Poles in Britain are frightened. Since the UK voted to leave the EU, British nationalists have felt free to spew their xenophobic bile against immigrants, particularly those from Poland. The far-right accuses the roughly 800,000 Poles living there of “stealing British jobs, scarfing up (mis-using) British benefits and committing crimes against Britons”. It’s now scattering pamphlets calling us vermin and scum and telling us to go home. Poles who have lived in the UK for years report being spat on and sneered at. In southwest England, thugs set fire to a Polish family’s garden shed. Polish children are crying at school as their classmates jeer that they’ll soon be deported. So now the rush is on “to get a British passport”. Poles who’ve created businesses and raised families in the UK are scrambling to get citizenship. But it’s not easy. Britain requires that any new national be a resident for five years, speak fluent English, have no criminal record, and pay a fee of around £1,000 to become a citizen. And in any case, the question still remains: will even those who do qualify to stay feel welcome? (Fakt24.pl, Warsaw, also published in The Week).
It is reported, circumstantially, that Poles emigrate because they hate the Polish culture of humourless suspicion, political extremism and lack of communal feeling that was bred by communism and brutal government and which pervades all Polish life. People seldom smile or offer help or kindness to others. At least, this is the reported atmosphere.
From our perspective, Poles are generally well educated and trained, work hard and well, and out-perform many American and British people. These are the immigrants we need in an aging society. There may be a small number who devise scams to exploit welfare, illegally pocketing housing, child and other benefits. Where this can be established it has to be stopped – it can’t be that difficult to prevent. The small minority of crooks are being used by equally unpleasant thugs to blacken the reputations of keen, hard-working, skilled and English-speaking Poles. If Fakt24 is correct we should get the bullying stopped.
I totally agree! Fantastic article as always.
Personally I know two Polish people. One is a construction worker in my hometown, who helped my family rebuild our conservatory. He did an excellent job. The other is a fellow student at my university, who is really lovely and intelligent. Interestingly enough, she’s pretty conservative in her views. But the anti immigration rhetoric from the right may out her off conservatism, similar to how Trump is alienating what would otherwise be conservative Muslims and Hispanics.