UK, Ireland / Does Irish government pay Polish workers to return to Poland? [18]

This was the idea of a member of the main opposition party called Leo Vardkar (ironically the son of an immigrant). He suggested offering one off payments to immigrant workers to return home. Ostensibly it was to reduce the social welfare bill but I'm fairly sure he was just trying to get the support of the growing number of racist neanderthals in this country. I dont know why no-one pointed out to him that they could just take the money, go home and then immediately return as is their right as EU citizens.

UK, Ireland / Does Irish government pay Polish workers to return to Poland? [18]

Well I thought we were talking about Ireland here not Britain. Yes the British/Irish do have the exact same rights as other EU citizens i.e. they have the right to live and work in any other member state. Irish voters were well aware of this when we voted to join the European Union. For the first 20 years of our membership we were quite happy to take EU developement funds to rebuild our country but now that we're one of the wealthier nations some Irish people seem to think we have no obligations to newer, poorer member states who find themselves in exactly the same position as we were. Not to mention the fact that up until this year immigrant workers were essential to the growth of the Irish economy. Evidence from the Lisbon treaty campaigns in Ireland suggests that anti-immigration attitudes wereone of the main contributors to the No win.

UK, Ireland / Does Irish government pay Polish workers to return to Poland? [18]


I'm sorry but thats a huge exaggeration. The standard of living in Britain, even among the poorest classes, is something that most people in the world can only dream of. And speaking in Ireland's case, I challange you to find someone who isn't better off financially now when our population is 12% foreign-born than 15 years ago when we were the most ethnically homogenous country in Europe.

As for your claim that Polish workers will sign on to the dole, why would they choose to do this when they could instead return home at a time when their country has a severe labour shortage, especially in the construction sector. Living on the dole would mean their disposable income would drop below what they could earn at home, among family and friends. The reason for the huge levels of migration after the asscession was the huge discrepancy in wages/costs between Poland and Ireland/Britain. Now that wages/costs in Poland are at a much improved level (and improving all the time) you will see Polish migrants returing home to work rather than stay in Britain on the dole.

It's the same reason why there aren't huge numbers of Greeks and Portuguese working here. Even though the average wage here is higher than there, the discrepancy isnt great enough to draw people away from their homws and families.