Slovaks test open labour market in the UK
Slovakia became a member of the EU on Saturday, May 1. Despite all the celebrations she could have experienced in Bratislava, Martina Grenova from Radio Slovakia International set off for a journey to the UK instead. Travelling by coach from the Czech town of Brno, she met a group of Slovaks and Czechs leaving their countries behind to find a job in Britain. Great Britain along with Ireland and Sweden have left their labour markets open for EU newcomers. On the 21 hour journey in an overcrowded bus, Martina realized that citizens of the new EU accession countries still could not believe it.
"The second day we are in the EU and the situation is much worse than ever before. It takes more time to travel to the UK. Politicians promised to make the travelling and our job easier. They said everything would be easier. Nothing is easier in our job, it's all the same as the time spent on the crossing."
I'm standing on the boat from Calais to Dover on May 2, 2004, the first day of Slovakia's EU membership. I'm here with several Slovaks who are travelling to London to get jobs there and possibly to have a better future.
In the Dover part of the Schengen border, there were British journalists awaiting the EU newcomers:
"I've just been here working for the newspapers in England. For the last few days there have been maybe 25 coaches something like that with people coming to work and also visit family and friends in England. The vast majority of people have been from Poland, there have been a few from Lithuania and Slovakia and one or two other countries."
Do you think that the articles in British newspapers for which you work now were a little bit panicking saying that East Europeans would come here to scrounge the British social benefits system or to take jobs from the British people?
"I think they're very sensationalist. But nearly all English newspapers have an agenda so they're not necessarily looking at things in a particularly balanced way. They're looking for the stories they can find to hype up the feeling around the EU. But I think most people coming here have been here just for family, friends, maybe to work but not to do any harm. I think most people probably know that, really."
There were a group of four Eastern Slovaks on the bus who had been legally recruited by a British agency. On Tuesday, they were supposed to sign their contracts for construction work in Birmingham. Almost 50 years old, Jan Farbanec plans to stay in the UK until he's retired. Jozef Miscik agrees:
"We'll see. There are no jobs in Eastern Slovakia. We have no other choice."
It has been a historical tradition for Slovak bricklayers to seek work away from their home. At the beginning of the 20th century they used to wander to southern European territories including Italy, Hungary, Serbia and Croatia. At the time of the world recession in the 1930's the target country was the USA. After the long period of the communist regime, they now move to Western Europe leaving their families behind. Twenty-three year old Karol Palus already has a baby. Did his wife agree with his job 2000 km away from the family?
"There was nothing she could say. There are no such conditions to earn money back home as we can have here now."
The British tabloid media has created some panic about East Europeans heading west. However, it seems more likely that it is Eastern Europe that should fear the drain of its workforce and brains. People moving west bring money on different taxes to the target countries which are already economically well off. It will take time to see whether these people will come back to invest in their homeland despite the fact that their homeland is from now on Europe.
