Germany takes steps to tackle new migrant arrivals

An influx of migrant workers from poor EU member states, Romania and Bulgaria, has sparked concerns in Germany amid expiring on January 1 of restrictions that barred mass invasion.

Germany as Europe’s top economy is mulling over how to handle the influx now that Romanian and Bulgarian citizens can seek work anywhere within the European Union.

The government of conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel will consider possible steps to make benefits abuse more difficult. This comes as Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has called for a debate on the issue.

“I think it’s not necessary to exaggerate this issue. But it shouldn’t be minimised either,” he said in an interview with the Bild newspaper on Saturday.

Gabriel and Merkel discussed the issue on Friday and agreed that it is required for the government to take tougher steps to prevent abusing the country’s generous welfare system.

“We don’t need all-out discrimination of the Bulgarians and Romanians, but nor should we ignore the problems some big German cities face with the immigration of poor people,” Gabriel said.

“Next Wednesday the government will objectively tackle this issue during the first ministerial meeting of the year,” he added.

Britain, where hundreds of thousands of immigrants have arrived since the European Union first expanded into Eastern Europe in 2004, rushed through legislation in December restricting EU migrants from claiming unemployment handouts.

Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU in 2007, becoming the bloc’s poorest members. Wary of large numbers of jobseekers arriving from the two countries, several nations kept their job markets closed to Romanian and Bulgarian citizens for several years.

The last of these restrictions expired on January 1, including in some of the bloc’s wealthiest nations — Austria, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands and Spain.