Poles pluck Dutch tulips

The Dutch government wants to limit the immigration of EU workers to the Netherlands. The country could end up paying dearly for such a measure, warns Jacek Pawlicki in the blog A Europa desalinhada for the weekly Expresso: "Poland, Romania, Lithuania and Bulgaria are supplying thousands of Dutch companies, indeed entire economic sectors with cheap labour. Most of the 160,000 to 200,000 EU citizens who have flooded into the Netherlands since 2004 come from Poland. In the eyes of the average Dutch citizen Poles drink too much, don't know how to park, party all night and ... don't even speak Dutch. But without the Poles there would be no more tomato harvests, no house building and no tulip fields. ... The campaign against immigration was initiated by the Party for Freedom (PVV) and its xenophobic leader Geert Wilders who backs the Prime Minister Mark Rutte. The Dutch, who are increasingly against European integration, are forming a front line behind their government."

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