Roaming Poles seek a niche in old ‘EU 15’

By Wieslaw Horabik

Date: 28/10/04

THE Polish diaspora numbers more than ten million people and it is constantly growing. Although Polish emigrants have traditionally chosen America as their Promised Land, with Poland's accession to the EU more and more people perceive western Europe as a better place in which to settle. They would escape relatively low wages and unemployment that is stuck at around 20%.

Adam Sedlaczek, a 36-year-old engineer from Warsaw, has just returned from London. Today, he is starting over again in his native land having found that Britons are not looking for Polish engineers, clerks or teachers, but au pairs and char ladies. "I went to England with a couple of friends," he says, "and they assured me that a bright future and attractive jobs were waiting for us there. We landed in a basement flat, five of us in one room, with no contacts, poor command of English and a few pounds in our pockets. Our energy soon evaporated and we ended up borrowing money from a Polish priest for return tickets."

The United Kingdom, Sweden and Ireland were the first to open their labour markets for Polish workers after 1 May 2004. Many young people from remote villages in Poland, who have often not visited any big town in their entire lives, head for London or Dublin, only to experience shock and disenchantment. Some of them enrich the black economy in these countries, some end up on the street. Only a fraction of them manage to secure permanent employment.

Since Poland joined the EU about 10,000 Poles have legally undertaken jobs in Ireland. The equivalent figures for England are unknown. Within four months of EU enlargement 2,017 citizens of the new member states applied for jobs in Sweden, which was 74% more than in the equivalent period of 2003. 1,217 of them came from Poland. Eugeniusz Steiner, a job specialist from Lublin, says that the current emigration from Poland is mainly a temporary rush of more resourceful people who wish to earn and save some money before returning to their motherland. The real emigration is, according to him, conducted through official channels and the scale of it is not particularly large. "No country will offer foreigners a high status," he says, "unless they prove a real asset for the new society. To do that, you have to be either an extremely talented person, or a specialist wanted on the particular market."

Anna Richardson-Sobanska runs an agency in Warsaw, which helps Poles find employment in the UK. Such agencies multiply fast and one of the Krakow colleges has even initiated courses in childcare and cleaning. "People realized that a decision to settle abroad is a move with profound consequences and has to be carefully prepared," says Richardson-Sobanska. "You have to have proper qualifications, undergo special training, secure a contract beforehand and possess something more than just good will."

She specializes in sending medical staff, doctors and nurses to Britain. With reforms of the Polish health care system turning things upside down every few years, many Polish physicians think very seriously of emigration. They are also guaranteed six times more money for a starting salary than they can earn in Poland. Out of 20,000 Polish nurses, about 5,000 have declared their wish to leave. The ratio among doctors is similar or even higher. The potential emigrants are highly specialized professionals and Poland may soon face a crisis in such areas of medical care as anaesthetics, gastroenterology and dentistry.

The Polish authorities are conducting unofficial negotiations with the 15 older EU member states about potential employment of Poles in these countries before the end of the established transition periods of between two and seven years. Germany and Austria are among those least willing to end restrictions on Polish job-seekers. They had bad experiences with illegal immigrants in the past and have current problems with their own unemployed. According to Jaroslaw Pietras, the Polish minister for European affairs, Italy, Greece, Holland and Denmark are seriously considering lifting the ban on the free movement of labour between their countries and people from the new member states.

The European Commission suspects however that the UK, Ireland and Sweden, which have declared no restrictions for the EU newcomers, have simultaneously introduced regulations which discriminate against employees from countries such as Poland. For several weeks, the Poles have been sending complaints to Brussels that they had been deprived of a number of rights and social privileges. A Pole legally employed in Ireland for two years may still receive an order of deportation if, for instance, "his plans for the future, skills and social behaviour prove he is probably incapable to integrate fully into Irish society".

Mini-vans regularly run from the major Polish cities to nearly all capitals in western Europe. There is even a joke among the drivers that the continent has been divided between various Polish regions: settlers from Lomza go to Belgium, those from Bialystok head for the Netherlands, from Lublin to Italy and Poles from Kielce have established a monopoly in Spain.

• Wieslaw Horabik is a freelance journalist based in Poland.

Article reports on Polish labour migration to the 15 old Member States since their country has become an EU Member.