A Human Tidal Wave, or a Ripple of Hysteria?
By MARK LANDLER
DEUTSCHNEUDORF, Germany - Ask a roomful of Germans in this secluded town on the Czech border what will happen now that the European Union has opened its doors to the east and they answer with a line that could have been lifted from a child's fable: "The Gypsies will come."
The Gypsies in question are a ragged settlement of 20,000 people, about 12 miles southeast of here, in the Czech city of Most.
The townsfolk are convinced that these newly minted Europeans will assert their right to move freely within the union by picking up stakes and crossing the German border. They foresee Gypsy caravans, with clanking pots and shoeless children, next to their well-kept backyards.
Even Europeans whose yards are half a continent away share an atavistic fear of the invading horde from the east. The week before the union welcomed 75 million new residents on May 1, tabloids in Britain published daily hyperventilating reports about the coming deluge.