UK to Romanians and Bulgarians: Don't come here, it sucks.

[The Larch]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jan/27/uk-immigration-romania-bulgaria-ministers

Immigration: Romanian or Bulgarian? You won't like it here
Ministers consider launching negative ad campaign in two countries to persuade potential immigrants to stay away from UK


Please don't come to Britain – it rains and the jobs are scarce and low-paid. Ministers are considering launching a negative advertising campaign in Bulgaria and Romania to persuade potential immigrants to stay away from the UK.

The plan, which would focus on the downsides of British life, is one of a range of potential measures to stem immigration to Britain next year when curbs imposed on both country's citizens living and working in the UK will expire.

A report over the weekend quoted one minister saying that such a negative advert would "correct the impression that the streets here are paved with gold".

There was no word on how any advert might look or whether it would use the strategy of making Britain look as horrible as possible or try to encourage would-be migrants to wake up to the joys of their own countries whether Romania's Carpathian mountains or Bulgaria's Black Sea resorts. With governments around the world spending millions on hiring London-based consultants to undertake "reputation laundering" there would be a peculiar irony if Britain chose to trash its own image perhaps by highlighting winter flooding of homes or the carnage of a Saturday night A&E ward.

There are precedents. In 2007, Eurostar ran adverts in Belgium for its trains to London depicting a tattooed skinhead urinating into a china teacup. It remains unknown if any discussions have taken place over personalities who could carry off a similar exercise in anti-nation branding.

On Sunday a Downing Street source said: "It is true that options are being looked at but we are not commenting on the specific things mentioned ... as obviously it is an ongoing process and we will bring forward any proposals in due course."

The source also said that the government did not think the rule changes would necessarily bring a big influx of people, since Romanians have closer links to Germany and Italy rather than Britain.

Other reported options include making it tougher for EU migrants to access public services. Another is to deport those who move to Britain but do not find work within three months.

The Home Office has not produced an official estimate of how many of the 29 million Romanian and Bulgarian citizens will take advantage of their new freedoms when controls are lifted.

Campaign groups such as MigrationWatch have predicted that 250,000 will come from both countries over the next five years, although these figures are disputed. One Tory MP, Philip Hollobone, has claimed that Romanian and Bulgarian communities will treble to 425,000 within two years.

These figures have been questioned by experts, because they are based upon the numbers of Poles and Czechs who moved to Britain in in 2004. Then, only three countries opened their borders. This time, all of the 25 EU states will lift Labour market restrictions.

Buoyed by Cameron's offer of an in-out referendum, a growing number of Tory MPs now believe the UK should block the lifting of restrictions even if it were to prompt a row with the European commission.

The idea, however tentative, appears to clash with the billions of pounds Britain spent on the Olympics, partly to drive up the country's reputation. It also emerged as the Home Office launched a guide to Britishness for foreigners who would be citizens which opens with the words: "Britain is a fantastic place to live: a modern thriving society".

If this is seriously being considered I wouldn't know wether to laugh or cry.

[Ed Anger]

Foreigners are stinky.

[Caliga]

When I was in London I encountered a Romanian beggar in the street outside of some theatre (I think it was the Prince Edward).  I don't remember him smelling but he looked dirty.

[DGuller]

They didn't include Hungary? 

[HVC]

They didn't include Hungary? 

man, they can't even win at losing

[alfred russel]

They didn't include Hungary? 

Tamas has been effective at documenting how defective Hungary is, but I suspect Romania and Bulgaria are operating on a higher plane of defectiveness.

[Syt]

When I was in London I encountered a Romanian beggar in the street outside of some theatre (I think it was the Prince Edward).  I don't remember him smelling but he looked dirty.

Only one? We get lots of them in Vienna, in areas with a lot of pedestrian traffic. Mostly mangled/amputees, but also just ragged looking guys. Most of them are "hired" by gangs for organized begging. Vienna enacted a law a few years ago that stopped women to beg with children. Still, occasionally you'll get a horrifically wailing ROmanian woman in the subway showing a picture of a dead kid in a coffin. Oddly, I've met at least half a dozen of those, and they were all mourning the same child.

[Josquius]

They didn't include Hungary? 

They're too uneducated and xenophobic to migrate in great numbers to the UK.
(or rather isn't their migration focussed on Germany and Austria?)

[Martinus]

I wonder if, considering this would be a government campaign, something like this would be illegal under the EU Treaty.

Free movement of workers is one of the four treaty freedoms, like free movement of goods. Several years ago, Ireland I think ran a government-sponsored "Buy Irish" campaign, inviting Irish to buy Irish products - and this was found to violate the free movement of goods clause, because it was using state funding to achieve a result contrary to the common market.

While this is different, it is still, at the core of it, usage of state funding to discourage people acting in line with the common market principles.

[Martinus]

Anyway, Brits. You don't like free movement of workers and you don't like Schengen. You don't like the European Convention of Human Rights, the Charter of Fundamental Rights and directives on employee rights. You don't like financial markets' regulations and the financial operations tax.

Why don't you get the fuck out already and don't let the door hit you on your ass while you are at it.

[Josquius]

I don't think it violates EU law, there's always been campaigns by different countries promoting themselves, I've seen loads of visit X and invest in Y campaigns.

And don't tell us we do and don't like. The party doing all this recent anti-EU stuff is afterall a party which failed to win a majority despite the incumbent government being grossly unpopular and a major financial crisis being underway.
Euroskepticism is stronger in Britain than many other European countries but it is far from universal. We're probally not even the most euroskeptic country out there, we're just the one of the big three (why Italy never gets involved I don't know) who lean that way.

[Grinning_Colossus]

They didn't include Hungary? 

Canada did.

[HVC]

that's a fucked up language

[Jaron]

Anyway, Brits. You don't like free movement of workers and you don't like Schengen. You don't like the European Convention of Human Rights, the Charter of Fundamental Rights and directives on employee rights. You don't like financial markets' regulations and the financial operations tax.

Why don't you get the fuck out already and don't let the door hit you on your ass while you are at it.

Spoken like an Eastern European. You sound like those Mexicans that demand the US government speak Spanish and not deport illegals because it breaks up "families".

[Syt]

They didn't include Hungary? 

Canada did.

What does it say?