For example, during the referendum campaign in France for the European constitution, the “Polish plumber” became a symbol of the threat that European integration was supposed to pose to French workers’ standards of living. But the impact of free migration (when allowed) on French plumbers’ incomes is in fact minimal, not least because of the smallness of the new member states compared to the whole of Western Europe.
比如，在法国为欧洲宪法而举行的公民公决中，“波兰水暖工”成为了欧洲一体化将会对法国工人的生活水准带来威胁的一个象征。但是如果允许自由移民的话，对于法国水暖工的收入的影响实际上是相当小的，尤其是因为新的成员国与整个西欧相比实在是小得可怜。尽管两国对东扩的欧盟开放移民，英国和爱尔兰的工人的收入并没有产生很大程度地降低。