To think Brexit has robbed us of so much?

[elzober]

A friend of mine from America recently obtained citizenship of an EU country due to family links. She's now ready to look for a job and open to anything as she doesn't have a degree but worked in the family agricultural business back home. She's fluent in English.

A few years ago I would have been able to invite her to stay with me here in the UK, help her get established and set her up to apply for one of the many jobs over here. But now I can't do any of that.

The ridiculous part is I know local businesses that are really struggling to recruit, can't find people locally and have struggled with the lack of EU workers since Brexit. Particularly in hospitality, agriculture and travel.

Why did we close the door to people who filled these vacancies and contributed to society and paid taxes?

She would have been a decent tax payer, nice member of the community but she's not allowed in.

She's probably going to Ireland now as apparently there's lots more opportunities there since we became an isolated island.

I will never forgive the Conservatives for this shambles. Don't get me started on the fact that a British passport is now worthless and we've lost our right to live in 27 countries. Madness.

You already are. It’s pretty masochistic to click on Brexit threads when it bothers you so much. What did you expect?

Nope. It's because when the minimum wage went up, those on supposed "higher grades" didn't get the same rise. So the workers on the bottom pay scale basically earn not much less than those on higher grades now. It's across the board.

The point is though, wages have been poor for nearly two decades.. conveniently when the EU workers came who employers realised would work for less. Have you missed the massive coverage on stagnant wages and living wage crisis?

Hyperbole and negativity always bother me and you never know where they will crop up. I didn’t know the OP was going to me so OTT until I clicked.

No, our wages started stagnating as soon as employers realised EU workers would work for much less pay

That's a UK problem that could have been sorted politically.
But then, nobody at the tpo really cared as long as they could blame the EU.
When really you need to look at the companies willing to employ people from outside the UK for minimum wage to increase their profits.

It was the UK, that invited workers from the EU.... and no other EU countries didn't have the same issues, I wonder why?

Yes! This countries problems plus the fact your food shopping and gas prices have duplicated is Jonny foreigner’s fault.

Bloody migruntz.

I started on minimum wage 12 years ago and it was an absolute pittance but I've now worked my way up to a much higher grade, done extra qualifications and tried to be savvy with my choice of employer when I've moved.

If I was still on minimum wage level or not much more now I would be examining my own choices and career decisions or what the domestic government has done for my industry/ cost of living, not blaming the EU and its migrants.

Employers will largely pay the minimum they can get away with which they've been allowed to do for far too long. Now they are whining they can't recruit! Well pay people the proper wage instead of exploiting EU workers then! British people will work, like they have done for hundreds of years. But not for the pittance EU workers are happy to be paid.

I'm waiting for my child's German exam grade tomorrow, the plan was for them to study German history, with at least one year in Germany. Brexit has taken all that away and I'm seriously pissed off about it

It wasn't the EU that made our indigenous workforce decide that fruit picking was below them (or a myriad other low paid jobs).

There has always been an issue with low paid work. I'm almost 50 and top up benefits have been around for far longer than the media hype of the UK being flooded by EU migrant workers (and your 20 year estimate).

This is an oft used argument but completely misses the fact that the cheapest labour has always come from South or East Asia and other parts of the world where labour is cheap, if not cheaper.

Wages are low for a range of jobs because successive governments have kowtowed to the rich.

No negative thing ever has been helped by wallowing in it.

Indeed. However, huge negative impacts caused by huge policy errors usually improve only when people are honest about the problems created, admit their mistakes and look for practical ways to fix the problems.

Before the referendum GBP to USD was £1.65. It's now almost parity. What impact do you think that is having on inflation, given we import so many of our essentials like food and fuel?

GBP will continue to plummet in value - hence us having more devaluation than EUR since 2016 and significantly higher inflation than the Eurozone or US - until the additional, pointless and unnecessary problems caused by Brexit that are weakening our economy are fixed.

A sensible first step would be to rejoin the single market so that we remove all of the pointless barriers to trade and additional costs we have inflicted on ourselves for zero benefit.

Trying telling that to the millions of workers who are working their arses off, raising families and doing their best yet can't catch a break and can't afford to live because wages have been kept so low over the past 2 decades due to cheap labour from the EU.

Why do we have a recruitment crisis? Because people won't work for the pittance EU workers worked for.

Brexit will allow more US companies to come in and exploit this country.

If you thought profit over people was bad before Brexit, just wait until further deregulation and when the vulture capitalists arrive.

All this tall of exploiting EU workers, they weren't slaves ffs. I had lots of EU friends who enjoyed minimum wage jobs while they came over here to study English, for example. They saw it as an experience and often stayed for a few years then went back.

Oh dear. There were more migrants from the UK living in other EU nations utilising freedom of movement than had relocated from any other EU country. It's such a shame people spout stuff that is so ignorant and removed from any of the data.

Yeah it's typical Brexiteer behaviour. Blame it all on the EU and the migrants and ignore the other side

Minimum wages were raised like a year ago, and despite brexit and all the jazz they’re still very… “minimum”. Maybe the problem is (hold your breath here) not the migruntz but those in power who decide the minimum wages?

Also doesn't help when the Government makes exporting so impractical and expensive by imposing huge red tape (oh the irony) that our balance of payments deficit rises from 2% to 8%. What effect do people think that has had on exchange rates??

I mean, really. Anybody complaining about the cost of living crisis who isn't campaigning for Brexit to be reversed is frankly bonkers. We can't do anything about the supply chain shocks caused by Covid, or the war in Ukraine. But this, was shooting ourselves in the foot and head for no benefit whatsoever and was completely avoidable.

And anybody who isn't seriously angry about it clearly hasn't looked up any of the data, even 6 years later. The mind boggles.

OP. I mostly try to forget about Brexit but so much of my work/industry involves collaboration with EU countries. I've lost umpteen excellent colleagues over the years because they've all buggered off. These were high paid professionals that we no longer have.

Personally I love driving/touring on the mainland but stuff waiting at Dover during the holiday season.

I could go on but agree totally. We need to try and make the most of Brexit but it really is shit.

It's not the EU workers that were the problem per se, it was the fact employers could get away with paying them less and they'd work under poorer conditions which seems to have set a precedent.

Or ignore the fact we are now suffering because our wages have stagnated from cheap labour from the EU for too many years.

Low wages were due to UK political decisions to have a low-regulated employment market. Data showed consistently for many years than on average EU migrants to the UK were kore highly educated, more qualified, less likely to claim any kind of benefits or use the NHS or live in social housing than the average UK citizen, and were on average net taxpayers not net recipients like the majority of the UK population. We should have thanked them a lot, not made them feel unwelcome. Trying looking at some data.

If that were true people wouldn't be gasping at the losses of thousands of workers across the lower pay scale board in catering/hospitality/NHS/carers/cleaners/farming etc.

Agreed, but it's pretty obvious how this thread is going to go.

If that were true people wouldn't be gasping at the losses of thousands of workers across the lower pay scale board in catering/hospitality/NHS/carers/cleaners/farming etc.

What? You don't understand that it could be possible thaz some people left these industries and far more left professional positions - often in our essential services - at the same time?

It isn't a case of "if that were true". EU migrants as a whole were net contributors to UK tax, consistently. There are robust studies that proved this, time and again. Look them up.

Who said they weren't paying tax?