Migration and the European Union

1. Read and translate the text.

  Citizens of countries in the European Union now have the right to work in any other EU country. Professionals with highly developed skills and qualifications have joined the ranks of asylum-seekers and economic migrants as the largest groups of European migrants. Migration into the EU from non-EU countries has become one of the most pressing issues on the political agenda in a number of European states. The members of Schengen agreement allow free entry into the country from neighbouring member states. Illegal immigrants able to gain access to a Schengen state can move throughout the entire Schengen zone. Some illegals enter the EU legally as students or visitors and overstay their visas, but a growing number of illegal immigrants are smuggled across borders. It is estimated that 400,000 people are smuggled into the EU annually.

   Since most EU states have now tightened the borders and limited legal immigration to cases of family reunification, an application for asylum has become one of the remaining channels through which non-EU citizens can gain permission to settle in the EU. An asylum-seeker is a person who requests refuge in a foreign country due to a fear of persecution in his or her country of origin. The right to apply for asylum is accepted as a universal one, yet critics charge that asylum applicants are treated no better than criminals – forced to live in overcrowded prison-like detention centres while their applications are processed. Lengthy backlogs of cases have built up in many countries, including the UK, where more than 100,000 asylum-seekers were awaiting decisions on their applications in early 2000.

Because the EU is home to some of the highest wages, welfare services and standards of living in the world, some “economic migrants” not in fear of persecution but detention centres, and who cannot gain entry by other means, may seek to do so by applying for asylum. Strict policies on asylum have led many to speak of fortress Europe – protected zone which acts collectively to protect its assets and high standard of living against an “assault” by migrants from other parts of the world who seek to share in its prosperity.

Many West European countries have witnessed campaigns for migrants to be returned to their countries of origin, and threats of deportation should they be unemployed or commit an offence.

Moral panics portraying migrants as criminals and dependent on the welfare state are prompting a further tightening of immigration policies in many countries. The racism associated with anti-immigration sentiment has produced some explosive incidents in Europe in the 1990s. In the newly unified Germany hundreds of attacks on foreigners – and on Turkish workers, some of whom had been in the country for more than twenty years – took place in 1991 and 1992. Violent attacks on Roma (gypsy) populations in many countries of central and eastern Europe have become more frequent.

 

2. Make 10 questions to cover the content of the text and ask them your classmates.

3. Translate into English:

Одна из самых актуальных проблем на политической повестке; перемещаться по всей Шенгенской зоне; нелегальные иммигранты; просрочить визу; тайно провозить; центр временного пребывания мигрантов; огромное число нерассмотренных заявлений; система социального обеспечения; быть местом проведения кампаний за возвращение иммигрантов в страну выезда; изображать иммигрантов как преступников и иждивенцев социального государства; анти-иммигрантские настроения; участились грубые нападения на цыганское население.

 

4. Make up sentences with these expressions.

joined the ranks of asylum-seekers and economic migrants To allow free entry; to gain access to; to tighten the borders; to limit legal immigration; to gain permission to settle in the EU; a fear of persecution; detention centres; to gain entry; welfare services; to protect its assets and high standard of living; to seek to share in its prosperity; threats of deportation; to commit an offence; dependent on the welfare state; to prompt a further tightening of immigration policies; explosive incidents; to witness campaigns for; threats of deportation; commit an offence; to be dependent on the welfare state.

5. Give a short summary of the text.

6. Translate into Russian and learn the vocabulary:

 To gain the right to visa-free travel; temporary restrictions; to apply for work permits; to drop/ lift immigration restrictions; to be entitled to claim the same benefits; beholden to; to deter; skilled migrants; to impose restrictions; under various schemes; unrestricted access; in common with all people; social security benefits; to come into force; jobseeker's allowance; out-of-work benefits; benefit scroungers; low taxes for high earners; the low cost of living; to build financial security and professional confidence; low-income migration.

 

Discussion

· Work in three groups. Study the case and do the task that follows.

 

Case study: Bulgarian and Romanian immigration

      As of 1 January 2014, Bulgarians and Romanians have gained the same rights to work in the UK as other EU citizens.

What's happening?

    Bulgarians and Romanians gained the right to visa-free travel to the UK in 2007, when their countries joined the EU. But there were temporary restrictions on the kind of jobs they could take. Employers had to apply for work permits and migrants for an "accession worker card". Low-skilled workers were restricted to existing quota schemes in the agricultural and food processing sectors.

  These restrictions were dropped on 1 January, having been extended to the maximum period of seven years. Bulgarians and Romanians will be entitled to claim the same benefits and NHS care as other EU citizens. However, the government has rushed through legislation to toughen the rules around migrants claiming benefits.