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Originally Posted by Damien
Self-employed I take it?
That is bad and is certainly, IMO, the worst part of the EU. I am generally for freedom of movement but it would be better if they had some sort of economic break whereby movement is restricted and eased up as the nation reaches economic parity with the rest of the bloc. We would probably need exceptions for workers based in another country but working temporary, moving within an existing company or skilled workers though.
My first initial post about this was lacking nuance in retrospect. I still think it's not as simple as wages going up if we Leave and that the primary driver of the decline of many manual labour jobs in the UK is global competition rather than EU workers but it would be foolish to casually dismiss the fact that some people do suffer.
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Very good points. If workers from EU countries with a lower cost of living so come here then what you describe can happen. I do not feel that this is universal effect as there are jobs that EU migrants will do that local workers choose not to. There are also skills shortages which again EU migrants fill e.g. the NHS. The raising of the Minimum Wage certainly helps to lessen this effect.
It is the comment you made regarding global competition that is, I feel, the important one here. The EU has strengthened workers rights and they *will* be eroded if we Leave.