Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2013-10-22-Speech-2-543-000"
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"en.20131022.42.2-543-000"2
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"Mr President, I am very glad the Commission has made this statement and that I have an opportunity to reply. It is time for us to bring some evidence-based clarity into this discussion on EU citizens’ mobility and Member States’ welfare systems, instead of allowing the Eurosceptics to band around misleading statistics and inflammatory arguments, which are sometimes used by UKIP and Tory Eurosceptics in the UK as a reason for the UK to leave the EU.
Last week in the UK, a newspaper article claimed that there are 600 000 unemployed EU migrants living in the UK. In fact the latest figure shows that there are just 38 000 EU nationals in the UK claiming job-seekers allowance. The initial inflated shocking press-worthy statistic actually included schoolchildren, students, pensioners and stay-at-home parents. It has also recently been revealed that there are approximately 10 000 Brits currently drawing unemployment benefit in Germany, so it does work both ways.
In addition, Eastern European migrants have paid 37 % more in taxes than they have received in government spending and are 59 % less likely to receive welfare benefits than UK nationals in the UK. Furthermore, a recent report by Birmingham University found that there was little or no evidence that EU migrants have had a negative impact on the employment of UK workers.
It is definitely right that we have a full and rigorous debate on the pros and cons of EU migration, but it should be based on facts and not on misrepresentation. We must remember that free movement is a fundamental right and one of the great successes of the Union.
There is now a big debate about access to welfare systems across the EU; but whatever we do in the future, we should neither compromise the principle of free movement nor make it difficult for Member States to determine the strength and depth of their own welfare systems. The reality is that hard-working migrants and immigrants have been coming to Birmingham in the West Midlands in my constituency for centuries, just as hard-working people from the West Midlands have travelled in search of work and new opportunities for centuries. Long may this continue.
To finish, I would like to ask the Commission if there are any trends that show that Member States with a higher number of migrants have increased welfare spending on those migrants or whether there are increased contributions to the economy from those migrants."@en1
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