Is Europe only for the rich now?

So, according to the UK PM, Europe is for the rich only if you want to work abroad. Really lovely. Not 🙁

From the article:
"In the longer term, Mr Cameron says he wants to impose restrictions on freedom of movement in the EU, with new member states having to reach a certain income per head before they are allowed full access to other member states' labour markets."

And I believed that all people are created equal – obviously the thickness of your wallet and colour of the passport need to be equal first! How is this different from discrimination based on skin colour, for example? Racism is taboo but the above is OK?

I held UK in higher regard than e.g. Germany or Switzerland in this aspect, because their policies were a lot more welcoming to the foreigners working there. For example, UK was one of the few countries that didn't apply those discriminatory "transition periods" for the workers from the "new EU countries" in 2004 and in general the policies were more meritocratic than based on the country of origin of the worker. I guess I was badly wrong 🙁

For the record, I am one of those "East Europeans", working abroad since 2001 and these types of views are pervasive across Europe, wherever I went (Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, UK, France …). It is incredibly offensive to be constantly treated as an "Untermensch" by the various administrations (and some people too) only because I happened to be born at the wrong side of the Iron Curtain. For your information, I didn't have much say in that, so why am I being constantly punished for it?

It isn't my fault that some people (even some of my own countrymen, unfortunately) abuse social systems in the Western countries. Please, do fix your welfare system so that it cannot be abused! I understand that discriminating against entire nations by default is much simpler and it is going to appease the more primitive parts of the electorate, but it is not a sustainable solution.

#blog   #rant #politics  ?