HOSTILITY TOWARDS EASTERN EUROPEAN (EE) IMMIGRANTS IN THE UK FROM Essay

HOSTILITY TOWARDS EASTERN EUROPEAN (EE) IMMIGRANTS IN THE UK FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES - Essay Example Seventy percent of the increase in these ten years is attributed to immigration. About half of the foreigners come from Eastern Europe with Romania and Bulgaria having the highest number (Autonomous Nonprofit Organization, 2013). In the year 2012, reports published by Migration Watch showed about 80,000 people have been crossing the UK borders annually in search of better employment opportunities (Doyle & Chapman, 2014). This is a population which is roughly the size of the Borough of Tower of Hamlets. Immigrants continue to queue at the airports to get access into the country. Based on these trends and numbers, it is anticipated that more people, including those without work permits, will flock the country. Riley-Smith (2013) says that majority of these individuals are attracted by the prospects of getting better pay than what they used to get in their motherland. A foreigner working in the UK is able to get about four or five times what they were earning in their countries even at the minimum UK wage (Robila, 2013). Some stakeholders have raised the concern as people coming from Eastern Europe have lower employment rates in Britain. A clear look at the unemployment data reveals that this is an over magnified phenomenon. It is true that some foreigners find it had getting jobs in the UK (Riley-Smith, 2013). However most of them are those who lack work permits or are in the country illegally. According to Portes (2013), some UK leaders have called for the eventual restriction of ability of migrants moving to the country. Such stands are influenced by the mounting fear that the increase in the number of foreigners is limiting employment opportunities for the British citizens. This is a valid stand when one looks at the employment statistics of the skilled workers coming to the UK from East Europe. Majority of the immigrants are young and active than the average British