgarians who went to Germany, France and Spain all got jobs and got paid good money and the five Bulgarians you refer to had to return to their mother land because none of them could get regular work and pay their way. If that is the case I would suggest that the UK won't be getting the influx of Bulgarians that it has been suggested will come when the borders are opened because the grass is obviously greener in the other countries mentioned in your post
I must point out that many of the Poles who came here had no problem finding work, they soon built up a reputation for being hard workers and many have now gone back much richer than when they came. I have no problems with Bulgarians coming to the UK to work if they conduct themselves in the same manner as the Poles. There are loads of job's here in the hotel/restaurant/catering business