A sign of the times in London. The cinema guide now lists films with Polish subtitles.
Borat - Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan (Polish Subtitles)
It is well known that since May 2004 well over 500,000 (and probably nearer 1 million) Poles have come to Britain due to the granting of full employment rights under EU membership by Poland.
This is significant movement indeed when considering Poland only has a population of 40 million and Britain around 60 million. So it is probably fair to say that around 1 in 40 Polish passport holders are currently in Britain and around 1 in 60 people in Britain are currently Polish.
Britain has historical links with Poland- most recently WW2 when many Poles fought bravely as part of British forces on behalf of the Allied war effort. There is a big Polish war memorial to the west of London.
However the scale of recent Polish arrivals has been unprecedented. Whole suburbs of London are now significantly Polish with shops selling Polish food and advertisements in Polish. Large towns such as Southampton have concentrations of Poles- around 1 in 8 people are now Polish.
Polish registered cars are common sights and Polish coaches drive up to London from the Channel ports daily. The budget airline network has expanded hugely and it is possible to get bargain flights to and from Poland for a low as £30 ($50).
Borat - Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan (Polish Subtitles)
It is well known that since May 2004 well over 500,000 (and probably nearer 1 million) Poles have come to Britain due to the granting of full employment rights under EU membership by Poland.
This is significant movement indeed when considering Poland only has a population of 40 million and Britain around 60 million. So it is probably fair to say that around 1 in 40 Polish passport holders are currently in Britain and around 1 in 60 people in Britain are currently Polish.
Britain has historical links with Poland- most recently WW2 when many Poles fought bravely as part of British forces on behalf of the Allied war effort. There is a big Polish war memorial to the west of London.
However the scale of recent Polish arrivals has been unprecedented. Whole suburbs of London are now significantly Polish with shops selling Polish food and advertisements in Polish. Large towns such as Southampton have concentrations of Poles- around 1 in 8 people are now Polish.
Polish registered cars are common sights and Polish coaches drive up to London from the Channel ports daily. The budget airline network has expanded hugely and it is possible to get bargain flights to and from Poland for a low as £30 ($50).
"The non-threatening face of mass-migration"
This huge level of immigration is of course entirely legal under EU law. There is no border hopping needed as between Mexico and the US or for non-EU passport holders between France and Britain. In theory it is quite legal for all 40 million Poles to come to Britain at once. It would be interesting to see when the Government reacted !
Poles mainly seem hard-working and civilised. In fact they are a welcome variation from many British born "citizens". No danger of Catholic Poles sneaking onto planes with liquid explosives hidden in shampoo bottles like some of our "British" cousins. You won't find anyone from Wroclaw taking rucksacks full of explosives and broken glass onto the Tube. Equally you don't (yet?) see Polish youths hanging around in "hoodies" intimidating the elderly. If only the same could be said for all ethnic English youths.
Poles (in the main) are genuinely here to work and behave.
If people were truly honest they would admit that the fact the Poles are often blonde and certainly white means they create less of a threat. If 1 million Somalis had come to Britain in the last 2 years, I am certain reaction would be different.
Even their more Latin looking cousins from Bulgaria and Romania will not get such an easy ride with restrictions recently being announced to prevent similar numbers of Bulgarians and Romanians coming to Britain in 2007.
Poles of course are doing good jobs and jobs that there aren't enough British people to do. We seem to need them.
But one thing is certain London is changing and quite quickly turning Polish. Today I bought my lunch from our Polish cook in the office. Her Lithuanian colleague was arranging the sandwiches. I queued up behind a Polish girl in the Post Office (I noticed she had a well typed job application to be posted). The Poles are everywhere in London.
Welcome to Englandski !
