Why are lots of polish people coming to England?

Show all answers

RichB

Both the UK and Poland are members of the European Union (EU). The EU allows people from any EU country to live and work in any other EU country.

Poland became a full EU member in 2004, which gave its citizens the automatic right to live and work in the UK and other EU countries. Because there were far more jobs in the UK than in Poland, and wages and living conditions were generally better here, a great many Poles (hundreds of thousands of them) migrated to the UK between 2004 and 2007.

A similar thing happened with British people in the early 1980s, when unemployment was high and a lot of UK manual workers went to Germany to look for work. This was depicted in the original ITV series of Auf Weidersehen Pet.

There aren't lots of Poles coming here any more, though - in fact, many of them are going home now, due to the economic situation in the UK getting worse and there being far fewer jobs available for them.

To the person who said:

"The bus companies could`nt get anyone to do the job before the Poles came. There`s your answer. Our young people don`t want to work, the Poles do."

That was because the bus companies were paying crap wages, not because nobody wanted to do the job!

Why would a British person want to earn some pitiful amount like Ā£7 an hour to put up with abusive passengers and bad traffic, when they could earn double that amount as a train driver or a taxi driver?

If they put the wages up they'd get loads of British people applying (and I bet they DO now have loads of Brits applying, now that jobs are scarce elsewhere).

Poland is a poor country, so Ā£7 an hour is actually really good by Polish standards. That's why you have all these Polish bus drivers.

I hate this stupid myth of "Poles being more hard working". If supposedly "lazy" Brits had the opportunity to travel to another country and earn four times their normal wage, I bet they'd be hard working too.

Suzie

Because they can now Poland is part of the EU. Quality of life is better here than in Poland and they can earn heaps more money!
They are taking jobs but they do work - there's the difference! They don't want to come here (like people from other countries) and live on benefits - they want to earn money and strive for better lives for their families. You can't blame them for that, and we allow them in as the EU rules we abide by allow it.

David H

Many of the bus drivers in my town are now Polish. The bus companies could`nt get anyone to do the job before the Poles came. There`s your answer. Our young people don`t want to work, the Poles do.

King Dedede

@RichB: Ā£7 an hour is pretty decent (depending on where you live) i'm British!

Most Poles are actually going home now because of the situation that Britain is in at the moment. Did you think they'd be here forever? Most just want to earn loads of money and then go back to their country.
The pound is low and companies are laying off loads of workers. Especially in low skilled jobs such as manufacturing. That has a massive effect on the amount of workers coming from Eastern Europe.

The low pound is attractive to tourists coming from Europe though and that is one way Britain could get out of Recession. They can do what they never would have been able to do before and come over here on a holiday on the cheap.

The Polish are doing what any British person would do if they had the chance to earn loads of money abroad. They are also nice people!

Al Zymer

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7908867.stm

A lot of the Poles have gone BACK to Poland.

Jock

"It's not that i'm agianst them coming...just like lots of them in my school...people getting P'd off...takin' their jobs".

You aren't racist? Right! Probably coming here for the same reason English people have emigrated all over the world, to get a better life. It's obvious & there's nothing wrong with it.

nemeczek

My compatriots flock to Britain because of two things - great weather and excellent food.

Nice marmot!

Poland joined the EU in 2004. One if the main ideas behind the EU is free movement of people and goods in the member states so in theory anyone in one of the member states can go and work in any other. So you are free to get a job in Warsaw in you like! The only problem is that if some states are considerably wealthier than others then you get a load of people on the move. No government can now say no to foreign work from within another member state as its against the EU rules they signed up for. I can see why it might annoy local workers!

Annie C

Because Poland was admitted to the European Union in 2003, so they can now move freely to other EU countries. In my experience they are very nice people! :)

Sorry, that's right, they were voted to join the EU in 2003, but actually joined in 2004.

Rafal K

Thank you King Dedede... drop in to Poland, I would recommend KrakĆ³w :)
I've found an interesting article on http://www.portalodszkodowan.pl about people who got insured from job loss and never got their money because the insurance company got bankrupt in UK, while here in Poland the customer sales went up last month and in December the salaries went up as well. Unfortunately we will have higher unemployment among people with low qualifications, so probably those in England will not come back

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: