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Poland warns against deporting its workers: hypocrisy? [35]
Okay ... as a Dutch (although living in Poland) here is my two pennies worth:
The Netherlands is a small country. At the moment 170.000 Polish people are in the Netherlands. On a population of 16 million. That's over 1% of the population; it would be like there are almost 400.000 Dutch in Poland ... given that Poland is generally known for its friendliness towards foreigners, I guess it would cause some concern over here as well.
Especially if -in some cases- over 40% of people in homeless shelters would be Dutch, as is the case with regard to Poles in the Netherlands. The plan is that people from the EU (not only Poles or Bulgarians or Rumanians) will be expelled if they are without a job for over three months. To be honest, I can't see anything wrong with that. They will still receive social welfare during that period.
Then, if people commit crimes, they will be considered as "persona non grata". Anything wrong with that? Don't think so. Then, when one is eligable for social security, one should agree to attend an integration course. That means learning about the country, a little bit of its history, who-is-who in state and local authorities and learning the language. Anything wrong with that if a person decides to spend his life in a country? Don't think so.
Lastly, people who want to work in the Netherlands are to be required to register with the local authority. I had to do the same thing when I moved to Wroclaw. And I only got a 3 month registration to begin with. Why is that Poles cry foul when they expect the same from foreigners wanting to settle in their country?!
The reason behind this registration-rule: people use local resources, so they should pay taxes (like the rest of "us"), and this way you prevent abusing these workers by stuffing them with 15 people in a one-family home (which now happens all too often). This way the state also has a better grip on rogue temporary job agencies which try to make an extra bob with these practices.
Again ... it's not about Poles. It's about everyone from the EU.
I'm sure to be getting a lot of flag and abuse, but again - I see nothing wrong with stricter rules. More liberal rules were tried, but unfortunately they failed. Too much abuse, too many people falling through the cracks and ending up in homeless shelters or drunk in front of railway stations, shopping centres and what have you.
One question: suppose I, as a foreigner in Wroclaw, would be drunk on Rynek all the time, going out stealing and exhibiting other unruly behaviour, being arrested by the police on a regular basis, and it would not only be me but quite a few "other EU-nationals" (like Brits, Germans, French, Spanish, etc) living over here. What would be the reaction of the people in Wroclaw? What would happen to me/us?
