It’s the scene of mass exodus from Romania and Bulgaria which has raised many eyebrows in Germany. The influx of immigrants mostly from these two countries has stirred quite a debate in the political arena. Are these ‘poverty immigrants’ or ‘benefits tourists’, and how their arrival has divided German opinion, let’s take a deeper look.

Romania and Bulgaria joined the league of EU countries in 2007, becoming the poorest members of the bloc. However, several prominent EU nations restricted their entry in the job market by imposing sanctions. The last of these restrictions expired on Jan, this year. Now that the restrictions have been lifted, Germany in particular is jostling against the vast in flow of migrants from Romania and Bulgaria in search of better future prospects in Europe’s top shelf economy. Some fear it is more than just migration and call it ‘mass invasion’ instead.

Germany possesses a generous welfare scheme which allows state benefits to any family with children legally residing in the country. However, many migrants take undue advantage of the liberal social welfare system. Hence, Chancellor Merkel is leaving no stone unturned to examine the measures to avoid the abuse of the welfare policy.

CSU (the Bavarian sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats) is said to have fuelled the political debate regarding the weighty consequences of free movement of unskilled immigrants from the two poor states. They suggest that the easy availability of the German social welfare system should revised and toughened, so as to reduce the chances of its misuse.

Britain sensed the danger weeks before the expiry of restrictions and adopted a rather firm stand on benefit tourism by having new EU migrants wait for nearly three months before applying for out-of-work payments and other benefits. Germany realized it a little later but is all set to work in similar manner so as to put a lid on the free movement of these immigrants. “ We don’t need all-out discrimination of the Bulgarians and Romanians, but nor should we ignore the problems some big German cities face with the immigration of poor people” says Sigmar Gabriel, Vice Chancellor of Germany. Basically, it’s the advent of migrants who have fled discrimination, and poor living conditions in Romania and Bulgaria in the hope of brighter future in Germany and other Western European countries. Had it been just the above cause, it would have still gone down well with the chief EU executives but the problem lies deep, hence, a reason enough to frown. The big question mark is, how far can such immigrants contribute to the labour market? It’s mostly challenged that such migrants are poorly skilled thus more likely to become a burden on the welfare program.

The giant migration has led to contrasting opinions, while some view it with a sense of suspicion, many others feel it’s nothing but a media and political hype. “ We are not dealing with national challenge,” Ulrich Maly, the association of German cities president and mayor of Nuremnerg said “ The problems are concentrated in around 12 major cities”. Maly also warned the on going furore is creating “ disastrous impression that all Bulgarians and Romanians who come to us are poverty immigrants and that many of them are here to cheat the social system.”

However, it is true the minimum wage of a 19-year old is equivalent  of 834,98 euros per month as compared with 169.93 euros in Romania and 152.35 euros in Bulgaria according to World Bank’s 2014 economic profiles of the countries. This is primarily the driving factor for the young enthusiasts to turn to Germany. Though, on average the working immigrants actually pay money into the state exchequer through taxes and other duties. Also, it can’t be denied in cities like Duisburg, Dortmund and Berlin, for instance, the percentage of jobless and unemployment benefit recipients among Romanians and Bulgarians is relatively higher.

Whether ‘ poverty immigrants’ or ‘ benefits tourists’ the phenomenon is surely worrisome, especially when EU is struggling with the giant Tsunami of financial catastrophe.