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Post by valpomike on Aug 23, 2009 23:19:16 GMT 1
Here in the U.S.A. many have lost jobs to others, some from far away, others just south of us, but life goes on. If you do a good job, and work hard, most of the time, you will have a job.
Mike
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Post by Bonobo on Sept 21, 2009 20:56:02 GMT 1
yet poles are leaving in droves again.. something here doesn't add up. Hmm, you`d better read the text Turnstiles not floodgates for Polish workers
By Rob Broomby
BBC News, Warsaw
Ania Rosiak has fallen in love with her native city.
After working for almost 14 months in a bank in Glasgow she is thrilled to be back in the Polish capital Warsaw.
Tucking into waffles and cream by the fountain in Saski Park she tells me her time in Britain was an adventure; "a very important episode" in her life, rather than a migration journey.
Since some former communist countries joined the European Union in 2004, around 1.3 million East Europeans have travelled to Britain to work, but by the end of 2008 almost half of them had already returned.
That still leaves a not insignificant 700,000 in the UK, but a report on global migration patterns after the recession, commissioned by the BBC, showed that though many migrants around the world had decided to stay on in their new homes and try to survive the downturn, migrants from the former communist countries have been going home, and fewer new migrants are coming.
Less fruitful
The reasons are simple: when Poland joined the EU in 2004, unemployment was at 20% whereas the British economy was strong and there were plenty of jobs.
All that has changed now. The Polish currency, the zloty, has strengthened against the pound making work in Britain less fruitful to migrants, and while the UK has been in recession, Poland has just registered modest growth of 1.1%.
Warsaw now has an unemployment rate below that of London, but the report by the Migration Policy Institute says movement between the Eastern European countries and Britain is now "temporary and circular", with people coming and going all the time, often seasonally.
The freedom of movement within the EU means that the UK labour market is always just a budget airline ticket or bus fare away.
Changed model
Karolina Kosmala of the Omega Resource Group says her company has had to change its business plan.
"Our model has changed completely," she says.
Where once they were recruiting skilled Polish staff for UK companies, they are now trying to attract them back home.
"We are taking people from Great Britain to Italy, from Italy to Poland and from Poland to Germany," she says.
Ania is now hoping to set up her own translation business. Like many young, well-educated Poles, she was doing a job in Britain for which she was overqualified.
"How long can someone with a masters degree in law or engineering work as a hotel chambermaid or barman?" asks Michael Dembinski of the British Polish Chamber of Commerce.
'London is my life'
At Warsaw's main international bus terminal the traffic to and from Britain has eased, but the coaches still head for London full of people.
Bus from Warsaw to London
Regular busses still run from Warsaw to London
Breaking off in the midst of an emotional farewell to his son, one Polish builder, who would not give his name, says he loves Britain.
"Poland is my heart," he says, but "London is my life". He is not planning to return to Poland permanently anytime soon.
Modern migration, at least within the EU, is now more like a turnstile than a one way street.
But just as claims of floods of migrants arriving in the UK may have only ever told half the story, the suggestion that they are all heading home is equally deceptive.
For Michael Dempinski the change of direction is "significant, but we have not seen a million in and a million out", he says. |
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Post by valpomike on Sept 21, 2009 22:54:52 GMT 1
Ania looks HOT, and I am sure she can find work any place.
Mike
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Post by locopolaco on Sept 21, 2009 23:27:53 GMT 1
yet poles are leaving in droves again.. something here doesn't add up. Hmm, you`d better read the text notice she loves her Warszawa.   ------------- I actually considered getting a job in PL earlier in the year but, I can't afford to live there.. it's way too expensive and the wages are measly at best.. life is way easier here and I know i'd miss my guns and cars and all the room we have here.  |
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Post by locopolaco on Sept 21, 2009 23:29:27 GMT 1
Here in the U.S.A. many have lost jobs to others, some from far away, others just south of us, but life goes on. If you do a good job, and work hard, most of the time, you will have a job. Mike yes, most of the time that is the case BUT.. Mitch and Bush both really didn't help so that is not really true right now, unfortunately. |
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Post by Bonobo on Sept 23, 2009 19:19:48 GMT 1
Downturn puts paid to Polish mobility
By Jan Cienski in Warsaw
Financial Times
September 16 2009
Patryk Szafor had considered leaving Poland to work as a builder in Sweden - but in the end decided that it made more sense to ride out the eco- nomic crisis at home rather than to try his luck abroad.
He might make more money outside Poland but "there are jobs here if people want them", Mr Szafor, a bald and tattooed man, said recently as he stood outside a labour office in northern Warsaw.
His decision was not unique. Once notorious for their mobility and ubiquity in western European cities like London, Poles have responded to the crisis by staying put. The many Poles who would have previously considered leaving to work abroad have stayed home, while those who had left for the most part showed no in- tention of returning to Poland.
That is not the way it was supposed to happen. Not long after coming to power in 2007, Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, pulled together a working group to get the country ready for the expected return of some of the millions of Poles who had left the country since it joined the European Union in 2004.
"We began work about 18 months ago, before the crisis hit, with the understanding that no matter what the economic situation, some people would be coming back," says Pawel Kaczmarczyk, an adviser to Mr Tusk involved with the powroty.gov. pl website, which provides information to Poles thinking of coming home.
The fear was any global downturn would mean a large influx of returnees as they fled slumping eco- nomies in the UK and Ire- land, countries that had welcomed Poles since 2004. The worry was the expected orderly return would turn into a flood, overwhelming unprepared Polish authorities.
But it seems Poles who left the country in recent years are not returning in large numbers. "There is no wave of people leaving," says Joanna Bak, a Polish journalist in the UK. "I certainly haven't noticed it among my friends."
Those Poles who have lost jobs get more generous benefits in the UK than they would back in Poland - so there is not much incentive to leave, she points out.
One of the only comprehensive studies of the subject, performed by Krystyna Iglicka of Warsaw's Centre for International Studies, found the number of Poles leaving Poland had fallen: "The economic crisis has not caused - at least, so far - mass returns. It is possible to carefully state that only a small proportion of migrants are returning to Poland."
That is not to say there are no returns - but those coming home permanently seem to be better qualified and making good salaries.
"I never saw migration as permanent," says Maciej Mochol, a consultant with Oracle, the technology supplier, who worked in Britain for Accenture, the consultancy.
"I wanted to work abroad for a western company, but I never thought of Poland as a place to leave permanently. My wife and I are happy to be back - here, you're a normal part of society; you are among your own."
Although Poles seeking their fortunes in the wealthier countries of western Europe have been one of the most prominent regional stories during the past five years, the statistics of the phenomenon are patchy. Estimates for the number of Poles who have left vary from 1m to 3m, and there are few reliable counts of those who return.
In communist times millions of Poles also emigrated, seeking a better life in the US and western Europe - but those departures tended to be permanent because of the politics involved. The thought had been once Poland was democratic and in the EU, migrants would find it much easier to move back and forth.
That is the case for a subset of migrants, who may spend a few months working abroad, then return for a time to work or to visit family in Poland before heading out again.
However, for people who have taken the plunge and moved abroad permanently, those departures appear to be almost as sticky as those undertaken during communist times.
A few years ago migration seemed to be a serious problem for the country. There were worries about the number of doctors, scientists and other specialists moving abroad. Sectors of the economy such as construction were forced to increase salaries because of a shortage of qualified workers.
Some cities like Wroclaw even sent delegations to the UK to try to lure workers home.
However, those efforts turned out not to be very effective - and the impetus to tempt back Poles has waned with the advent of the crisis.
"The government has fairly limited instruments [with which] to entice people to return - these are individual decisions; it's difficult to influence them," says Mr Kaczmarczyk.
This is the sixth and final part of a series examining the impact of the economic crisis on migrants worldwide.
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Post by Bonobo on Sept 23, 2009 20:26:32 GMT 1
Except for medical care. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D |
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Post by valpomike on Sept 23, 2009 21:47:12 GMT 1
I had great medical care, in Warsaw, my last visit, and did not cost much, very cheep, in fact. Whenever I tell some one here, what I payed for what I got, they don't believe me.
Mike
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Post by Bonobo on Oct 31, 2009 21:08:20 GMT 1
150,000 Ukrainians work in Poland
thenews.pl
25.10.2009
About 150,000 Ukrainians legally work in Poland, mainly in agriculture, construction or as personal drivers.
As a Ukrainian citizen, is possible to work in Poland for six months out of 12 with only the employers written permission for a permit. According to a survey carried out amongst the registered Ukrainian workers in the country, 70 percent want to earn money and then return home.
The research was presented at a conference in Warsaw entitled 'Migration Politics: Polish and Ukrainian Perspectives, ' and showed that hiring migrant workers or foreigners is a relatively new practice in Poland because the tradition did not really exist pre-1989 when mainly only specialists, academics or artists from abroad were employed in Poland.
In recent years, the number of Ukrainians leaving their country to seek employment abroad wavers between 2 million and 4.5 million people, with target countries being Russia, Portugal, Italy and Poland.
Estimates put the number of illegal or unregistered Ukrainians in Poland at 300,000 and about 2,500 people are deported from Poland to the Ukraine annually.
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Post by Bonobo on Nov 22, 2009 16:36:01 GMT 1
Poland: the lost generation that fled hard-fought freedoms
Occupied, and suppressed, Poland's 20th century history was as bleak as its future now seems rosy. Why then have so many young Poles left never to return since 2004?
Ian Traynor
guardian.co. uk
Monday 9 November 2009
Tereza Sawerska, 76, with her daughter Monika and granddaughter Marta. Photograph: Graeme Robertson
Sitting with her daughter and grand-daughter in one of Warsaw's poshest coffee shops, Tereza Sawerska dwells on Poland's 20th century. In the 1940s as a child she trudged the country lanes with her father in search of a bit of bread, stealing carrots from the fields as the Nazi occupation and slaughter engulfed Poland. In the 60s, as a young mother, she tramped miles across Warsaw through teargas and barricades to fetch her daughter from kindergarten as the hated riot police dealt with rebel students. In the 80s, the retired tax administrator kept her head down to survive communist martial law.
"People left home and did not return. We didn't know what happened to them," the 76-year-old recalled. "If you said something random, you were in big trouble. Get beaten or sent to jail."
Marta, her 24-year-old granddaughter, sighs impatiently. She's heard it all before. "I've never known a Poland like this. It's all just history. I'm just happy I don't need to live in a world like that."
Then Tereza summons a long-suppressed memory from the early 50s. She had a boyfriend at school. He took part in a protest against the Russians, then imposing Stalinism in Warsaw. The teenage boy vanished. "They were arrested very quickly, taken to a terrible prison. He wrote me letters. But they were censored, bits blacked out."
Monika and Marta, Tereza's daughter and granddaughter, turn damp-eyed at a little bit of family history they have never heard before.
One country and one family. Three women, three generations, three Polands, exemplifying the change and social mobility wrought by the revolution symbolised by the fall of the wall.
In recent years, Marta has been in Bangkok and Berlin, Cairo and Canada, London and Paris. She has her own firm teaching foreigners Polish and helping them set up some of the 1.7m businesses that have transformed Poland into one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing places in Europe, the only EU state not to dip into recession this year.
Her grandmother' s life spans Poland's authoritarian inter-war republic, 45 years of Soviet communism, and 20 years of independent democracy. Between the two of them, Monika, a 48-year-old divorced bank worker, says the communist years now seem like a distant bad dream. You couldn't buy toilet paper. There were ration cards, queues for bad sausage. If a delivery of new shoes appeared in a shop window, you just bought a pair whether they were the right size or not.
She laughs: "Everything was grey and ugly. When I think about my youth, it was all about trying to make things a bit more pretty and colourful.
"It's incredible how people lived. They were bugging the phones, you couldn't talk to people, you never knew who was listening to you or would use something against you. But nowadays we've forgotten all that. It's like history, not part of your life any more."
There is still, of course, plenty of greyness and ugliness in Poland. But 20 years after the fall of the wall, a revolution set in train in Warsaw 10 months earlier in 1989, Marta and her generation are too pushy, too busy, and too absorbed in their successful young lives and careers to sit around pondering politics or wondering how they got here.
"I know that Poland has changed incredibly. But for me it's been more to do with technology, mobile phones and the internet. Solidarity? I don't even know how the change in the political situation came."
It came in February 1989, via the "round table", the historic compromise struck by dissidents and ruling communists that ushered in a bloodless revolution and set the template for the liberation of the rest of Soviet Europe, a unique and triumphant dismantling of dictatorship peacefully that climaxed at the wall on a cold and damp Thursday evening 20 years ago this week.
Solidarity protesters march through the Gdansk shipyard in 1988, the cradle of opposition to the communist regime and which sowed the seeds of the 1989 revolutions across eastern Europe. Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features
The result two decades on, according to Adam Michnik, a giant of the revolution and one of the architects of the round table pact, is the most successful Poland in 300 years. The same might be said about the Baltic states, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, all in Nato, all in the European Union, and all in the throes of a huge catch-up exercise in modernisation driven by the transfers of tens of billions of euros from western to eastern Europe.
"You have a curious combination of external security and internal democratic order with a modest but successful economic system," says Andrzej Rychard, director of Warsaw's centre for social sciences. "That hasn't happened that often in the history of this country."
The change has been wrenching, its speed dizzying. Rychard is another whose life chances have been transformed. His father was a farmer from the rural east who came to Warsaw to work on the building sites. Rychard is 41, a successful and wealthy tax consultant employing 20 people and advising "high-value clients". His 13-year-old son is privately educated and has all the latest gadgets and toys. Despite his success, Rychard is less than satisfied.
"We're the lucky generation. From my perspective, things look good," he says. "But there's not too much positive in what has happened. The whole history of privatisation has been an exercise in robbery. The old system was a nightmare, but this is not a democracy."
The grumbling is echoed in opinion polls across the region. A survey of Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Hungarians last week from Warsaw's Institute of Public Affairs found a solid majority, except among the eternally gloomy Hungarians, satisfied with the "transformation" of the past two decades, but a sizeable minority frustrated.
While between 53% and 68% of Slovaks, Poles and Czechs believed life had improved, 65% of Hungarians thought things were no better or worse.
"It's surprising how many are not so enthusiastic about democracy," said Malgorzata Falkowska-Warska, a researcher at the institute.
The social scientists also conducted a focus group of young people and were even more surprised to find a strong degree of cynicism about the drama of the past two decades. "We were shocked that the young were very ambivalent about the advantages of freedom and democracy. We expected them to be much more idealistic," says Falkowska-Warska.
One of the big benefits of the relatively new-found liberties, repeatedly mentioned, has been the freedom to travel. But the wanderlust, paradoxically, is also one of the most disturbing factors. The freedom to travel has prompted the most extraordinary exodus of modern times.
Since Poland joined the EU in 2004, some 2.3 million young Poles have left, not all at the same time, some coming and going, but with the vast majority staying away. They are overwhelmingly from the depressed small towns and villages of eastern and southern Poland. As soon as they could, they voted with their feet. Most have not returned and are putting down roots in Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Germany and elsewhere. Analysts have been shocked by its scale.
"No one expected the emigration to be so huge because there's no need to escape from this country any more. They weren't persecuted. They left a free country," says Krystyna Iglicka, one of Poland's leading demographers.
Statistics show that around one in five of the post-1989 generation in the active and productive age group of 21-35 have moved abroad. "This might be a win-win situation for the UK and Ireland, filling the needs of the low-skilled labour market but it is not for us," Iglicka adds. "We thought the migration would be circular, people coming back … I call this a lost generation."
Rychard, the wealthy tax adviser, is angry at the exodus. "These young people feel that going to the UK is the biggest achievement they can imagine. But that's not success. Why don't they stay and do something in Poland?"
He is also anxious that being part of a united Europe is not necessarily good. "The EU influences the style of life here, promoting certain values such as homosexuality that are not natural in Poland."
Luke Pelletier shrugs at such prejudice. "I love Warsaw, it's a very, very easy place to live," says the Parisian gay man who has lived in Poland for 14 years and is happy with the decent living he makes as a drag queen. Pelletier is in a civil partnership with Trevor, a black South African who grew up in London. Despite Poland's occasional reputation for homophobia, neither have any big complaints.
Marta, the young businesswoman, says she would not dream of living anywhere but Warsaw. When the wall came down and the world opened up, Marta, her mother, Monika, and her grandmother, Tereza, went to Canada to visit relatives. It was their first trip to the west. "It was amazing, so thrilling. They had everything in Canada we didn't have. If I could have stayed, I would have," says Monika.
It is one fundamental measure of the changes that such notions now seem bizarre. She has been back and forth to Canada ever since and two months ago the 48-year-old remarried.
Her new husband is a Canadian who is giving up his job to move to Warsaw. "Now I wouldn't like to live in Canada," says Monika. "Every time I go there, I don't even think about it."
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Post by Bonobo on Dec 4, 2009 20:42:00 GMT 1
Philippine workers exploited in Poland?
04.12.2009 15:52
Twenty-eight women from the Philippines, who came to Poland in search of a decent well-paid job, say they have been exploited by ruthless employers.
The Philippines were promised a job in the biggest mushroom farm in Poland near the eastern city of Lublin. The job was offered via the Euroconnect agency, which specializes in finding jobs for foreigners in Poland. According to an agreement signed with the agency, the women were supposed to earn 560 dollars a month for picking mushrooms and be provided with free food, accommodation and health care.
In order to work in Poland most of the Philippines had to pawn their houses or sell valuables. When they came to Poland in mid September they were asked to sign another contract – this time with their future employee, the owner of the mushroom farm. The contract was written entirely in Polish so the women could not understand it. When they asked for a translator, they were told that it is exactly the same document as the one they had previously signed with the agency.
However, it turned out that the agreement was less favourable for the women. According to the contract, the Philippines were to get only 35-55 grosz (8.5-13.4 euro cents) for a kilogram of mushrooms and no extra facilities were included.
The Philippines had to work seven days a week. Every day they started work at 7 CET (but had to get up at 4 CET because the farm was located several dozen kilometers from the place where they were accommodated) and finished at 20-22 CET (and go to bed at midnight). “I earned 227 zloty (55.4 euro) for two-week work,” says Rosie Despi, one of the workers who adds that it is not even enough to cover the debt that she has back home. The women also complain that they were insulted.
The owner of the farm, Waldemar Myszkowiec, claims that he treated the Philippines well and they agreed to work on Sundays.
The job agency Euroconnect also denies the allegations that the company abused the women. “We feel partly responsible for what’s happened but we’re not the only ones who should be blamed,” says the head of the agency Krystian Takiel.
Thanks to the Philippine embassy, most of the women have already left the farm and have been accommodated in a hotel in Warsaw. However, before going back to Philippines, the women hope to find a legal job and earn enough money to pay back their debts.
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Post by Bonobo on Jan 6, 2010 0:18:23 GMT 1
Ukrainian women - biggest immigrant group in Poland
04.01.2010 13:17
In the first half of 2009 about 120,000 Ukrainians were employed officially in Poland.
But this may be just the tip of an iceberg. There are no accurate figures available concerning Ukrainians working in Poland, legally or illegally, says Anna Kordasiewicz, a sociologist from Warsaw University. But Ukrainian women constitute the single biggest group of immigrants in this country. “Often the livelihood of the whole family in Ukraine hinges on income earned in Poland”, says Kordasiewicz.
According to Anna Rostocka from the Warsaw office of the International Labor Organization, Ukrainian women rarely find a job in line with their qualifications. Some work as foreign language teachers, for example, but the majority are employed as cleaners and housemaids. They work 8 to 10 hours a day, earning 10 to 35 zlotys per hour (about 2.5-8.5 euro).
In 2007, 15 percent of Polish families said they employed a Ukrainian maid legally. Their main assets, in the eyes of Polish employers, are readiness to accept lower wages and work flexible hours. Women from Ukraine are also employed in the farming sector, mainly for seasonal jobs such as fruit picking.
Citizens of Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Moldova can work in Poland without a permit for six months.
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Post by Bonobo on Jan 26, 2010 15:17:00 GMT 1
Half million Poles disappear
25.01.2010 11:05
About half a million Poles have disappeared from the UK labour market in the recent months, shows a report by the British government.
“Most of the Poles probably returned home but instead of settling down in their home towns they probably chose cities such as Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw or Poznan”, claims PhD Maciej Duszczyk from the Institute of Social Policy at the University of Warsaw.
However, about a million Poles out of almost two million who left Poland after the country’s access to the EU in 2004, are still living and working abroad. “As a result of migration in the past five years we lost a huge amount of inhabitants – as if no Pole was born in three years,” says Duszczyk.
There is no precise data on how many Poles are living abroad. According to the Main Statistical Office (GUS), the number amounts to almost 2.3 million, including 1.2 million who left after 2004. Duszczyk, however, claims that the number is higher. “Even up to 1.8 million Poles left the country after 2004 and worked in the EU member states for at least a month, and over one million Polish immigrants stayed abroad for at least a year,” says Duszczyk.
Professor Krystyna Iglicka of the Warsaw-based Center for International Relations contradicts the British government’s and PhD Maciej Duszczyk’s opinion on Polish immigrants. Iglicka claims that there is no massive return of Poles from the UK, but agrees that there are around one million Poles still in Great Britain. (mg)
Source: Dziennik Polski
Comments:
# 25.01.2010 12:34 Over 500,000 Poles have vanished! Alex
# dana 25.01.2010 14:22 seriously, how can you have such a stupid title for this article? dana
# Jasiek 25.01.2010 15:10 Supposedly, the counting is based on the number of applicants for social benefits as Poles do not need work permission when they work in the UK. If I am right, the apparently disappeared 500,000 Poles were counted out because most of them were self-employed and they had not applied for any benefits. Jasiek
# Z 25.01.2010 16:32 The true number of Poles living in other EU countries is not known because some stay for a short time and some stay for a while, return home and then go back. Z
# czopki 25.01.2010 16:52 They went to the underground base in antartica czopki
# Snowmuncher 25.01.2010 18:39 Jasiek has a valid point. Those Poles not claiming social security but still in the UK may be working in the black labour market for cash, so no work or social security data on them is available. I spend half my time in Krakow the other half in London, and I see no evidence of fewer Poles in London - Polish is spoken everywhere. If I were a Pole and spoke good English I would not stay in Poland - there are so few good opportunities for people in Poland, and it is not a very meritocratic society, in my view. Snowmuncher
# Alex 25.01.2010 20:18 Snowmuncher, good point! And millions of Poles already followed your advice. Alex
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Post by Bonobo on Jan 28, 2010 20:24:17 GMT 1
Illegal workers face deportation
28.01.2010 12:40
A group of almost 60 foreigners have been taken into custody for working illegally in Lubin, south-west Poland.
The State Border Guard in the region interrogated 55 Ukrainians, 2 Moldovans and a Belarusian. All had permission to be in the country, and even had work permits.
However, the blame rests with the employer, who did not register them and allowed them to work two to three weeks before the dates set by the foreigners’ visas.
The group has been given a week to leave Polish territory, and will not be allowed to return to Poland for a year. The Border Guard has submitted a request to the courts for the fining of the employer who allowed the foreigners to work illegally.
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Post by valpomike on Jan 28, 2010 23:43:55 GMT 1
By not listing them as workers, they can pay them much less, and in cash.
Mike
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 26, 2010 20:12:56 GMT 1
Latvian plumber to replace Polish workers in UK?
26.02.2010 10:33
The “Polish plumber” may soon be replaced by the “Latvian plumber” as a symbol of immigration from Central and Eastern Europe to Great Britain, as applications for work permits from Poles decline.
The British Home Office has revealed that last year fewer Poles applied for work permits, while the number of immigrants from Latvia and Lithuania looking for a job increased significantly.
The Financial Times claims that the reason why Poles have recently been less interested in working in the UK is the global recession, which affected the British economy but spared the Polish. Consequently, many Polish workers decided to make their way home. Meanwhile, the economies of the Baltic countries are struggling hard so Latvians and Lithuanians increasingly choose to work abroad.
The UK office is still issuing more work permits for Poles, making up 45 percent of approvals, while Lithuanians and Latvians account for 35 percent. But the number of permits for citizens of Baltic countries increased last year. In the case of Latvians it more than doubled: in case of Lithuanians it rose by 30 percent.www.thenews.pl/international/artykul126395_latvian-plumber-to-replace-polish-workers-in-uk-.html
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Post by Bonobo on Mar 14, 2010 10:38:31 GMT 1
Fewer Poles finding work in UK
10.03.2010 16:14
Less Poles are interested in emigrating to the United Kingdom for work, citing poor financial viability.
Many Poles have realised that working in the UK is not as practical as it was when Poland first joined the 27-nation bloc in 2004.
A new report from the British Home Office shows that in 2009, migrants from new EU member states dropped by 33 percent on 2008. Out of the 106,000 registered in that year, only 50 percent of those were Polish.
The current trend is also reflected in figures given by the National Bank of Poland, which reports that the number of international money transfers from Poles in the UK also dropped by 20 percent in 2009.
Figures released by the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute show that 89 percent of Poles working in the UK earn less than 400 pound sterling gross per week, amounting to around 6,500 zloty a month before tax.
However, many Poles in unskilled jobs are earning much less, amounting to 4,300 zloty (around 1,000 GBP) monthly, a figure which is close to the average 3,600 zloty wage in Poland in 2009, the Central Statistics Office (GUS) reports.www.thenews.pl/national/artykul127210_fewer-poles-finding-work-in-uk.html
Comments
* Jasiek 11.03.2010 01:11 Everybody do not always make an rational choice and his/her motive of where to work is sometimes effected by some illusion (that the United Kingdom is a paradise for them all, for example), which is one of the causes of what New Keynesians (not Neo-Keynesians) call "stickiness".
I beg the Polish manual workers to please stay at home and construct the planned motorways and other infrastructures in time, or cheap migrant workers from China, North Korea, Vietnam, Ukraine, Belarus and Kaliningrad will take the jobs and eventually push down all the wages in Poland. It is like an economic suicide. Jasiek
* Alex 11.03.2010 01:45 I don't believe this. Poles are still leaving Poland in large numbers. Soon there will be no one left in Poland. So says my boss. Alex
* offshore banking 11.03.2010 02:15 Poles are leaving Poland in search of offshore banking. offshore banking
* John 11.03.2010 03:35 400 pound sterling gross per week is not much considering the high cost of living in Britain. John
* Jozek 11.03.2010 07:09 No worries, they are leaving the U.S. in droves this summer to come back to their mama. I tried booking a flight and it is crazy. The agent said the tickets are all ONE WAY! Jozek
* Jasiek 11.03.2010 10:39 Money is back there in Poland. The budget has been spared for constructing infrastructures - mainly motorways. But, due to several technical reasons, or red tape, Poles haven't used them all, and the EU is threatening Poland saying it will draw the money back that was spared for the country unless it uses it up by the deadline.
Poles, money is home and not in the UK! Jasiek
* Peter 11.03.2010 13:05 Fewer Poles; less money. Peter
* bankrupt businessman 11.03.2010 17:28 "Money is back there in Poland"? That is a wishful thinking!
So,Why are there so many businesses bankrupt? bankrupt businessman
* Jasiek 12.03.2010 02:34 bankrupt businessman, read my comment again. Jasiek
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Post by valpomike on Mar 14, 2010 21:21:22 GMT 1
I see many of the Polish living in the USA are returning home, to Poland, and I can understand. Poland looks to be doing better than here in the USA.
Some day, they may even have to send aid to us, and we did in the past, to them.
Mike
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Post by Bonobo on May 12, 2010 20:42:35 GMT 1
Poland haven for illegal workers?
12.05.2010 08:37
Entry point for many migrants to Poland
The number of illegal workers in Poland is dramatically on the rise. In 2009, the number doubled on the year previously to over 10,000 people in unlawful employment.
Figures given by the National Labour Inspectorate (PIP), the body responsible for enforcing legal employment, show that most of the illegal workers come from the Ukraine, Poland’s eastern neighbour.
In 2009, PIP audited around 1,700 companies nationwide, finding that 43 percent of them were breaking the labour code by hiring foreigners without recourse to employment.
59 percent of illegal workers from abroad are from the former republics of the Soviet Union, including the Ukraine and Belarus. Further afield, many migrants are coming from the Far East, including China, Vietnam, Thailand, Nepal, and the Philippines.
PIP’s survey found that most of the unlawful employment takes place in mostly western provinces in Poland, which may suggest that migrants are in Poland as a transit point before moving to more lucrative markets.
Illegal workers are mostly employed in the food processing, construction, transport, hospitality and gastronomy industries.
The report was presented during a conference held Tuesday in Warsaw by the National Labour Inspectorate aimed at preventing the illegal employment of foreigners in Poland.www.thenews.pl/business/artykul131400_poland-haven-for-illegal-workers.html
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Post by Bonobo on Sept 5, 2010 13:11:13 GMT 1
Twinings tea moves to Poland
5/09/2010
The iconic British tea company, Twinings of London, is sacking staff in the UK - and moving its production to Poland.
And to add insult to injury, 263 workers who are losing their jobs at its North Shields factory have been told they will have to train their replacements.
Company bosses say Polish workers will visit Tyneside to "familiarise themselves with the tea making process".
Union rep Jayne Shotton, said: "The workers had resigned themselves to their jobs going abroad.
"But to bring Polish workers here to be trained by Twinings workers is rubbing their noses in it."
Twinings, founded in 1706, claims to be one of the first companies to introduce tea to the English.
Read more: www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/09/05/twinings-tea-moves-to-poland-115875-22538545/#ixzz0yekZSyVF
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Post by valpomike on Sept 5, 2010 19:14:03 GMT 1
Poland does it better, that's why the move.
Mike
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Post by justine26 on Oct 15, 2010 17:41:00 GMT 1
I can't see anything wrong in the fact that some foreigners work in Poland. In this way, they can earn some money to support their families and the Polish employers can save their money because they pay less to the foreigners. Besides, Poles go abroad too and they look for work and money.:)XD
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Post by valpomike on Oct 15, 2010 18:08:59 GMT 1
But, this people take jobs away from good Polish people, who need them. And in most cases they don't pay tax. When the Polish, not Poles go abroad, they have to live by the laws of that land, but this is not the case when freingners come into Poland, like we here in the USA have with the Mexicans, working without papers. This must be stopped in both places.
Mike
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Post by Bonobo on Oct 15, 2010 20:38:21 GMT 1
I can't see anything wrong in the fact that some foreigners work in Poland. In this way, they can earn some money to support their families and the Polish employers can save their money because they pay less to the foreigners. Besides, Poles go abroad too and they look for work and money.:)XD I had the same opinion like you. Now I have started to hesitate. A certain example caused it: the Polish owner of a brick factory laid off/fired all his Polish workers, about 80 of them, and hired North Korean guys. He pays them peanuts, so he saves a lot of money, that is true, but what about Poles who worked there before? |
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Post by valpomike on Oct 16, 2010 2:06:53 GMT 1
And the North Korean don't have the proper papers to work, so this is how he can pay them less, I am sure. We can send him some of our Mexicans, who here take work away from our people, breaking the law, when they do this.
Mike
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Post by Bonobo on Nov 12, 2010 21:34:08 GMT 1
Protests follow Twinings tea move to Poland
09.11.2010 11:58
Associated British Foods, owners of the Twinings brand of tea, will be relocating part of its operations to Poland in 2011.
The relocation from its Twinings factory in North Shields, England, to Poland will utilize 12 million euro in EU funds, though the move has been criticised by British trade unions, pointing out that it will mean 400 workers in the UK being made redundant, reports the Financial Times .
The European Commission is investigating the move to see if it breaches EU rules, which stipulate that the money must be used for new investments in Poland and not merely to cover the cost of relocation.
The Daily Telegraph (UK) reports that there will be two waves of employees from Poland visiting North Shields to familiarise themselves with operations there in the near future.
"Next week Twinings will be welcoming a handful of new employees from Poland to the North Shields site. They will be visiting to familiarise themselves with the tea-making process and receive training,” she said.
One trade unionist told the paper that expecting workers who are about to lose their jobs to train their replacements is like “rubbing salt into the wounds”.
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Post by valpomike on Nov 12, 2010 23:26:51 GMT 1
The E U, that is in the cotrol of many Germans, don't want to help Poland. It would be O.K. with them if the move was to Germany, I am sure.
What good it the E. U. to Poland? What do you think?
Mike
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Post by Bonobo on Nov 13, 2010 19:08:53 GMT 1
The E U, that is in the cotrol of many Germans, don't want to help Poland. It would be O.K. with them if the move was to Germany, I am sure. Mike, Germans supported Poland`s access into the EU in the past. This support was immeasurable. Without it, Poland wouldn`t have managed. It is good because Poland is still a backward country and the EU offers us multiple incentives to modernise, including serious funding of our projects. |
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Post by Bonobo on Jan 4, 2011 20:35:03 GMT 1
It is nice to hear Polish workers get jobs.
It is unpleasant to know it is done at the cost of British workers.
What goes around, comes around, sort of. One day, Polish workers will lose their jobs and the production will move to Ukraine or Belarus.
Bitter taste left in UK after Cadbury shifts production to Poland
04.01.2011 12:00
The last Curly Wurly chocolate bar produced in Britain has also marked the end of Cadbury’s operations at its Somerdale factory near Bristol, which Kraft Foods had previously promised to keep open after its takeover of the British confectioners in 2010.
The factory near Bristol was responsible for the production of popular chocolate bars including the Curly Wurly, Crunchie and Double Decker. Now they will be produced at a newly-constructed factory in Skarbimierz near the southern city of Opole before being sent back to UK consumers some 2,000 km away.
The British Daily Mail reports that Amoree Radford, a former Somerdale worker who led a campaign to keep the factory open, said it was a ‘sad day’ for the plant. Around 400 workers have been laid off because of the closure, while 300 workers in Poland will gain employment as a result.
Despite earlier promises from Kraft that it would reverse a decision taken by Cadbury to shut down its Bristol operations before the takeover, Irene Rosenfeld, Kraft’s Chief Executive announced the closure of the plant a week after the multi-billion pound takeover last February.
The decision was taken as Cadbury had already invested 100 million pounds in upgrading its Polish factories. The confectioners’ contract for chocolate production in Poland is reported to be worth some 55 billion zloty (11.9 billion pounds).
Cadbury’s Bournville plant in Birmingham has been unaffected by the closure, with the continued production billed for Dairy Milk bars.
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