Article from the Times Online discusses the influx of workers from eastern EU to the UK. Not as many plumbers as they worried about, but "skilled laborers" did include 10 circus performers. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1748221,00.html
August 24, 2005
Few Polish plumbers, but eastern influx tops 230,000
By Richard Ford, Home Correspondent
MORE than 230,000 Eastern European migrants have applied to work in Britain since the expansion of the European Union last year, according to a government report published yesterday.
The figure is 18 times higher than estimates given in a Home Office study predicting the number of people from the former Soviet bloc states who would seek work in Britain.
But the much discussed phenomenon of the �Polish plumber� � partially blamed for the defeat in France of a referendum on the proposed EU constitution � appears to be little more than a myth.
The study shows that only 95 plumbers and heating engineers were among the hundreds of thousands arriving in Britain to take low-paid and low-skilled work. The arrival of mainly young, single people from eight Eastern Europe countries has caused a small, but significant, increase in unemployment among the native British population.
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1748221,00.html