East European workers quit UK to head home

East European workers quit UK to head home

British employers are hit by labour shortages as Romania and Poland start to win back migrants

• Toby Helm, Whitehall editor
• The Observer,
• Sunday September 21 2008
• Article history

Romania to launch a campaign to lure tens of thousands of its key workers and students back from Britain by telling them their long-term economic and professional prospects could be brighter in their homeland.

The action by the Romanian government - which is emphasising the high cost of living in the UK and the falling value of the pound - is the opening shot in a 'competition for labour' that could see UK companies and the NHS suffer a serious loss of manpower to former communist states over coming months.

Poland - with more than one million citizens in the UK - has drawn up similar plans to encourage so-called 'reverse migration', advertising the attractions of its own economy in English and Polish newspapers in this country and offering special loans to help those who return.

Ion Jinga, the Romanian ambassador in London, told The Observer that he wanted to encourage Romanians to take a pride in helping their own country to develop, rather than see them move permanently to the UK.

Romania, which enjoyed 8 per cent economic growth in the first half of this year, is suffering from acute labour shortages caused by an exodus of workers following its accession to the European Union in 2007.

Next month the Romanian embassy will stage a conference for Romanian students in London at which it will promote the benefits of returning home after their studies. It has 50,000 workers in this country, among them many doctors, nurses and construction workers whose skills are now in high demand at home.

Jinga said a number of factors including the high cost of renting homes in the UK and the falling value of the pound had to be weighed against the benefits of higher salaries in the UK. 'Salaries are not everything,' he said. 'It is brilliant to work and live in England, but there are important incentives for returning.' He added: 'We cannot afford to lose our best brains.'

Although Jinga insists he is working closely with the British government, the Romanians' action will be seen by many as a counter-attack against the UK in response to special 'transition' rules that London imposed on Romania and Bulgaria when the countries joined the EU in January 2007.

Because of concerns about the level of immigration at the time, Tony Blair's government imposed a seven-year programme of restrictions under which Romanian and Bulgarian citizens had to apply for jobs in specific sectors in order to work in this country. Previously people from new EU entrant countries had been allowed in without any restrictions.

Romania and Bulgaria felt victimised. Although they are still working for the restrictions to be lifted - and for better conditions for those working here - their main thrust is now to make sure as many skilled people as possible remain in their homeland.

Already there is evidence that British industry is suffering as eastern Europeans begin to return home. A recent report by the Institute for Public Policy Research suggests that 540,000 of the adult migrants who have come from the EU's new member states have already returned.

A spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses said: 'It will be worrying for many companies if there is a wholesale movement back home.' Originally it was envisaged that Romanian construction workers would play an essential role in building the stadium and village for the 2012 London Olympics.