More From Romania (Literally)

[FredPuli43]

British companies are recruiting thousands of Romanian workers to plug gaps in the highly skilled jobs market and fill posts spurned by Britons.
As border restrictions are lifted today, UK employers are advertising 4,896 posts on the main Romanian jobs website, ranging from care home workers to taxi drivers and hotel staff. More than 62,000 jobs were advertised in Romania in 2013, up from nearly 42,000 two years earlier.
Employers looking to fill jobs with new blood from the former Communist country include Hilton Hotels and the health service. The first recruitment fair in Romania for NHS specialist nurses was held by the University Hospital of South Manchester Trust in Bucharest last month.
Strict limits on the number of migrants from Romania and Bulgaria who can settle in Britain are lifted today. Ministers are under pressure not to allow a repeat of the mass migration of Poles that occurred after the EU was expanded in 2004.

[The Times for New Year's Day]

Is that a good thing?

[jno]

as far as I'm concerned, yes (I'm an immigrant myself, so they don't scare me). I do want the NHS ones to speak good English, though: I am still unnerved by the Bulgarian GP a few years ago who mistook my arm for my finger - I suppose it was only a momentary lapse, but it was as well she wasn't amputating anything.

[mikey4444]

These jobs need to be done, so if our own uneducated, lazy, dole bludgers won't work, then these foreigners will continue to come over here.

[Gromit]

An excellent idea.

Keep costs down so that we can all afford to buy more things and services.

More people adding to our tax rake meaning we get more money for hospitals, elderly care and old age benefit.

I can't really see any minuses.

[anotheoldgit]

Taxi drivers????????????????

I can see a problem from some there.

[grumpy01]

As with everything else a few bad apples will spoil it for the the thousands who view it as a great opportunity.Although I see the Daily Mail has an article today on a Big Issue seller who other Romanians have dubbed "The Benefits Teacher".

[ToraToraTora]

easy, cut benefits then our own WSC will have to work.

[Svejk]


Gromit

An excellent idea.

Keep costs down so that we can all afford to buy more things and services. ///

Dear,oh dear,oh dear.
As for the only 'educated' man in Britain. How did people become so selfish?

[emmie]

no because it could mean more British on the dole, and if you only advertise in Romania, Bulgaria how would British know these jobs are available. If they are advertised here first and no one fills the vacancies then they should be put out to EU residents. Taxi drivers, sorry how on earth does that happen, don't British drive?

a friend is a senior nurse in a NHS hospital, her thoughts are that many of our highly trained nursing staff are not being used, that they cannot find jobs. is this because of previous importation of staff, why
on earth if we have skilled people do we advertise for some outside our borders. If they lack sufficient command of English isn't that also a problem. I have had cause to mention this to staff in a hospital where a relative was ensconced for weeks.
Doesn't this also mean a total drain of skilled workers in Romania, or don't they need them?

[emmie]

how do you know they won't do them, did the media tell you, or did they tell you.

[emmie]

please note it's not just British who may be work shy, on the dole, what about them, don't they count.

[Dee Sa]

I have noticed that East European doctors call your toes your fingers ! when I said its my toes this Rosa Klebb lookalike at my surgery said "that's what I said fingers! " so that's how it went down on my notes. This is a small language misunderstanding, what about bigger ones ?

[emmie]

the bigger ones were wrong medication for my relative, this nurse couldn't understand the staff nurse, nor the doctors, her accent was so heavy none of us could understand what she was saying, her language skills were extremely poor, and this is not the first, second, third case i can cite.
I was in hospital and could hardly understand the Portuguese doctor,
and i am not stupid, nor deaf.

[Gromit]

// How did people become so selfish? //

We used to manufacture televisions and computers in the UK, but we don't anymore. Because the far east could make them a lot cheaper. So instead of buying ones made by Brotish workers, paying them a wage and raking tax off of them, we all bought Japanese ones.

Selfishness must be in our genes.

[DTCwordfan]

It's all because there is 'More Room-in-here" that they are coming

[boxtops]

In my experience it's not the skilled registered nurses who are replaced by others, it's the unregistered healthcare assistants.

[emmie]

if you have 10 pound in your pocket to buy a much needed item, if it can be bought for 2 pound from china won't you do it, because the rest of the money can then be used for other much needed items,
why is that greedy, selfish, and why is it that this is viewed as such by many

who has a foreign car, own up, who has paid a pound for a item made overseas, that couldn't be made here for that, economics.

Our labour costs are high, wages, factories, manufacturing, theirs currently are not, will you pay 50 grand for a car in UK that can be made in China for a fifth of that...

[emmie]

either that we do without those items, but somethings we simply can't.
and i reckon that most people in UK, America, Europe, don't have a conscious where they get their t shirts from , made in china for almost nothing.

[Gromit]

Emmie,

So what about services instead of goods. If Romanians will work long hours for the minimum wage, then they keep the prices down for running hospitals, hotels, restaurants, carehomes etc. leaving us with more to spend on other things.

[emmie]

do you know the costs in care homes, they are astronomical to the patient, the worker may get a small wage but some of these places are charging a small fortune to the person, or to the NHS for their care. The worker isn't the one necessarily benefiting. They may have a job, they could also be live in, cutting their outgoings by a lot. Hotels are not necessarily cheap, does the worker see much of the money, unlikely, the hotel chains will be getting that.
care homes, many of which are now large chains, are investments for large corporations who are the ones coining it in. they don't keep down costs for the patients, nor the hotel resident

as to the NHS that is plain daft, they spend a small fortune, much wastage as sure Sqad would agree with, it doesn't keep costs down to employ foreign staff, they don't get paid any different surely than other nationals, that would be discriminatory. If a British staff nurse earns 20k surely you can't pay a Bulgarian staff nurse any different.