"AFamily for Every Child" Director, Jane Snaith, explains the pressure on families in central European countries of one or both parents being required to work abroad for long periods of time.
It is generally recognised that migration from the EU has put pressure on countries like Britain that has reached crisis levels - but what about the problems caused in teh countries who are losing the labour?
As individuals, British people generally like people from most central European countries. When we discuss Britains problems with them, they tend to be pretty much on our side of the debate. You know how conversations on street stalls tend to be: young Poles tend to be more British-patriotic than young British people.
The problem with the EU movement of Labour is not the man, it is the system.
The EU Free Movement of Labour is not a "Right" for citizens: it is a mechanism by which large employers deploy labour for their own best profit.
Now watch the interview with Jane. Her English is very good, the film runs to over ten minutes but it is structured to pause and take notes. The film is a bit open university in its style but, hey, this is your homework.
Generally speaking, people from central Europe who are in Britain are very pro-British. They are not the kind of immigrants who hate this country, are they?
People do not come to Britain because they want to live ten to a room and do menial work, they would much sooner be in their home country with their families ... but the EU system does not allow this to work.
Apart from the human cost consider these factors in conversations with voters:
- people in Poland or Estonia did not sign up to the EU so that their countries could become pools of cheap labour, no, they hoped that the EU would build up their own countries economies. This has not happened – partly because EU is obsessed with vanity projects such as the Euro and does not care much about the happiness of little kids.
- whole counties in some countries are becoming totally de-populated. Only pensioners and administrators live there now.
- there is a terrible brain drain, especially in such sectors as healthcare. People pay taxes to train doctors and nurses to look after them when they are old and ill. They get old and all the doctors have been stolen by the NHS who seem incapable of training their own nurses.
- the economy becomes addicted to remittances sent home by these workers. It becomes a major export in the absence of a developing economy.
but worst of all is the harm it is doing to Britain. Instread of investing and increasing productivity, we are feeding the economy with more and more cheap labour. This is turning Britain into a low-wage, low productivity economy. The sheer pressure of population forces up housing costs and infrastructure difficulties - while keeping wages low (as Lord Rose of Britain Stronger in Europe famously celebrates)