For six years of my life I recruited Romanian professionals to take up employment in the UK.  I changed their lives and for many made their dream come true.  They were extremely capable people who have since prospered professionally and financially.

Initiating a strategy for desertion

I view myself now, seven years on, as an economic terrorist at that time on a mission to destabilise a particular sector of the workforce to the benefit of my country which sent me on a mission to import foreign talent.

But conversely the more successful I was in my business of exporting highly trained and skilled Romanians to a better life the more I understood the needs of this country and its people.  I started to understand that those who went outside did so out of desperation and were deserters from the battlefield for this country's future. I realised that foreigners with their investments were infiltrating this country in advance of outright invasion to take advantage of the low cost of the labour force that remained.

Should it not be those very people who exported themselves to those countries to become the slaves of the Euro and the Lira who are under obligation as a prisoner of (economic) war is to fulfil their duty to escape their profiteering masters and instead aim to apply their talent to bring this country out of difficult economic times?

Should their education, knowledge and ability to cope with change be applied to the benefit of other countries or should it be utilised to develop a new nation from whom they gained these capacities in the first place as part of their birthright and their heritage? Who has first call on their brains?

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts… is EU entry a Trojan Horse?

Let's not pretend that all nations in a united Europe are equal because they are not.  Foreign investment may be a wonderfully new thing but how much of it adds to the wealth of the country?  How much of it is spent on  state of the art hi-tech tools imported from outside of Romania to facilitate maximum productivity with the human labour that is required being bought at low cost?  The classical combination of hi-tech machinery coupled with low cost labour leads to enhanced profits which tend to get siphoned back to the country from where the investment first came.

The few Euros that find their way into Romanians' pockets quickly go out again.  In many cases income is supplemented by Euro loans from the banks many of whom are foreign. 

Where does this new found wealth disappear to?  It goes on what is broadly called consumer spending which in Romanian language means electro-garbage and cars… mostly imported … so the money goes out again!  Oh…and then there are the increasing number of foreign holidays so if you have a little economic freedom the Greeks and those in their alliance are happy for any remaining balance to be spent in Madrid, London or Rome.

Add to that the mere 20% of Euro loans that are spent on housing and you have to ask who is building for Romanians?  An increasing number of construction companies are of foreign origin and of course many materials and finishings are imported.  Where and how is wealth being created that actually stays in Romania?

What wealth that remains is concentrated in the hands of a very few.  A flat rate tax of 16% may be very popular with those small number of people who have wealth but those who do not have no voice with which to complain. Everybody knows that the current system was introduced as a compromise to address tax evasion and corruption but in practice it's a short term fix. 

In my country the first progressive tax was introduced by a folk hero going by the name of Robin Hood.  He and his merry men as the common people called them had the afrontery to rob the rich to feed the poor.  Those rich barons and so called noblemen chose to call them outlaws.

 In my country and many others it is a principle that taxation is proportionate to an individual's ability to pay with those who have the greatest income making a social contribution towards the support and maintenance of those who live at a subsistence level or close to it.  This is the only way that the divide between the rich and poor can be bridged thereby giving greater opportunity for the evolution of a middle class which will reduce economic migration to countries which pay in the Euro or the Lira.

Migration and location

One natural skill amongst the Romanian nation is its level of IT talent.  As a proportion of the population there are more Romanian IT workers in the UK than Indians. To put it simply, Romanian IT skills are number one in the world. But who is buying into this natural resource of talented IT workers and technical engineers?  I don't need to tell you the answer and even then it is those international companies that are making a very nice profit from their labour.

How and why was this situation allowed to happen?  I started recruiting Romanian social workers to take up local government employment in the UK in 2001/2002.  This actually did something of a service to this country because it was noted by the British government in evidence it obtained in advance of Bulgaria's and Romania's accession to the EU.  Romania provides more social workers in the UK than any other European nation.

At about this time of course there was mass emigration to Italy and Spain.  The government of those years did not see the enormity of it and perhaps saw what was happening as a short term fix to the pensions crisis and a means of bringing Euros into the country to support a population in a humanitarian crisis. A Euro in the pocket in 2003 bought four loaves of bread back home but how many will it buy after May when bread prices are expected to go up 25%?

But what happened to those talented people who went out?  As good as two million people…effectively a whole generation! Many walk a legal tightrope working on the fringes of the low cost unskilled labour markets of western Europe.  Graduates many with Masters Degrees will have no related work experience to bring them back into the disciplines they trained for.  Some are coming back, a few, but having the Euro in the pocket is like a drug addiction which is enhanced by the decline in the RON which has been caused by excessive borrowing and expenditure on imports.

So what are the answers in a year which sees elections on the horizon?  Romanian companies must produce and export.  Dacia is an excellent example despite its French adopted parent.

Its no coincidence that foreign companies that are investing in Romania are appointing Romanian management …something that happened rarely in the case of 2004 Accession countries. So Romanian talent is recognised and those international companies want more of it.

The government should encourage Romanians abroad to come back and now with Job Fairs in Italy and Spain they are doing something about it but not enough.  Nearly all love their country, their parents and family.  Give a tax break to those who return.  Maybe zero taxes to those who invest 20000 Euros in a business or a home for a minimum period of two years?  For those who gain employment in a newly created job and remain with the same employer within Romania for such a period give them the same incentive. Employer tax payments can be paid into local funds to benefit the community.  I'm not aware that Nokia have promoted any community initiatives as yet!

 The government looses nothing in taxes and the country gains everything.  Acute shortage of workers in cities such as Bucharest and Cluj and those high skilled industries will be addressed not to mention the shortage of multi-lingual staff in the hotel sector.  Why bring in Turkish or Ukranian workers – or Chinese or Indian - when there are 2 million Romanians, many talented  and enriched by western European experience,  drifting somewhere in Europe?

Try and keep wages competitive but instill motivation in the lower paid to work for the future of this country by introducing a fair, progressive taxation system.  The flat rate system may help address tax avoidance amongst high income earners but it actually encourages the development of tax evasion strategies for those (and not necessarily BY those) who are on the lowest incomes thus this disease impacts on the majority of the nation and not just those few who are filthy rich.

Denial of history

Someone who was nothing special in Romania was recognised as having talent. She was helped to take up employment in the UK and proved that she was resourceful and adaptable.  She has demonstrated wonderful ability. She said to me the other day 'I don't associate with Romanians in the UK any more'.  She's not the only one … one of a few who having gained success reject their roots, their education, their debts and their culture. Their success grew out of what this country provided for them as part of their birthright. 

Are such attitudes a denial of history, culture and education? A rejection of what this country gave them! I'm not a nationalist but I am European.  If that type of statement is genuine what exactly does it mean?  Does she agree with my argument that Romanians should come back home or does she suggest that she wants no more to do with Romanians because of their culture and nationality? Are we talking of an attitude that is tantamount to treason?

Dual citizenship should be abolished.  Its very simple. Learn the lesson from the British.  In the 1960s we were told we lived in streets of blood when there was a backlash from bringing in low cost labour from the Carribbean .  Then we were told we were a multi-cultural society and had to accommodate diversity….   I arrive at a UK airport and Immigration Officers are Asians.  Have I been diverted to Delhi I ask myself?

God…supposedly intelligent people are even talking of incorporating Islamic Sharia law into our British legislative and justice system!  Is my country being infiltrated by economic and social terrorists?

Very recently my government has proposed even tighter controls on immigration…a longer time to get residency…a probationary period…and a requirement for spouses to speak English. 

Yet according to a recent OEDC study we are told that migrants to the UK are significantly better educated than the native population. Some 34.8 per cent of foreign-born adults living in Britain have higher education qualifications, compared with 20.1 per cent of Britons.
But many of the immigrants work well below their skill level. University educated immigrants are almost twice as likely to be unemployed as their native-born counterparts.

2004 brought to my country many new Europeans in search of low paid work…. only to be greeted by political ambiguity on the subject of immigration.  On the one hand the UK needed hard working and relatively low paid workers but the ethnic face of the country was changing so rapidly…it wasn't Great Britain any more. 

In the UK more people are emigrating than ever before… Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Spain are up amongst the favourites.  Polish who came after 2004 are returning to their homeland because the British pound does not buy so much back in their homeland where wages have risen to an acceptable level.  Romania don't make the same mistake.  Bring back your talented Romanians before its to late!