Not that long ago the British society was full of worries, thinking that after expanding the European Union, the newcomers would stream in to the country, pushing down the salaries and trying to get the social benefits.

(The so-called “old EU members” had the right to make their own decisions about their policy on the workforce flow from new EU countries, and the United Kingdom was one of the countries, that did not set restrictions. Actually it did not set restrictions on workforce flow, but there are restrictions on who is and who is not entitled to get the social benefits- people from new EU countries are not entitled.)
Some of the more radical expectations were about loads of Eastern European beggars entering the United Kingdom.

Some others predicted that nothing major would change, except for even more nations’ children will walk around and enjoy the fabulous London weather.

Six months after expanding the EU, let’s see how things turned out.

The quantity of the people who came over from new EU countries since May is not alarmingly high. They definitely cannot affect anything major on the job market.

But there are more people from former Eastern Block countries these days in London for sure. This is simply because now they are allowed to stay and work legally. Is this a problem? Definitely not in case they really live and work legally here, just like citizens of any other countries who are entitled to do so.
The problem are people, who come over without a real chance to get employed, people who do not speak English and do not have any skills what would make them competitive on the job market. These people will just wander around, eventually hopelessly, aimlessly. This is not good for anyone.
This is disturbing for Londoners (probably a small issue compared to the problems of people without money and a job in London). And it is disturbing for other citizens of these new EU countries as well, as nobody wants to be judged by the acts of his fellow-countryman (unless it is a positive judgement of course…)

But unavoidable, this incident creates some prejudices towards everyone from the new EU countries in Londoners’ mind and that is something very awkward for other people from these countries too.
And naturally it is very unpleasant for these unemployed people.

So why do they still come over?

They might hope for a better life, but everyone has to realize that entering a foreign country with the intention of being employed is more than stupid without speaking the given language properly.
Anyway, London proved its magnificence and opened the doors.

Now there is a chance for the newcomers to prove that they deserve this gesture and that their only affect is making London’s society even more colourful.