Britain could become Europe's 'moral poor man', says report

from Ecumenical News International

Canterbury, England (ENI). Britain could become Europe's "moral poor man" because it is ignoring the social needs of poorly-paid migrant workers, whose wages help keep the country's inflation rate one of the world's lowest, says a report issued by Cambridge University's Von Huegel Institute.

"If migrants, mainly from Eastern Europe, are at the heart of the British economy, surely the time has come to place their needs at the heart of a new welfare strategy," Francis Davis, the co-author of the 7 March report, "Europe and Poverty - A Christian Response", told Ecumenical News International.

Davis, director of the Centre for Faith in Society at the Von Huegel Institute, told ENI that Christian researchers and charity workers say that migration to Britain often ends as a journey into poverty.

"While the (British) Treasury seeks 180 000 migrants a year to hit its inflation targets, the UK was the only European Union government not to mention migrants in their national anti-poverty strategy recently submitted to the European Commission in Brussels." The report described this as "an appalling omission".

Davis said low wages of between 2 (US$3.85) to 4 British pounds an hour paid to immigrants - many of them nurses attached to the National Health Service - is "a national scandal".

Each year, EU member states present strategies to deal with poverty to the European Commission.

In January, the Roman Catholic welfare arms that make up Caritas Europa commissioned the Von Huegel Institute to interview researchers in each of the EU's 27 countries about anti-poverty strategies. Caritas Europa is the EU's largest grouping of faith-based social welfare agencies.

The flow of migrants from eastern Europe who seek work in Britain has risen, with more than 20 000 a month registering for the first time in 2006 with the government. Local councils have expressed concern about the impact of such migration on public services, including medical and housing amenities.

"The social services of the Catholic Church are being stretched to the limit," said Davis.