The number of Hungarians living in London increased to 100,000

Origo.hu reports that since the European Union was joined by Eastern European countries, the number of Hungarian people in London got doubled. Apart from Eastern Europe, most of the job seekers go to Britain from south of the Euro-zone. They leave their countries because of the better labour conditions and more opportunities that are available in the United Kingdom.

Since the Union’s expansion in 2004 the number of foreign, EU nationals living in the United Kingdom became twice as much as it was: by now over 3 million EU nationals live there. According to the Migration Observatory’s research, referred to by origo, the top 6 nations sending people to the UK are Poland, Romania, Spain, Italy, Hungary and Portugal.

It is also reported that from those 6 countries only 1.04 million people arrived to the UK in 2011, whereas in 2015 1.59 million were living there, making up 79% of the increased migration (since 2011). Furthermore, the report includes that the number of Polish people living in the UK rose to 818 thousand from 615 thousand, and the number of Romanians to 227 thousand from 87 thousand.

Also, 137 thousand Spanish people lived there by 2015, while previously, in 2011, 63 thousand did. The number of Italians also increased: it was 126 thousand before, but it rose to 176 thousand. So did the number of Hungarians: it was 96 thousand last year and became 50 thousand in 2011. About the Portuguese people, it turned out that earlier 96 thousand lived there, by 2015 that number became 140 thousand.

According to the Migration Observatory’s research, it is not the social benefits why people decide to move to the UK. The poor working conditions and lower wages in the jobseekers’ home countries are the factors that make them leave their homes. For instance, the unemployment rate in Spain is still over 20%, but even in Portugal and Italy it is over 10%, whereas in the UK it is slightly over 5%.

The research observed the wage differences in the case of Poland and Romania, and found out that the median of the income ratio available to spend per households (differences in taxing and living costs were kept in mind) is 1.8 times higher in the UK than in Poland, whereas it is 4.2 times more than in Romania.

Moreover, the Oxford Economics observed the possible effects of Brexit (if most of the people vote for it on the 23^rd of March this year), i.e. how the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union would affect their economy and the results of the following limitations of migration from the EU.

According to their analysis the employees from the EU added 0.5 percentage points to the British economy’s potential growth rate each year from 2005 to 2015, mainly because the young workers from the EU somewhat balanced the negative effects of the aging British society on the labour market.

Also, the analysis shows a model calculation, which says that, if the British government decides to decrease the number of allowed job seekers from the EU, which would meant that 60 thousand less workers could enter the UK (the last 10 years’ average was 104 thousand people per year) then, by 2030, the nominal value of the GDP would be 1.1% less.

Copy editor: bm

Source: origo.hu