As a Swindon person just returned from a long business trip to Romania, I want to dispel a few myths.

I have met many Romanians in my industry of market research and none of them have any wish to go to the UK and take people’s jobs here.

Firstly unemployment is around 6.7 per cent, so not much more than the UK and well below Italy and Spain.

I would strongly suggest people from those countries are more likely to come to the UK, especially Spain which has unemployment of over 23 per cent, but the reality, is of course that Spaniards and Italians are more interested in Germany where there are more better paid jobs than here.

Also the idea that Romania is a poor country is not really correct.

Internet infrastructure is far better than Germany and the UK. Indeed the Akamai report (akamai.de/dl/akamai/ akamai-soti-q313.pdf) shows Romania in sixth position worldwide for internet connection speeds, ahead of both the UK and Germany.

From what I see the main threat that Romania poses to the UK economy is through business prices outsourcing.

The education system here is good and young people often speak at least three languages fluently, including English. Many people there speak a second language here anyway like Hungarian, German or Serbian, yet the minimum wage is only 220 Euros a month.

There is no surprise, therefore, that many EU companies are setting up in Romania and the economy is doing very well, yet UKIP talks about thousands of Romanians coming to the UK to take people’s jobs. Yes we are losing some jobs but they are being created in Romania. It is not Romanians coming to the UK to take them that is the major trend.

The final point I would like to make is it’s actually a really nice country and well worth going there on holiday. I have been to Bucharest the capital, Brasov and Timisoara, which all have a lot of interest to see, especially Brasov.

Communication has been easy (I speak Italian which is related to Romanian) and I have not felt in any danger at any time, including when I took a 14 hour sleeper train from Bucharest to Timisoara.

Jonathan Sheldrake Firefly Avenue Swindon