FREE MOVEMENT OF WORKERS : EXPERTS BRUSH OFF UK FEARS ON BULGARIANS' 'INVASION'.

• Position: Brief article

Bulgarian politicians are scambling to contain a growing debate in public forums and the social media in Britain over fears that low-skilled workers from the Balkan country will "invade" the UK following the lifting of the last labour market restrictions on 1 January. In recent weeks, members of the UK cabinet as well as MPs have played on this fear.

Britain should be grateful to immigrants for being "beneficial to your economy," Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Nikolai Mladenov told Sky News in one of his numerous interventions in the past days. In a joint letter to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, the Bulgarian Socialist MEP Ivaylo Kalfin, a former foreign minister, and his fellow S&D MEP from Romania Catalin Ivan, complained about their fellow countrymen being "stigmatised as second-class European citizens".

For experts in Sofia, the British debate appears to be unfounded.aElena Vidinska, chief expert at the Bulgarian Employment Agency (which is part of the EURES...