Brexit IMO 1

Scapegoating

If I was asked for a single reason for the bad reputation of the EU in the UK, I would answer: decades of scapegoating. To put it briefly: (i) every time the EU does something good for the UK (for example, money from the EU builds a new hospital or EU regulation forces the UK government to provide more nursery places), UK politicians (from the prime minister, to ministers, MPs and the local council members) will take the credit for it, (ii) when some bad or unpopular laws or regulations are passed (whether by incompetence or to protect some shadowy interests) the blame is put entirely in the EU. UK politicians constantly blame the EU for any unpopular measures, most often than not blatantly lying. And nobody corrects them or, if they do, these corrections hardly ever make headlines.

The most serious example of these lies or omissions is the problem of freedom of movement in the EU. Most UK politicians agree that this is the main reason behind the Brexit vote (whether this is true or not and whether these politicians believe this is true or not is a different matter). This is a unique situation: the UK is actually the only country in the EU where people have a problem with migration within the EU. If you check, the populist right in every other European country is against immigration from outside the EU (which gets much less attention in the UK), but has no problem with freedom of movement inside the EU. There is a very good reason for this, but you will find very few people within the UK who actually are aware of it.

The reason is that when Eastern European countries entered the EU there was already complete freedom of movement within the EU countries. However those countries were excluded from it for 7 long years. During those years the economies of these countries were strengthened until there was no longer reason to fear mass migration from poor Eastern to rich Western countries. There were two reasons to avoid this mass migration effect:
  1. to protect the labour market in rich countries from the pressure of a large number of workers who were willing to accept low salaries and bad working conditions;
  2. to protect the fragile economies of Eastern European countries.
The latter may be a surprise for people who read the tabloid press in the UK (and elsewhere), but the undeniable truth about migration is that it mostly benefits the countries that receive migrants, but causes unmeasurable damage to their countries of origin. The reason for this is quite simple to explain: most migrants are young, healthy individuals that are willing to work hard and sacrifice to improve their livelihoods. These people contribute greatly to the economy of the countries they live in. Their children and the children of their children will continue to do so in the decades to come.

However, against EU policy and uncaring of the interest of weaker countries, the UK government allowed complete freedom of movement from these countries the moment they joined the EU. The reason may have been (I am just guessing) that Tory party donors benefited from a workforce that was willing to accept even lower salaries and worse working and living conditions than those that were already the rule in the UK before these people arrived. The result of this policy was exactly what was predicted, mass migration from Poland and other Eastern European countries into the UK. Workers who were willing to accept low salaries and worse working conditions, which, together with the lack of proper regulation and protection of worker's rights*, led to an increase of social problems. One of the reasons for the current atmosphere of resentment towards Polish and other European immigrants in the UK.

Whose fault? The EU? Definitely not! The UK government alone. The same government that claims to want to protect UK workers by stopping freedom of movement from other EU countries. My guess is that they only want to protect the privileges of Tory party donors who demand a workforce with little rights so they can exploit them better. Hence the hostile environment (which may deport a minority, but keeps the majority within borders, but subject to easier exploitation).

* Speaking of regulation and protection of worker's rights, I have a message for Mr. Corbyn and all other well-intentioned members and supporters of the Labour Party. It is not freedom of movement within the EU that is responsible for the deterioration of working class quality of life in the UK, but lack of the protections that are the responsibility of lawmakers. Want proof of this? Look at all other European countries. How to fix this problem? Is it not your job to fight for better protection of worker's rights through better legislation and regulation? Have you forgotten your mission and the reason you call yourselves the Labour Party? Shame on you to join the Tories and the far right blaming the EU and scapegoating its immigrants, instead of fighting for the improvement of national policies. This country needs better labour laws and better public services (namely, education, health, justice and transportation). And even more so, social policies that actually remove people from the cycle of poverty, instead of only distributing bread crumbs that barely allow them to survive.

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