Our Polish Solicitors are ready to help. Polish people living in Britain are almost 20 per cent more likely to have a job than those born in the UK, a study of official figures shows. In fact, the roots of the Polish community in the UK date back to the 1940s. A Polish grocery in west London. And it's undeniable that Polish people and locals in NI faced a steep learning curve. EU immigrants were scapegoats during the campaign. [iv] During Nazi and Communist rule—from 1940 until 1990—the Poles set up a government-in-exile in London. Polish migration to the UK did not end there. Should I move to Germany or Norway now and start everything over?”, Many British Poles ask themselves the same question. Since Poland joined the European Union in 2004, and thus Polish people had a legal right to come and live and work in the UK, over 800,000 people have made the move from Poland to the UK. An estimated 916,000 residents in the UK have Polish nationality (16.5% of the total number of non-British nationals resident in the UK). Most of them are guest workers from the European Union contract labour program, as more Poles obtain have light industrial jobs. She is a member of the Migration Policy Program at the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), a leading Polish think-tank and an independent center for policy research and analysis. According to research done by Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, EU immigrants are better educated, more likely to work, and less likely to claim benefits than the UK-born residents. Boris Johnson has invited Polish people to come to Britain as immigrants, dismissing claims that the UK is lurching towards “xenophobia”. [x] K. Wawer-Dziedziak, “Brexit – pierwsze reakcje Polaków w Wielkiej Brytanii,” Biuletyn Migracyjny no 55, http://www.biuletynmigracyjny.uw.edu.pl/55-grudzien-2016/brexit-pierwsze-reakcje-polakow-w-wielkiej-brytanii. Please visit our dedicated Polish website at www.adwokat.co.uk to view the services that our expert lawyers specialise in. [xvi] But the UK government intends to use the issue as a bargaining chip during Brexit negotiations with the EU and avoids any conclusive statements. It would be a big change, far too big”—says Paulina Panus. There have always been more non-EU born workers than EU-born workers, though this gap narrowed from 2004 to 2017 (Figure 1). The Polish government announced in February 2017 that it expects from 100,000 to even 200,000 Polish returnees from the UK. Immigration needs balance and when the balance us tipped everyone see’s what they see. They will also discuss opinions about different aspects of migration. Please visit our dedicated Polish website at www.adwokat.co.uk to view the services that our expert lawyers specialise in. The share of workers in the UK who were born abroad has increased over the past 15 years. But some British Poles were not surprised, like Magda Widawska, a 30-year-old receptionist from London. Unemployed and homeless people might just be forced to do so, while those with “global identity” might want to seek new opportunities in other EU states or even outside Europe. The number of EU citizens moving to the UK has decreased since the Brexit vote. [iv] J. Isaac, “British Post-War Migration,” Cambridge 1954, p. 176. The existing Open Comments threads will continue to exist for those who do not subscribe to Independent Premium. [xvii] J. Borger, “Poles on Brexit: ‘I don’t many will stay. At the Polish Institute of International Affairs and the Migration Policy Department of the Ministry of the Interior of Poland, she was responsible for international cooperation in the field of migration and coordinated various activities within the framework of the Prague Process. Six local teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of his killing, which police have said may have been racially motivated. [36] - Life ~ 2015; How has Polish immigration into the UK helped Poland? The most insightful comments on all subjects will be published daily in dedicated articles. Nawet 200 tysięcy Polaków może wrócić do Polski,” 27 February 2017, http://www.money.pl/gospodarka/wiadomosci/artykul/brexit-praca-w-wielkiej-brytanii-polacy-w,136,0,2270600.html. There are now 695,000 Polish … Poland overtakes India as the most common country of birth for UK immigrants as new statistics show estimated net migration remains close to record levels. Furthermore, 55% of Britons believe there is a fundamental clash between Islam and the values of British society, according to a YouGov poll. Back to table of contents . The reassurance comes a day after hundreds of people marched through the Essex commuter town of Harlow in silent defiance and remembrance after the brutal killing of Polish national Arek Jozwik. But the situation is not clear or easy for everyone. A 2014 survey indicated that 71 per cent of Poles had been (or had known another Pole who was) subjected to either verbal or physical abuse at the hands of British whites or other groups. Despite article 50 kick-start, the emotions of the EU referendum seem to be down now and life is gradually getting back to normal for the majority of British Poles. The only difference is that Polish citizens will be tied to stay for only one year, thanks to a temporary non-renewable visa. UK’s Polish migrants. The Foreign Affairs Committee analysis of Brexit was regarded by some academics as a reliable source of information: https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmfaff/545/545.pdf. That is most likely the reason why the Polish immigration in the UK rosefrom 95,000 in 2004, the year Poland became part of the EU, to 550,000 in 2010. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW… 14 . “I think that it was a very bad decision to leave the EU, made by Britons on the basis of a biased and manipulated information. 12. Many Britons think of Polish immigration as a recent phenomenon. The suburbs blur past the window. “I could not recognise the country, which I had always praised for its tolerance and openness. “I do not believe that someone will tell me now that I cannot live in the UK because I do not have the British passport”—says Paulina. “We look forward to welcoming them to Britain in a few years’ time,” he told reporters at a press conference. For example, the Polish Express Newspaper, sponsored a migrant workers strike in response to increased policy discussions against illegal immigration. According to new data from Poland ‘s Central Statistics Office, the number of Poles in the UK has fallen by 98,000. If you lose such a powerful player, there is chaos. 1.7 Research Structure. “What leaving the European Union does enable us to do is say what I think the British people were very clear about: which is that they don’t want free movement to continue in the way that it has done in the past,” she told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show in an interview broadcast on Sunday morning. Before 2004 there were no more than 30 Polish people living in NI, according to Mr Bator. Since the Second World War there have been relatively small numbers of women coming to marry Polish men in the UK, of doctors and academics accepting invitations to work here in their professions, and of people escaping uncertainty and sometimes persecution in the Solidarity era of the early 1980s. [vii] See for example: P. Yeung, “Brexit campaign was ‘criminally irresponsible’, says legal academic”, the Independent, 2 July 2016, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/brexit-eu-referendum-michael-dougan-leave-campaign-latest-a7115316.html. The “undercurrent of negative attitudes against Poles” (23) that have been expressed in newspapers since Poland joined the EU have fueled a response from Polish newspapers in the UK. Now, even as the British Prime Minister Theresa May has finally triggered the article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and kick-started Brexit, little is known about the future of EU citizens in the UK. This led to a huge rise in migration from Poland to the UK due to the EU’s freedom of movement policy for workers. The independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) today released a report about the impacts of EU immigrant workers on the UK economy. 2 Nov 2007 #63. “I could have predicted the result of the EU referendum by observing all that noise in the media”—says Magda. According to a survey by IBRIS—a Polish market and social research foundation—undertaken in June and July 2016, just 5.5 percent of British Poles were considering a return migration to Poland (of which 57.7 percent were aged 65 and above) while 12.1 percent of them were thinking about moving to another EU state—just like Łukasz Biercki who, if forced to move, would go to Sweden. Most It might be surprising but not every British Pole thinks that the decision to leave the EU was wrong. 27 November 2020 National Statistics Immigration statistics, year ending June 2020 second edition Polish migrants on why they moved to Liverpool UK IMMIGRATION DEBATE LATEST STORIES East European worker influx slows. In 2018, 10% of people working in the UK were born outside of the EU. After a visit to a British Council language school in Poland Mr Johnson said he was impressed with the students and welcomed them to come to the UK. Paulina Panus: “At the time of the referendum I just returned to the UK after an eight-month travel break. But, regardless of their views on the referendum, all seem to ponder now how Brexit will affect them financially. I had been living in the UK for six years before that break and it suddenly turned out that I could not apply for residency status because the maximum period you can spend abroad in order not to lose the continuity of your stay is three months. [iii] For the full text of the Act see: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/10-11/19. [xxii] “Co piąty Polak może wrócić z Wielkiej Brytanii: ‘Jesteśmy na zakręcie historii’,” TVN24 BiS, 5 March 2017, http://tvn24bis.pl/z-kraju,74/w-brytania-morawiecki-zachecal-studentow-do-powrotu-do-polski,720713.html. Bulgaria and Romania curbs stay. Students and those with fewer stable connections with the UK (e.g. Let’s go into details to find out all the information that Polish citizens need to know about Brexit. Who would have thought? Magda Widawska adds: “I want to believe in such justice that people who arrived in the UK some time ago and have been working hard from the very beginning and paying their taxes will be allowed to stay.”. Polish is also the most common non-British nationality in the UK with 1 million Polish nationals resident in the UK in 2016. In Q1 20016: There were around 908,000 people born in Poland, and 984,000 nationals of Poland living in the UK. 3. Boston is the European free movement of people at its best. The British ship will sail off the EU shores, but a strong Polish crew will certainly remain on board. There are approximately 900,000 Polish nationals living in Britain, the largest group of foreign nationals in the UK, and Polish is the second most widely spoken language in Britain after English. In fact, gay Poles decide to book a one-way flight ticket to London to escape discrimination. Boris Johnson has invited Polish people to come to Britain as immigrants, dismissing claims that the UK is lurching towards “xenophobia”. The number of Polish nationals living in the UK increased from around 69,000 in 2004 (when Poland joined the European Union) to around 853,000 in 2014. Figure 2 - For example, see below the population that is resident in the UK who were Polish … Several things stand out about this migration. “There was also this strange mood that I could sense even in my workplace, which is a private club for artists, businessmen, and journalists in London. [xiii] On 27 August 2016, Arek Jóźwik, a Polish immigrant from Harlow, was attacked and beaten to death. [ii] J. Wadsworth, S. Dhingra, G. Ottaviano, J. They have invested a lot of effort in settling down and are not willing to easily abandon what they have built in the UK. You have to know how to do it and how to function, also economically, without the EU.” Over a longer term, the condition of UK’s economy after Brexit will certainly determine, for many British Poles, the rationale on whether to stay or move to other countries. [viii] Consult relevant articles in EU Referendum Analysis 2016: Media, Voters and the Campaign, http://www.referendumanalysis.eu/. Inside the UK, the free movement of people, which is one of four fundamental freedoms of the EU, stopped to be perceived as an agreement working for the mutual benefit of Britons and other Europeans, quickly becoming one of the bête noire of the British Eurosceptic movement. [xxiv] Others think that it was not a serious referendum in the first place: “Taking into account the fact that the next day after the referendum the top question on Google was “What is the EU?”, I think that an average UK citizen does not know much about the Union”—says Marcin Wąs.[xxv]. I worked on a one year project on the mental health of post-accession Polish migrants in the UK (‘Migration, Stress and Mental Health: An Exploratory Study of Post-accession Polish Immigrants to the United Kingdom’). Yet, for most of them, including Magda herself, the answer is “no.”. More than 40 percent of British Poles declared they would try to stay in the UK at any cost. Many British Poles are also very serious about their new lives in the UK. Presently, as the outflow has not materialised, the British Poles try to live their lives as they lived before, adjusting when necessary.