EU mobility of labour and Germany

[alanjjohnstone]

Came across this story. For those who voted Brexit to stop migrant workers, was it really necessary as it seems to be the way the EU is evolving.

http://www.dw.com/en/eu-nationals-in-germany-facing-welfare-curbs/a-35985953

Quote:

EU citizens who move to Germany without employment are to be denied social welfare for five years, according to the Funke media group. The news chain says draft law curbing entitlements goes to cabinet next week. 

Social Court president Justice Rainer Schlegel told the "Frankfurter Allgemeinen" newspaper that solidarity between EU nations did not mean that Germany unconditionally guaranteed welfare entitlements to all comers. Welfare deliveries were always subject to the caveat of what "we can afford economically," said Schlegel, adding that the German government was trying to reverse a "misunderstanding" that welfare would be provided automatically.

 

Once again it is the capitalist class defending the workers' right to move from nation to nation.

 

Quote:

the head of Germany's BDI industry federation, Ulrich Grillo said Germany as a nation dependent on trade and investment must not succumb to tendencies toward isolation and xenophobia."Here in Europe, but also in the United States, voices are becoming increasingly loud, that we turn away from the concept of an open society and instead become backwards orientated. Additional jobs and sizeable wage increases ensure that the consumer climate in Germany remains excellent," Grillo said.

[Anonymous]

For the capitalist class workers are like baby  disposable diapers, they can be used,. and then, they are disposed.The so called miracle of Germany is due to the  employment of cheap labor, or cheap wage slaves emigrating from Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and many are working under the minimum wage that exist in several countries in EuropeDuring the cold war the Western capitalists and their press were always talking about the workers exploitation in the "Iron curtain", and now, they are using the same workers from the same countries to produce profits.Due to the fact that capitalism is suffering a long economical crisis, now they are rejecting the foreign workers, and blaming their crisis on the workers using a poison known as nationalism

[Subhaditya]

Protectionism might allow the less developed countries to legitimately close their economies from more advanced producers and develop their local industries and trade with economies that are at similar stage of development…So protectionism at least gives an opportunity for less developed countries to catch up with the West before opening their markets to their companies and improve the material quality of life of their people.

[moderator2]

Our African themed Socialist Banner blog recently posted about the EU's attitude to protectionist policies. http://socialistbanner.blogspot.com/2016/09/free-trade.html

Quote:

Six African countries who had been threatened with losing access to the European single market have finally agreed to sign the EU’s Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). But the continent may suffer as a result. In July, the EU had upped the pressure on six African governments, threatening to suspend their single market access if they had not ratified the new agreements by 1 October.  Faced with a tax on their EU exports if they failed to cooperate, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Kenya all finally agreed to ratify their Economic Partnership Agreements.   Kenya’s Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, Adan Mohamed, said that if he had allowed the EU’s October ultimatum to pass, “Kenyan products would have become un-competitive on the European market, as they would have been taxed at 22%”. The EPA, obliges it to progressively open its own market to European products. Critics say the dice are weighted in favour of the EU. The loss of customs revenue, coupled with competition from European products arriving on less development markets, is a major cause for concern.

 The strong decide the rules, the weak succumb. 

[Author]

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