“The whole EU benefit regime must be renegotiated,” says Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migration Watch UK.
“Otherwise there is a clear risk that the number of East European migrants coming to seek work in Britain will shoot up, placing even greater strain on our public services and putting the government’s immigration objectives at considerable risk,” he continues in a press release.
The report, “Incentives for Polish Migration”, warns that in January 2014, Romanians and Bulgarians will have access to the same level of benefits after their EU transition phase comes to a close (both countries joined the EU in 2007).
The anti-immigration group claims that on the UK's minimum wage, a Polish worker with a wife and two children can earn “almost four times what he would earn at home on the minimum wage, once the difference in cost of living has been accounted for.”
About three quarters of a million migrants have moved to the UK from the eight countries that joined the EU in 2004. The majority of these are Polish citizens.
Migration Watch's anti-immigration stance has been criticised for its stand on asylum policy and arguments that the new EU migrants are taking jobs from the British.
Economist Philippe Legrain has argued that "Migration Watch's xenophobic prejudice is causing it to twist the truth".
On predictions of future immigration to Britain, academics Nissa Finney and Ludi Simpson have called the group's use of evidence “questionable”. (nh/pg)