The esteemed private start – up, Migration Watch UK which serves as a watchdog for immigration dropped a proverbial bombshell on the United Kingdom government. In a shocking report, it has revealed that the number of immigrants entering the United Kingdom from the European Union is a staggering hundred and twenty thousand annually! This adds up to more than half a million immigrant every four years. To put this in perspective, that is equal to the entire population of Manchester! These numbers clearly demonstrate the immediate and urgent need to check how benefits are awarded to European Union immigrants. Needless to say, if this is not done, the United Kingdom government is set to enter financial crisis and is bound to undergo bankruptcy. Some simple back of the envelope calculations reveal that a family of four with the working member employed in a minimum wage job can score nearly twenty eight thousand pounds a year in state benefits. Even if we assume that a hundred and twenty thousand immigrants entering United Kingdom annually are families of four, we get thirty thousand families. Collectively, these claim eight hundred and forty million pounds in benefits annually! The shocker is that these families keep on coming every year. The amount claimed increases by almost one billion pounds every single year!

The rationale of the Romanian and Bulgarian citizens clamoring to enter the United Kingdom can be easily understood. Their motivation of moving to a foreign country: the income they get including state benefits is nearly nine times what they earn in Romania. This helps them lead better lives, and every individual on the Earth wants to do that. Everyone wants to be a better provider for their family. The most common scheme proposed to counter this is imposing a five year restriction on any state benefits. What this means is that the European Union immigrant needs to pay taxes for five years before he or she can avail any of the benefits offered by the country. While this seems discriminatory and even unfair at first glance, when you analyze the situation, you will realize that citizens of the United Kingdom have been paying taxes since forever. It is their taxes which have helped fund research, innovation and development in various fields. It is therefore extremely unfair that a foreign citizen can claim the benefits that the country has built based on taxes it collected from natives. This is truly the only practical solution to curbing influx of European Union immigrants.

These proposals are not going to go down easy in the European Union Parliament. Though they are practical, Brussels is bound to accuse the United Kingdom of discrimination and bias. However, considering that the German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been pushing for a crackdown on European Union immigrants, including deporting those who are unemployed for more than three months, the United Kingdom could find support for its proposals. If presented well, in conjunction with other major European countries, the possibility of a reprieve is high.