Poles head over heels about Britain and Ireland

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Jobs, jobs, and more jobs!
Unemployment levels just keep going down, down, down over here in Poland. The June '07 figures stand at 12.4%, compared to 18% about 12 months ago. The Labour Ministry believe that the level may fall as low as 10% if the current substantial economic growth of about 7% continues steadily. What a great success of the free market and the policies of the conservative Polish administration - Not!!!!


Polonisation of Ireland and Britain
Don't get me wrong - unemployment falling is a good thing. But lets remember that it has been estimated that as many as up to 1.5 million Poles have departed for the lands of milk and honey, that is Eire and Britain, over the past few years, especially since Poland acceded to the E.U. That's a whooping percentage of the labour force, the total population of the country being almost 39 million.

Britain and Ireland initially were and have remained top favourite destinations for Poles hungry for better wages and a decent standard of living, due to the fact that they removed all labour market restrictions for the ten Eastern European States which joined the E.U. on May 1st 2004. Romania and Bulgaria have not fared as well though, with both the latter two States tightening up the labour and social welfare laws to protect their domestic employment markets.

One-way ticket, please
So the statistics keep falling as a result of the high emigration rate to Ireland, Britain, Germany, Sweden and many other places. And now it looks like there is very little intention for the majority to ever return to their homeplace. What may have started out as a summer adventure or a maximum 1-3 year stay with the intent of saving enough dosh to build a nice house back at home, say in Augustow or Sosnowiec, has become a more permanent fixture.

According to a poll published in today's edition of Gazeta Wyborcza

55 percent of Poles who work in Britain definitely plan to stay and 49 percent of those in Ireland. Of the remainder, many have yet to make up their minds.....many intending to bring their families to join them rather than return home.

Though Polish society and the economy now suffers from key skills shortages and crippling health strikes with 1/3rd of the public hospitals and their staff involved, the fruits of Polish often cheaper labour continues to aid low inflation and the labour gap on the British isles.

Irish-Pole Relations
Poles are generally integrating very well in Ireland, apart from the usual couple of idiots and unfortunates who have a tendency to drive mad and kill themselves and others, or drunkards continuing their old habits by getting into fights in their local communities. But these are by no means simply national pathologies - rather, a lethal mixture of the male gender, youth, an inherent loneliness and isolation masked by piss-up rituals, young men's suicidal love for speed; the list is indeed endless, and sometimes ones tragic pitfall is just that - tragic. But by and large, Polish kids are entering the school system and faring successfully; multi-cultural relationships are all the rage; and the Polish people are well-liked by their Irish work colleagues, neighbours while the flipside of the coin also seems to be the case.

Those on the margins
I'd like to write more, at some later stage, about a problem faced by one of the biggest homeless shelters in Dublin. The manager of one of the biggest homeless shelters in Dublin recently told me that they have to hire a translator (€100 per hour) to aid their communication with Polish clients regarding their responsibilities and entitlements, etc. or for example, in the case that very important medical information needs to be relayed to them. There is no financial comeback for the homeless charities regarding this new expenditure. Budgets for the homeless sector are already thinly stretched. The Irish gvt. is not taking this new expense into account when allocating budgets and the Polish gvt., well they frankly don't give a shit about them, cause their domestic unemployment rate is - yes, falling, falling, falling.

They do, on some occasions, give a fuck about their citizens when they go abroad. Remember the case I mentioned some months back, about the Polish courts seeking the extradition by the Irish authorities of a Polish man accused of stealing 2 chickens in his home town, before fleeing to make his fortune in the poultry farms of the Irish countryside.

They sure have their priorities, huh!

Reuters full report on the recent poll is here