Britain’s New Immigrants, From Romania and Bulgaria, Face Hostilities
By KIMIKO DE FREYTAS-TAMURA
When the European Union extended full employment rights to Romanians and
Bulgarians, some politicians here warned that there would be a flood of
desperate immigrants. The influx did not arrive but strained relations
did.
LONDON
— Three days after Andrei Opincaru, a 29-year-old Romanian, arrived in
Britain this year, police officers saw him smoking a cigarette on the
street. They stopped, searched and questioned him about having
marijuana.
“I
asked them: ‘What are you doing? You cannot do this to me. You’re
treating me like a criminal,’ ” he recounted. The officers, he said,
laughed and went away. “To them it was just a joke,” he said.
Mr.
Opincaru came to Britain in hopes of landing a good job by taking
advantage of newly extended employment rights for workers from Romania
and Bulgaria, which were among the latest entrants to the European
Union. But Mr. Opincaru, like other newcomers, was surprised by how
little his European citizenship did to shield him from an intense
political backlash against the employment measure.
The
tension became more apparent last month when Nigel Farage, leader of
the U.K. Independence Party, expressed discomfort at the idea of having
Romanian neighbors, suggesting there was a high level of criminality
among Romanians in Britain. “This is not to say for a moment that all or
even most Romanian people living in the U.K. are criminals,” he said.
“But it is to say that any normal and fair-minded person would have a
perfect right to be concerned if a group of Romanian people suddenly
moved in next door.”
In an interview
with LBC Radio, Mr. Farage, whose wife is German, was pressed on
whether he would feel uncomfortable with German neighbors. “I think you
know the difference,” he replied. “We want an immigration policy that is
not just based on controlling not just quantity but quality.” The
independence party, known for an anti-immigration stance, won about a
quarter of the vote in last month’s election for European Parliament
members.
Mr.
Opincaru, who found a job in construction, shares an apartment with
four Italians and two Portuguese who also came to London for work. But
he and other Romanians say they are made to feel like second-class
citizens, more so than the migrants from affluent countries in Western
Europe, despite having equal legal rights. One bank refused to let him
open an account, he said, though he provided all the required documents
and had secured a job and a national insurance number — the equivalent
of a Social Security number.
Being
a Romanian in Britain is “very, very difficult,” Mr. Opincaru said.
“They’re not treating us like other citizens from Europe,” he added.
“Wherever you go and they hear you’re Romanian, they change the music.”
When
the European Union extended full employment rights to Romania and
Bulgaria this year, allowing workers there free movement throughout
Europe, nationalist politicians warned there would be a flood of
desperate immigrants who would take jobs from native workers. Headlines
predicted a surge in crime and cheating on benefits. One Conservative
politician, Philippa Roe, said the arrival of Romanians and Bulgarians
would escalate problems like begging.
In
November, the government froze loans and other financial support for
thousands of Romanian and Bulgarian students as a “precautionary
measure.”
But
the figures published last month did not reflect an influx of migrants
from the two countries. The number of Romanians and Bulgarians working
in Britain from January to March of this year dropped to 140,000 from
144,000 in the previous quarter, according to the Office for National
Statistics. That compared with 1.7 million migrants from the rest of the
European Union working in Britain, it said.
And
not everyone has been unwelcoming. The Muswell Hill Baptist Church in
London has set up a charitable organization to help Romanian migrants.
“We should respond to them as European citizens, not per nationality,”
said Martin Stone, who leads the program. “We should grow up and not
lower ourselves to petty nationalism. We know where finger-pointing has
led to in the past.”
Part
of the antipathy today stems from previous decisions to allow
unfettered immigration from Poland and seven other Eastern European
countries immediately after they joined the European Union in 2004.
The
number of native Poles in Britain has grown tenfold since, and today
they are the second largest immigrant population, just behind Indians
and ahead of Pakistanis, who have colonial links to Britain.
This
year, the government tightened rules for migrants seeking benefits.
Migrants may not seek jobless benefits for three months after their
arrival, and they must show weekly earnings of at least $255 before they
can apply for child care, unemployment, housing or health care
benefits.
Romanians
and Bulgarians interviewed in Britain acknowledged that the benefit
system was subject to abuse and said the rules could be stricter. But
they said the government and public response to their arrival had been
disproportionate.
About
101,000 Romanians and 57,000 Bulgarians were living in Britain in 2012,
according to the latest annual residency data from the Office for
National Statistics. They gained the right to visa-free travel in 2007
when both countries joined the European Union, but they required work
permits until the beginning of this year. They were significantly fewer
than Britain’s Asian population, and fewer than the French, Irish,
Italian, and even German and American populations.
Around
23,000 Romanians and Bulgarians arrived in Britain in 2013, a threefold
increase from the previous year, according to the statistics office.
They were among the 201,000 immigrants from the European Union over all,
it said. About 134,000 British citizens left the country during the
same period.
The
number of Romanians applying for a national insurance number more than
doubled, to 47,000, in 2013 compared with the previous year, according
to the latest figures from the Department of Work and Pensions. About
18,000 Bulgarians registered. In contrast, about 102,000 Poles applied.
Despite
the tension, Romanians and Bulgarians said they were eager to make the
move to Britain. And one recruiting firm said the workers were much
needed in Britain to meet labor demands.
Companies
posted 36,285 job offers in Britain in the first quarter of the year,
according to Tjobs, a recruiting company that places Romanian workers
across Europe. Andreas Cser, the company’s president, said British
companies were having particular difficulty filling jobs in the
construction and infrastructure sectors.
Eugen
Smintina, 39, found a job with an electrical company. “I would like to
say to all English people that I come here as a Romanian citizen in your
country because I have work,” he said. “Not because of alcohol, drugs
or stealing other people’s jobs.”
Andreea
Corsei, 28, who has a law degree from Romania and arrived in London
this year to pursue a Ph.D. in criminal law, dreams of setting up a law
firm with her husband, Daniel, who is also studying law. Romanians in
Britain face “walls that are higher to climb” but also the opportunity
“to prove what you can do,” she said.COPY http://www.nytimes.com/
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