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Eastern Europeans to Boost UK IT Industry

Categories: Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia, United Kingdom, Economics & Business, International Relations, Labor, Migration & Immigration, Technology

The UK labour movement restrictions placed several years ago to prevent migrants from Romania and Bulgaria from moving permanently and seeking employment in the UK will be lifted on January 1, 2014. Some predict large migrations of workers from these two countries, among the poorest in the European Union, while others say that migrations will be so small they will barely be felt and many emphasize the fact that Romania has a growing, innovative IT industry that will also benefit the British IT industry. Other Eastern European countries have also helped boost the UK's thriving IT industry in the recent past, such as Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia and more.

The Independent covers [1] several sides of the developing story, with quotes from Eastern European immigrant IT entrepreneurs in the UK:

Gal, a 23-year-old Romanian expat, is part of a new wave of eastern European immigrants coming to the UK to start businesses in high-growth sectors such as technology and social media. Britain’s pre-eminence in these fields attracts entrepreneurs who lack the markets and infrastructure needed in their eastern European homelands.

“Romanians are good at two things – engineering and entrepreneurship,” says Gal. His native country has produced a Nobel prize-winning biologist, the inventor of the jet aeroplane and even sent an astronaut into space.