In the last few months, with the elections around the corner, in England the public debate is focusing on finding a solution to stop the waves of EU migrants. There is a growing concern that they may have a negative impact on British welfare. Perhaps, conservatives and Eurosceptics miss something? What about the impact of the British retired people moving to the Spanish sun?
Increasing number of British retired people in Spain
Lloret de Mar and Marbella are the favourites places of English people, not just for holidays, but to live. A recent article of the Economist reports an interesting study from researchers of the University College London on EU migration. The researchers affirm that introudicing new limits on the access to the welfare for Eu migrants will have more impact on the old English people in Spain than the young Europeas who invade UK. Given that more than half of British are more than 50 years old in Spain. In a research of 2008, it seems that in Costa Blanca, where there is a high a share of British, there was a higher number of hospitalisation of English people than their Spanish neighbours. That’s also because the cost of healthcare in Spain is cheaper than UK. In 2012 the cost of EU migrants on Spanish welfare was around 1 billion of euro. France too tried to limit some British expats’ access to its health insurance system.
In the global competition for talent Europe must focus on immigration
Europe is divided between countries with a high unemployment rate and countries where there is a gap of skills. EU Migration plays a key role to fill this gap, affirms the think tank Bruegel in a recent study. In the long run this will not be sufficient to close gaps in European labour markets, but many Europeans are still not ready to accept more international migrants. People, day by day, are more and more attracted by the political parties that promise to reduce immigration, such the Tories and Ukip in UK.
Three are the main challenges identified from the research to make Europe more competitive: organising political majorities in favour of more proactive migration policies; making Europe more attractive for people with talent and skills; moving away from unilateral migration policies towards negotiated win-win solutions aiming at reducing the costs of, and enhancing the welfare gains from, migration and remittances.
Terrorism, restrictions to the freedom of movement in the EU
The EU freedom of movement is facing an hard time. After the recent terroristic attacks, countries like France and Spain would like to review the Schengen agreement of movement for security reasons. Bernard Cazeneuve, French minister, said “the current EU laws are not sufficient to fight against terrorism”. While Angelino Alfano, Italian Home Affairs minister, said that Schengen represents “an achievement of freedom, let’s not come back to the past”. Marine Le Pen , President of the Front National party, leading the populism vibes and the terrorism fears said “France needs to take the control of its borders, the freedom of movement means opening the doors to the robbers”. Coming back to the past would mean satisfy the terrorists aim to make Europe afraid, living in terror and hate.
In the last few months, with the elections around the corner, in England the public debate is focusing on finding a solution to stop the waves of EU migrants. There is a growing concern that they may have a negative impact on British welfare. Perhaps, conservatives and Eurosceptics miss something? What about the impact of the British retired people moving to the Spanish sun?
