Last week I travelled to Scotland for meetings with members of the Scottish government, local authorities in Edinburgh and Oban and representatives of Romanian communities. My interlocutors made no reference to a "Romanian invasion" which might take their jobs or put pressure on the social and health services next year. On the contrary, I was told Romanians are well integrated and highly valued in the host communities.
On the way back to London, I stopped for lunch in the Lake District. The waiter, Paul (from Leicester), was quite well informed about Romania (football players, Carpathian Mountains, Black Sea etc.) and confessed he learned it from his Romanian colleagues: "There were three Romanians here, but two of them went back to Romania". "Did they leave because they could not adapt to the local environment?" I asked. "Oh! No, sir! They are very hard workers and were regarded as being English as I am. They were homesick that is why they left".
But back in London, I read again in the media that "UK is first choice of young Romanians" and this is "equivalent to 720,000 people". I could only smile, because Migration Watch has previously advanced a number of 50,000 every year, so maybe this last prediction covers the next 12-13 years…
Romanians in the UK
