Countries have been sold out to the stock markets for the last two decades. It is refreshing that the UK is the first to recognize this officially.
The British jobs for British people argument is utter garbage. It’s so incredibly far from reality it beggars belief. It’s flat earth economics. The Johnson government knows this perfectly well, that’s why they extended work visa rights for foreign students in the UK and guaranteed that foreign nationals in the UK would keep long term rights to work here.
Our economy is crying out for skilled workers, it’s the number one roadblock to increased growth. Foreign workers tend to be young, more productive, consume fewer social services, pay more tax and commit fewer crimes than native Brits, by a lot. With an ageing population and increasing health care and pension costs, we need them more than ever.
This is not a good line of argumentation. I'll refrain from using stronger terms so as not to violate the site guidelines.
Fact is: In many European countries the low wage "jobs" (many of them on exploitative hidden contractor terms) earn barely above social security level.
All of that while still supporting parasites like state TV losers with big pensions.
Of course you have "full employment" if most people earn a subsistence wage.
The fact that labor is not fixed has little to do with exploitative European "employment" practices.
In fact, if you have to drive down wages to support full employment, it would be an argument against that "fallacy".
2) The UK government had at its disposal number of measures that could prevent or mitigate the impact of "Eastern European workers flooding the labor market" on "The Common man" (UK citizen edition thereof, only). Following the accession of Poland and other smaller states in 2004 they could have: raised minimum wage, increased social spending and outright limited the numbers coming from those countries for a time, as some other EU members did. (1) etc.
The UK government chose to do none of these, thus keeping their business backers happy, and were able to avoid blame for this decision, instead pointing at an "external enemy, i.e. "Europe". Of course, this fanned the flames of Xenophobia, and...
1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migrations_from_Poland_since_E...
But of course anyone questioning the tactics of big corporations is a xenophobic, alt-right adjacent, deplorable person.
It's not all roses - UK companies, such as fruit farms, are able to treat low-skilled immigrant workers worse than long-term residents. But there are also plenty of high-skilled immigrants, so to pretend that it's about countries being "sold out to stock markets" is naive. Just wait to see what happens to the NHS as foreign workers leave over the next few months.
They consider themselves too good to pick fruit, clean toilets and care for sick people.
There is also the fact that Eastern European construction workers in Germany do not follow German regulations, rip out Asbest without precautions etc., thus undercutting local builders.
Also, how do you feel about sending all non-complient workers to Eastern Europe or do you think that German non-complient workers should just get a fine?
Also, were the high Covid-19 counts in the UK due to these workers? If so, if these workers are so bad in hygiene why UK is much worse off than Eastern Europe?