Editor's comment: Eastern promise?

The "threat" of invasion by hordes of east European immigrants continues to cause agitation in the right-wing press and much frothing at the mouth by the 'little Englander' brigade in general.

The existing "problem", they insist, will only get worse when Romania and Bulgaria join the EU next January, if the European Commission decides not to delay their entry by a year on 27 September.

All this alarmist shrieking does have an effect on perception: of the 2,000 people polled for the Tonight With Trevor McDonald programme recently, eight out of 10 said migrants took jobs from British workers. Others, perhaps rather better informed, argue that this is very far from the reality. The Immigration Advisory Service says "employers are crying out for immigrants from eastern Europe because they just can't fill jobs in all kinds of parts of the country, all kinds of sectors of the economy".

One of those sectors is all too obviously the construction industry, which is heavily dependent on foreign labour. This dependency is most acute in London and the South East, where it seems employers are particularly reluctant to take on apprentices and train homegrown operatives. The CITB reports that it is lucky to place one apprentice per 100 workers in London, as opposed to six or seven per 100 in the North and Scotland.

It says that nearly 80% of the workforce is self-employed in the South, which means a high percentage is going to be made up of foreign labour.

The construction industry has a skills shortage. It is apparently unwilling, or unable, to train British people. Clearly it needs foreign workers, so shouldn't construction employers and organisations be following the lead of the hospitality and agricultural industries and arguing vociferously that the UK must keep its doors open to immigrant workers?

[Contract Journal, 6 September 2006, p 56]