UK: Cabinet promises serious measures to restrict labor migration

�1,000 on the spot fines for migrants | the Daily Mail:

"Four years ago, the Home Office was caught out when it predicted just 13,000 extra migrant workers would arrive when Poland and seven other nations joined. In the event, somewhere between 300,000 and 600,000 flocked to the UK to find better-paid and more available jobs.

"Promising to the Commons that the mistake would not happen again, [Home Secretary] Mr [John] Reid admitted the mass movement of workers had put extra strain on some schools and housing.

"A Whitehall source confirmed the spot fines would be as high as 1,000 [pounds] per person, adding: 'This will be a real deterrent because people will think twice before taking a job that they could end up both losing and walking away without any money.'

"Firms that hire Romanian and Bulgarian workers without a special permit would also be fined 'heavily'. Mr Reid said: 'Employing illegal workers undercuts legitimate business and leads to exploitation. It will not be tolerated.'"

There are several things to note here that have some relevance for our own situation in the US. One is that various economic integration schemes patterned on the EU - NAFTA, Caribbean Basin Initiative, FTAA - will inevitably exacerbate the problem, not solve it.

Another is that Mr. Reid is onto something with the idea of handing the illegal worker a thousand pound fine on the spot. Just ending his career with that company is one thing, but seizing the wages he has coming and leaving him penniless and still owing more to the government might be a real deterrent.

Imagine the howls from the left if some Republican proposed fines of that magnitude for undocumented workers in our country? Come to think of it, for not much more money than that, President Bush wants to sell citizenship to illegal immigrants.

OTOH, government claims that there had been no adverse impact on wages from the prior flood of eastern European EU migrant labor and only local pressure on a few schools is disingenuous.

The assertion that the new immigrants had driven up the cost of English language instruction is an obvious difference from the US experience.