Romanian And Bulgarian Workers Are Actually Leaving The UK

    Immigration doom doesn't seem to have happened. But has someone considered the threat from Australians?

    Jim Waterson
    by Jim Waterson

    BuzzFeed News Reporter, UK

    Remember the fear that millions of Romanians and Bulgarians were heading to work in the UK this year? Well, official statistics show that the opposite has happened.

    Daily Express

    The number of Romanians and Bulgarians working in the UK has actually fallen since working restrictions were lifted at the start of this year, according to figures released on Wednesday by the Office for National Statistics.

    Despite fears that Britain would be swamped with new arrivals the number of Bulgarians and Romanians with jobs in Britain actually fell by 4,000 during the first three months of 2014.

    There are now 140,000 Bulgarians and Romanians working in the UK, down from 144,000 in the final three months of 2013.

    This figure is still 29,000 higher than at the same point last year and the long term trend is upwards. But the figures do suggest that in recent months some Romanians and Bulgarians have returned home or moved elsewhere for work – and there has not been a sudden influx of new immigrants looking for work.

    Romanians and Bulgarians have been able to travel freely to the UK since they joined the EU in 2007.

    MailOnline

    But until this year immigrants from the two countries were subject to temporary restrictions on their ability to work in Britain and needed special approval to take some jobs.

    It was feared that lifting these restrictions would result in a new wave of mass immigration. But instead you're now less likely to meet a Bulgarian or Romanian working in the UK than you were three months ago.

    But hidden in the official statistics is a real immigration threat: an uptick in the number of Australians and New Zealanders working in the UK.

    Creative Commons / Avdezign / Flickr / Via Flickr: avdezign

    Although the number of Romanians and Bulgarians working in the UK has fallen, the number of Australians and Kiwis working in Britain has risen by 7% – equivalent to 3,000 people – over the same period.