Wary Of Roma, Europe Cold-Shoulders Its New Eastern Workmates

39-year-old Roma Mitko, struggles to make ends meet in Berlin as Germany, the euro zone's biggest and most resilient economy, with a low birthrate and unemployment of just 6.9 percent, continues to be a magnet for migrants. Germanymight welcome Bulgarian and Romanian professionals to fill staff shortages in hospitals and business, as citizens get full access to the job market of Europe in 2014, but they do not want responsibility for these countries' poor - and especially not for the Roma.

BERLIN, GERMANY (REUTERS) -  Mitko keeps a tidy squat, a tartan blanket on the bed and his clothes stowed away.

Lit by candles, heated by a gas canister and padlocked when he is out, it is the 39-year-old Roma's haven inside an old graffiti-covered ice factory in Berlin.

For many European Union politicians, Mitko and his neighbours in the squalid Eisfabrik are a warning of what will happen next year when Romania and Bulgariaget full access to the job market - and welfare systems - of Europe.Germans, Brits, Danes, Austrians and Dutch are having second thoughts about a second wave of eastward EU enlargement in 2007, which made such poor countries members of the bloc but with a seven-year delay for access to some countries' job markets.

The tone of debate varies. David Cameron in Britain has fulminated against "vast population movements caused by huge disparities in income".

One Danish politician has spoken of the need to "stress" Romanian beggars. German mayors have defended free movement in principle but say they are overwhelmed by poor migrants with no jobs and no health cover.

Across Europe the media are railing against "welfare tourism", and politicians, fearing this will boost the far right in May's European Parliament vote, are telling theEuropean Commission to enforce the existing rules more strictly - or change them.

While Britain and Germany might welcome Bulgarian and Romanian professionals to fill staff shortages in hospitals and business, they do not want responsibility for these countries' poor - and especially not for the Roma.

"I have left Bulgaria, because there was only work for Bulgarians. The Bulgarians take all the social benefits and work, nothing has been left for the Roma people. The Roma people have nothing to eat. They just collect bottles. They have learned some German to be able to ask for bottles," said Dimitar "Mitko" Todorov, waving a cigarette.

Leaving behind an ex-wife and three children, he came five years ago to work in construction but injured his back and now earns a few euros a day by begging or odd jobs like shovelling snow in winter.

"I have never received one cent. I have lost my job, but never got any social welfare. Things aren't good, I don't know what to do. There are many Roma people here, many Turks, many Bulgarians. Everyone wants a piece of bread," said Mitko.

As the euro zone's biggest and most resilient economy, with a low birthrate and unemployment of just 6.9 percent, Germany is a magnet for migrants.

With double-digit percentage rises in net inflows for three years, it received 67,000 Romanians and 29,000 Bulgarians in the first half of 2013 alone.

The government does not know whether this will rise dramatically from January 1, 2014.

"Yes, in certain job areas we experience in Germany a lack of skilled employees. Therefore people with the respective qualifications have good chances of employment and will find a job easily. Recently we have of course noticed that also many people without a qualification come. Their share is about 30 percent. We have to simply monitor the situation and we think, that their part might increase slightly," said Paul Ebsen, spokesperson of the Federal Employment Agency.

EU rules set down in 2004 state that citizens who move around should not become "an unreasonable burden on the social assistance system" of their hosts.

Brussels cites data showing that "mobile EU citizens" are no more of a burden on welfare than locals and, being younger, are more likely to work.

Laszlo Andor, European Commissioner for employment, says benefit tourism is "neither widespread nor systematic" and represents just 0.7-1.0 percent of the overall EU population.

But it is enough to bait populists such as the right-wing UK Independence Party(UKIP), which in turn elicits a response from mainstream parties. Cameron, seeing the threat from UKIP's anti-immigration stance in May's EU vote and in the British election in 2015, now wants to put limits on free movement and benefits in the EU.

His centre-right allies on the mainland share his concerns and are also lobbying the Commission.

In France, the ruling Socialists worry that workers from low-pay countries undercutting labour costs could boost the far-right National Front in the EU election.

Fears of "Polish plumbers" flooding Europe after enlargement in 2004 contributed to France's vote against an EU constitution a year later, and British and Dutch opinion polls suggest the EU's eastward expansion remains unpopular.

"We have the free movement of labour in Europe and that is a main idea. That's important for us and we should keep this idea. But freedom of movement doesn't mean free access to our German social welfare system for everyone. That's not the freedom of movement we were thinking of," said interior expert for the Christian Social Union (CSU), Hans-Peter Uhl.

Romania and Bulgaria are pushing back against attempts to limit the "fundamental EU principle" of free movement. Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta vows to tackle abuse by people who "drive their Mercedes to collect benefits"; Bulgaria's Plamen Oresharski is angry at what he calls British "hysteria".

Immigration expert Klaus J. Bade warns against focussing on a minority of immigrants moving to western European countries.

"The total immigration from Romania and Bulgaria doesn't consist of immigration of the poor, but immigration of elites. There are 80 percent of employees on the German labour market, 46 percent of them are qualified, 22 percent even highly qualified, and have an academic degree. They are not meant to be included in the debate, we always talk about the last 20 percent and about their concentration in economically underdeveloped regions, especially the Ruhr area," said Bade.

Germany will soon introduce a minimum legal wage of 8.50 euros ($11.71) per hour, and Britain's is 6.31 pounds ($10.30) - many times higher than the Romanian rate of 4.74 lei ($1.47) or Bulgaria's 1.85 levs ($1.30).

Romania and Bulgaria pay unemployment, childcare and heating subsidies, but their benefits - and even their minimum guaranteed monthly wages of 800 lei and 310 lev, respectively - are far less than can be earned in state handouts in Britain and Germany.

Back in the Eisfabrik, Mitko says he feels no hostility in Berlin, which last year built a monument to the 500,000 Roma and Sinti murdered in the Holocaust, known as "Porajmos" in the Romani language.

EU immigration rules hold little interest for Mitko. What he wants is a nice, clean bathroom to help him integrate into German society.