During the past years, when Great Britain had a Socialist government, the number of immigrants increased to several hundred thousand, not to mention those tens of thousands of foreigners residing here illegally, a large percentage of whom live on benefits. The larger partner of the present coalition of necessity, the Conservative Party, included the reduction of the extent of immigration in its electoral programme, mainly for economic reasons, but also for demographic-sociological ones. There exists a layer of British society that relates to the issue of immigration from a nationalistic viewpoint, and does not hesitate to give vent to these views.

The two parties that constitute the coalition have in many respects quite different political views, and this has put quite a lot of pressure on the strength of unity of the party alliance in the first few months of governing. So far, there have been no signs of danger. Before the elections, the smaller party of the coalition, the Liberal Democrats, proposed that the tens of thousands of foreigners who entered the UK illegally should be given amnesty, in other words, they should not be forced to leave the country. The government's new regulatory measure may well be received positively by the voters, all the more so because Great Britain is having to face financial difficulties and people are afraid of losing their jobs in the near future. It was in this atmosphere that the British press started writing about how, if the new Hungarian government granted dual citizensheip to the Hungarians living in Serbia and Ukraine, then these people could, according to European Union law, start working in Great Britain in large numbers, and this might lead to conflicts in the labour market. The question is, is this a real danger that is threatening the UK?

Following the enlargement of the European Union in 2004, it was mostly people from Poland who went to England in large numbers. After a while, the number of Polish migrant workers reached almost a million, and Polish plumbers, house painters and decorators and cleaners became a concept in England. You could hear Polish being spoken on construction sites all over the country. Polish food stores opened one after the other, even in far-away, Northern industrial towns. This was good for the British, too, as they could also enjoy the high-quality Polish smoked ham and the various pickled vegetables, but these shops catered for their Polish customers in many ways.  They imported a whole assortment of goods, among others Polish beer, flour, even chocolate. A few months ago, however, another exodus started, in the other direction, back to Poland, coinciding with the strengthening of the Polish economy, and the decrease of the exchange rate of the British Pound.

As for Hungarians who went to work in England, most of them found jobs in the service provider industry, while thousands of young women started working as domestic workers. It seems there is a shortage of labour in these areas, for the English don't like doing low-paid, menial jobs with no prospect of gaining professional expertise. The British are not against workers arriving from European Union member states, but they are afraid of those coming from outside the Union, arriving mostly from economically underdeveloped regions and often with criminal intent.  They fear that these people will take advantage of the British social security system. In Great Britain, foreign migrant workers are entitled to health care, their children are entitled to free schooling, and if the workers' employment ends, they receive unemployment benefits.

The phenomenon of an ageing society, typical in highly developed countries, is also valid for the British population. The average life expectancy is rising, and more and more pensioners have to be provided for by the active, salary-earning layer of society. That is why it is important for Great Britain that the proportion of young, active workers - people who pay income tax and social security contributions - increases, even if it is through immigration. From the point of view of demographic balance, the fact that many people leave England to emigrate elsewhere - either to Australia, which is attractive because of the common language, or to countries within the European Union which can offer a Mediterranean way of life - should not be disregarded.

Hungary's demographic situation is a lot more serious than that of England, so the issue of immigration does arise, and not only regarding those of Hungarian origin. Hungarian society (similarly to that of Britain) has, in the course of the past centuries, proved to be a good assimilator. Among the most "Hungarian" of our writers are István Tömörkény, descendent of the Austrian Steingassner family, or Géza Gárdonyi, born in Gárdony under the name of Géza Ziegler, son of a Saxon evangelical father. A new member of Parliament is Pierre Daher, a GP from Szendrőlád, who came to Hungary from Lebanon. (It is more difficult to pronounce the name of the young British Conservative MP, Daniel Kawczynski.)

Not long ago, a Hungarian Film Week was organised in London, where several films related to emigration were shown, and at a roundtable discussion, six participants discussed the problems of living abroad and the difficulties of assimilation. Among them was a German performance artist who has lived in London for 25 years, because this is where he feels at home.  Then there was a second-generation film historian, born in Hollywood of Hungarian parents, who did not speak our language, but was very much interested in the art of filmdirector Márta Mészáros. As a political refugee who has lived in England for fifty-four years, I represented the caste of the ancient emigrants. Beside me sat a Chinese girl, Xiang Zeng. Just before the discussion started, she turned to me and said in clear, perfect Hungarian: "I think we shall be sharing the external hand-microphone." Xian, a textile designer, arrived at Budapest at the age of seven, at a time when people from China could enter Hungary without a visa. She went to school in Pest, then, as is the custom among wealthy Chinese living in Hungary, she was sent to an English public school where she learnt the most widely used world language, and became a well-educated young lady. She currently lives in Cambridge, where she designs wallpaper and textiles for children's bedrooms. Her favourite city is Budapest.

Another issue that came up during the discussion was whether those applying for immigration to England should be screened, as the new government has decided to do. I answered that they should. There is no need for criminal gangs that rob ATM cash machines, just as there is no need for a German surgeon who has problems with the English language, and who, after commiting a medical malpractice, shouts in German at staff in the operating theatre while the patient bleeds to death.

How should Hungary, whose population is also decreasing, approach this issue? In a relatively small country which is - due to its stormy history - particularly sensitive regarding its national identity, screening is surely even more important than in Great Britain, which is already multi-coloured as a result of its past as a colonial empire.Yet it is possible that the basic demographic problems might be solved more easily if the government allowed immigrants from more distant homelands (and here I'm not just talking about the Chinese) to settle down here in much greater numbers than at the present. For this to happen, both the economic situation and the willingness for inclusion should be more attractive.