LGC, November 2006
Just over two years ago, Poland joined the EU, and the trickle of arrivals into the UK became a flood — and not just to the cities. Varya Shaw looks at where the new wave of immigrants has settled and the consequences for local authorities.
Boston BC, deep in rural Lincolnshire, 2001. Unsurprisingly for a district which prides itself on its wide open spaces and bustling market town, that year's census reveals virtually no ethnic diversity. Just 2% of its residents were from a minority.
Most of them were seasonal agricultural labourers, an essential part of Boston's economy. Right through the 1990s, the majority of these labourers still arrived in white vans from cities like Sheffield, but by the new millenium the supply was drying up. In 2001, just too late for the census, the Portuguese began to arrive, lured by the chance to earn twice as much as back home.
By 2003 there were a reported 3,000 Portuguese in the borough — to the displeasure of some. Anti-migrant groups such as Boston Citizens United began to hit the headlines. During the 2004 European Cup, violence flared in Boston and was put down to racial tensions.
Fast-forward to 2006 and the Portuguese are old news in the borough — they have been overtaken by the Polish. Poland is one of eight countries that joined the European Union in May 2004, known as the Accession Eight or A8.
“What we had in 2004 was substantially different,” says Boston BC housing and community regeneration manager Andy Fisher. “Within a few weeks of 1 May people were arriving.”
Boston says it now cannot put a figure on how many Poles it has, but it is probably thousands. A recent survey carried out by the district and its neighbour South Holland DC interviewed 700 migrants. The largest group by far — 30% — were Polish, compared with 23% who were Portuguese.
Today, according to Boston's best proxy, its common housing register, almost 12% of its residents were born abroad. This makes it more diverse than a London borough like Havering, where 92% of the population are white British, or a city like Sheffield where 89% are.
Of course, the map has changed elsewhere too. Hammersmith & Fulham LBC reports that its number of Polish residents shot up by a staggering 540% between 2002-2003 and 2005-2006.
Green Lanes in Haringey LBC, one of the country's most diverse boroughs, has been transformed since accession. About a year ago, its traditional Turkish and Greek grocers began clearing space amid their Mediterranean fare for Polish products. Six months later came the Polish food stores themselves, selling pickles, sausages and rye bread.
Although the government anticipated only 13,000 A8 migrants a year, something in the air — perhaps the amount of Polish spoken on the streets or the piles of Polish newspapers and magazines in newsagents — provoked scepticism about this. In August, the government's Accession monitoring report duly revealed how wrong it had been. Almost half a million A8 nationals had applied to the Workers Registration Scheme between May 2004 and June this year. Of these, 62%, or 265,000, were Polish.
Because this figure is cumulative — the scheme does not record those who leave the UK — there could be a lot fewer. But there could be many more. The report itself suggests the true figure could be more like 600,000 if the self-employed, who are not required to notify the scheme, are included. Experts such as Ted Cantle, the former chair of the Community Cohesion Independent Review Team, talk of as many as a million.
The consequences of such a shift in population are mixed.
Migration has been a huge fillip for the UK economy. The Treasury attributes between 10% and 15% of economic growth to it. But it has not been so benign for local government funding.
Take Slough BC. Recent government estimates suggested its population had fallen by about 100 people. Figures gathered by Slough, on the other hand, record that 9,000 National Insurance numbers were issued for new jobs in the borough between May 2004 and October 2005, many to Poles.
Slough estimates it will lose out on a minimum of £15m before the 2011 census corrects the figures, unless the government finds a quicker way to incorporate migration into population estimates. About 25 other councils are similarly affected.
Perhaps because the government foresaw the impact on council tax — Slough is warning of a 6% surcharge for the next five years — the government has taken swift action. In May, a pan-Whitehall taskforce on migration statistics was set up, which is shortly due to report to ministers.
The Office of National Statistics stresses that migration is fiendishly difficult to track. However, it is looking at ways to record migrants who stay less than a year. This work could affect mid-2006 population estimates, due to be released next August.
In terms of Poles' own contribution to the public purse, councils agree that the new residents are perfectly happy to pay council tax — the problem is explaining it to them. North Lincolnshire Council's diversity standards officer Rachel Johnson says: “New communities don't understand council tax rules and regulations. The council tax team usually finds out about these issues when visiting void properties, only to find that they are inhabited. Language difficulties make it problematic identifying who is responsible for the property and therefore who is liable for the council tax.”
The funding distribution lobby would happily leave the story there. Migration per se is fine, they say. The new Polish population is young and fit, have few children and make inexpensive citizens. The sole difficulty is the way the government counts heads.
As Stephen Greenhalgh (Con), leader of Hammersmith & Fulham, puts it: “You'll never be short of a roofer, plumber or au pair with the Polish around. But this doesn't come for free.” Dig a little deeper and it soon becomes clear that migration does not manage itself.
About 2,000 people from the A8 countries pour through Westminster City Council's Victoria Coach Station every week. If any are vulnerable, it is here that they fall through the cracks. Angela Harvey (Con), cabinet member for housing, says: “Two years ago there were just a handful of A8 nationals on the streets, about six or seven people, primarily Poles. But by the end of July this year we'd assisted 265 back to their home country.”
She goes on: “We have 30-40 on our streets at the moment. You can imagine if we hadn't been able to assist those 265, we would have 300 and the rough sleepers problem would be 10 times the size.”
One cause of rough sleeping is a notorious con circulating eastern Europe — adverts selling guaranteed work and accommodation in the UK, which never materialise once people arrive.
Westminster wants to set up a welcome desk at Victoria explaining the basics of life in the UK. Ms Harvey explains: “We need an interpreter giving them advice on different stuff such as 'these are your rights, don't give anyone your passport'. It's not rocket science.”
Westminster's work with A8 rough sleepers has been funded by a £167,000 Home Office grant. This is not going to be renewed, so hopes are not high for the welcome desk.
Work to receive new migrants has been happening elsewhere. Southampton City Council has funded its welcome project with left-over National Asylum Support Service money.
It has been reported that one in 10 of the city's 221,000 residents are Polish. Gavin Barker, the council's new communities project worker, says this figure was plucked out of thin air, then took on a life of its own through repetition.
However, the council's own “educated and very cautious guess of around 10,000 A8 Poles” would still mean nearly one in 20 are Polish.
The EU Welcome project, run in partnership with the Catholic church, provides information, links to other Poles and emotional support. It also cultivates Polish community leaders.
Project worker David Adcock says: “I see my role as someone who tries to help people integrate and understand the life of the city. It has benefits for them, like making them feel wanted.”
Absolutely crucial to his job is advising migrants on their employment rights. This protects them — but it also protects Southampton.
The council is frank about its concern that Polish migrants will drive down wages and deepen pockets of deprivation. Mr Barker says: “While the economy always seems to benefit from a cheap source of skilled labour, we also tend to witness higher anecdotal reports of exploitation, alleged homelessness and people visiting homelessness centres for cheap lunches.
“We need to work with employers and unions to make sure that whoever you are, Polish or local, you get the same wage.”
Little is known about the health profile of Polish migrants, apart from speculation that some might drink heavily. However, even young people can suffer ill-health as a result of poor housing. Most councils with an influx of Poles have experienced a surge in houses of multiple occupancy, which need to be inspected.
Exploitation, poverty and poor housing can be even worse in rural areas. Philip Burke, social affairs spokesman for homelessness charity the Simon Community, says: “I visited a farm with a young Polish student priest. We were really shocked at what we saw — 20 caravans on a site, insanitary conditions, one shower and one toilet for 60 people. They were working 70 hours a week, while getting paid £50 a week. A lot were in distress and they wanted help.”
Back in Boston, Andy Fisher says working in partnership with the voluntary sector, police and other partners is vital to tackling unscrupulous gangmasters. He admits the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, set up in April, faces “an incredible challenge”. But he adds: “Undercutting [wages] is not going to be an option once the Gangmasters (Licensing) Act 2004 comes on to statute. There is a growing amount of regulation, and that's fantastic news.”
The million-dollar question is how many Poles are going to stay on? Nobody knows for sure and estimates vary around the country.
In Southampton, Mr Barker says that, anecdotally, around half of those asked said: “We're here to stay, we like it here.”
The Centre for Research on Nationalism, Ethnicity & Multiculturalism has been researching Poles in London and suggests about a quarter may settle. Meanwhile, data on dependants in the Accession monitoring report hints that the trend for A8 nationals who see a future here may be rising. Partners and children are being increasingly brought over. In the first quarter between May 2004 and June 2006, 2,470 dependants were brought over. In the final quarter, there were 5,885. Lincolnshire CC's schools have had to cope with 500 new migrant children, of whom up to 90% are Polish, whose parents work in agriculture, factories and care homes.
The chief challenge is language; helping Polish children to catch up and ensuring there is no adverse impact on those who do not speak English.
But Polish children generally make good pupils, says Jill Chandar-Nair, head of the ethnic minority achievement support service: “We come across a number of children that are above average and in the end will come out with good results. That's the message I get across to schools.”
However, there are problems: “One of the biggest impacts is that the schools are full. We've got to be prepared for parents who will think 'in normal circumstances I'd get my kid into this school, but because of eastern Europeans this is going to be more difficult',” says Ms Chandar-Nair.
So far there have been few community cohesion issues surrounding Poles. But one concern is the attitude of Poles themselves.
Gavin Barker says: “They are amazed by the diversity of people in Southampton. [They make] comments like 'I'm surprised to see so many foreigners'. You have to point out that many in the Pakistani and Bengali community were born here, whereas the foreigners are people like them.”
He adds that there have been tensions and “one or two” incidents between the emerging groups and communities of British Asians.
Ted Cantle says: “I've heard that Polish people are quite racist in their views and have expressed that on the streets. They don't have the same ethos of tolerance. There's a strong feeling in some areas that some of the Polish groups have been responsible for racist sentiment.”
There are concerns that the new communities could feed the far right. The Local Government Association has warned that if funding is distributed unfairly and council tax goes up, this could be exploited by far-right groups.
A spokesman says: “It only takes one bozo to turn round and say 'our council tax is going up because of all these migrants'.”
Curiously, London boroughs had little to say about the wider implications of Polish immigration. Haringey's only comment was: “We have a diverse community, we're used to engaging with it.”
Perhaps thousands of Poles in a predominantly white British community create a stir, but thousands of Poles somewhere like Haringey are, paradoxically, just more of the same. If so, this may be a symptom of what academics have called 'superdiversity'.
Steven Vertovec, director of the Centre on Migration, Policy & Society, argues that if a community contains hundreds of nationalities, there could be a limit on how far services can be tailored for each of them and that using prisms like legal status or gender might be more effective.
Although the government has indicated it will restrict immigration from Bulgaria and Romania, due to join the EU in 2007, there is no evidence yet that migration is slowing.
Vince Mancini, community cohesion and diversity officer at North Lincolnshire, says: “[Poles need] easy access to English classes, interpretation, translation, booklets on their rights and responsibilities as a British citizen to help them integrate successfully.”
Mr Barker agrees: “Let's get something translated before [the Bulgarians and Romanians] come, rather than after. We have to be prepared. The rules have changed.” Polish migration - past, present and future
A short history of Polish immigration
“The Polish are the new Asians,” according to one local government source. But like 'Asians', the Polish diaspora is far from homogenous and today's Poles are quite different from those who settled here in the past.
The first significant wave of Polish migration to the UK came after World War II. Most of Poland was handed to the Soviet Union in the Treaty of Yalta and around 160,000 Polish soldiers came here. This elite officer class settled in London and the south, where they formed strong community associations, kept Polish traditions alive, but pushed their children to succeed in British society.
A humbler group of Poles settled in northern cities such as Bradford and Sheffield where they worked in industries such as textiles and steel. Many were exploited and conditions were considerably harsher.
These northern Poles were slightly less likely to associate with one another than military Poles, but every bit as ambitious for their children. Like those in the south, their tactic was to adopt a double identity, passing on Polish culture to their children at Saturday schools while integrating with British life.
There was a strong centrifugal force keeping this double identity together — the historic memory of Poland's suffering during two world wars and its continuing ordeal under communism.
A disconcerting anti-Semitism was noticed among some Poles. But overall, they have been considered an example of 'model migration'.
For second and third generation Poles the connection with the old country began to fade. The post-war Polish community is moving towards assimilation, with many younger Poles feeling they are no more than Britons with Polish surnames.
Post-accession Poles are quite different. They are young, here to have fun and make money and usually plan only a few months or years ahead. They have easy access to their homeland, but little nostalgia for it.
However, there are similarities between the two waves. Like the post-war Poles, many today take jobs below their skill level. Both groups are renowned for their hard work. And like the post-war Poles, A8 Poles are ambitious for their children and support them to do well at school.
Just over two years ago, Poland joined the EU, and the trickle of arrivals into the UK became a flood — and not just to the cities. Varya Shaw looks at where the new wave of immigrants has settled and the consequences for local authorities.
Boston BC, deep in rural Lincolnshire, 2001. Unsurprisingly for a district which prides itself on its wide open spaces and bustling market town, that year's census reveals virtually no ethnic diversity. Just 2% of its residents were from a minority.
Most of them were seasonal agricultural labourers, an essential part of Boston's economy. Right through the 1990s, the majority of these labourers still arrived in white vans from cities like Sheffield, but by the new millenium the supply was drying up. In 2001, just too late for the census, the Portuguese began to arrive, lured by the chance to earn twice as much as back home.
By 2003 there were a reported 3,000 Portuguese in the borough — to the displeasure of some. Anti-migrant groups such as Boston Citizens United began to hit the headlines. During the 2004 European Cup, violence flared in Boston and was put down to racial tensions.
Fast-forward to 2006 and the Portuguese are old news in the borough — they have been overtaken by the Polish. Poland is one of eight countries that joined the European Union in May 2004, known as the Accession Eight or A8.
“What we had in 2004 was substantially different,” says Boston BC housing and community regeneration manager Andy Fisher. “Within a few weeks of 1 May people were arriving.”
Boston says it now cannot put a figure on how many Poles it has, but it is probably thousands. A recent survey carried out by the district and its neighbour South Holland DC interviewed 700 migrants. The largest group by far — 30% — were Polish, compared with 23% who were Portuguese.
Today, according to Boston's best proxy, its common housing register, almost 12% of its residents were born abroad. This makes it more diverse than a London borough like Havering, where 92% of the population are white British, or a city like Sheffield where 89% are.
Of course, the map has changed elsewhere too. Hammersmith & Fulham LBC reports that its number of Polish residents shot up by a staggering 540% between 2002-2003 and 2005-2006.
Green Lanes in Haringey LBC, one of the country's most diverse boroughs, has been transformed since accession. About a year ago, its traditional Turkish and Greek grocers began clearing space amid their Mediterranean fare for Polish products. Six months later came the Polish food stores themselves, selling pickles, sausages and rye bread.
Although the government anticipated only 13,000 A8 migrants a year, something in the air — perhaps the amount of Polish spoken on the streets or the piles of Polish newspapers and magazines in newsagents — provoked scepticism about this. In August, the government's Accession monitoring report duly revealed how wrong it had been. Almost half a million A8 nationals had applied to the Workers Registration Scheme between May 2004 and June this year. Of these, 62%, or 265,000, were Polish.
Because this figure is cumulative — the scheme does not record those who leave the UK — there could be a lot fewer. But there could be many more. The report itself suggests the true figure could be more like 600,000 if the self-employed, who are not required to notify the scheme, are included. Experts such as Ted Cantle, the former chair of the Community Cohesion Independent Review Team, talk of as many as a million.
The consequences of such a shift in population are mixed.
Migration has been a huge fillip for the UK economy. The Treasury attributes between 10% and 15% of economic growth to it. But it has not been so benign for local government funding.
Take Slough BC. Recent government estimates suggested its population had fallen by about 100 people. Figures gathered by Slough, on the other hand, record that 9,000 National Insurance numbers were issued for new jobs in the borough between May 2004 and October 2005, many to Poles.
Slough estimates it will lose out on a minimum of £15m before the 2011 census corrects the figures, unless the government finds a quicker way to incorporate migration into population estimates. About 25 other councils are similarly affected.
Perhaps because the government foresaw the impact on council tax — Slough is warning of a 6% surcharge for the next five years — the government has taken swift action. In May, a pan-Whitehall taskforce on migration statistics was set up, which is shortly due to report to ministers.
The Office of National Statistics stresses that migration is fiendishly difficult to track. However, it is looking at ways to record migrants who stay less than a year. This work could affect mid-2006 population estimates, due to be released next August.
In terms of Poles' own contribution to the public purse, councils agree that the new residents are perfectly happy to pay council tax — the problem is explaining it to them. North Lincolnshire Council's diversity standards officer Rachel Johnson says: “New communities don't understand council tax rules and regulations. The council tax team usually finds out about these issues when visiting void properties, only to find that they are inhabited. Language difficulties make it problematic identifying who is responsible for the property and therefore who is liable for the council tax.”
The funding distribution lobby would happily leave the story there. Migration per se is fine, they say. The new Polish population is young and fit, have few children and make inexpensive citizens. The sole difficulty is the way the government counts heads.
As Stephen Greenhalgh (Con), leader of Hammersmith & Fulham, puts it: “You'll never be short of a roofer, plumber or au pair with the Polish around. But this doesn't come for free.” Dig a little deeper and it soon becomes clear that migration does not manage itself.
About 2,000 people from the A8 countries pour through Westminster City Council's Victoria Coach Station every week. If any are vulnerable, it is here that they fall through the cracks. Angela Harvey (Con), cabinet member for housing, says: “Two years ago there were just a handful of A8 nationals on the streets, about six or seven people, primarily Poles. But by the end of July this year we'd assisted 265 back to their home country.”
She goes on: “We have 30-40 on our streets at the moment. You can imagine if we hadn't been able to assist those 265, we would have 300 and the rough sleepers problem would be 10 times the size.”
One cause of rough sleeping is a notorious con circulating eastern Europe — adverts selling guaranteed work and accommodation in the UK, which never materialise once people arrive.
Westminster wants to set up a welcome desk at Victoria explaining the basics of life in the UK. Ms Harvey explains: “We need an interpreter giving them advice on different stuff such as 'these are your rights, don't give anyone your passport'. It's not rocket science.”
Westminster's work with A8 rough sleepers has been funded by a £167,000 Home Office grant. This is not going to be renewed, so hopes are not high for the welcome desk.
Work to receive new migrants has been happening elsewhere. Southampton City Council has funded its welcome project with left-over National Asylum Support Service money.
It has been reported that one in 10 of the city's 221,000 residents are Polish. Gavin Barker, the council's new communities project worker, says this figure was plucked out of thin air, then took on a life of its own through repetition.
However, the council's own “educated and very cautious guess of around 10,000 A8 Poles” would still mean nearly one in 20 are Polish.
The EU Welcome project, run in partnership with the Catholic church, provides information, links to other Poles and emotional support. It also cultivates Polish community leaders.
Project worker David Adcock says: “I see my role as someone who tries to help people integrate and understand the life of the city. It has benefits for them, like making them feel wanted.”
Absolutely crucial to his job is advising migrants on their employment rights. This protects them — but it also protects Southampton.
The council is frank about its concern that Polish migrants will drive down wages and deepen pockets of deprivation. Mr Barker says: “While the economy always seems to benefit from a cheap source of skilled labour, we also tend to witness higher anecdotal reports of exploitation, alleged homelessness and people visiting homelessness centres for cheap lunches.
“We need to work with employers and unions to make sure that whoever you are, Polish or local, you get the same wage.”
Little is known about the health profile of Polish migrants, apart from speculation that some might drink heavily. However, even young people can suffer ill-health as a result of poor housing. Most councils with an influx of Poles have experienced a surge in houses of multiple occupancy, which need to be inspected.
Exploitation, poverty and poor housing can be even worse in rural areas. Philip Burke, social affairs spokesman for homelessness charity the Simon Community, says: “I visited a farm with a young Polish student priest. We were really shocked at what we saw — 20 caravans on a site, insanitary conditions, one shower and one toilet for 60 people. They were working 70 hours a week, while getting paid £50 a week. A lot were in distress and they wanted help.”
Back in Boston, Andy Fisher says working in partnership with the voluntary sector, police and other partners is vital to tackling unscrupulous gangmasters. He admits the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, set up in April, faces “an incredible challenge”. But he adds: “Undercutting [wages] is not going to be an option once the Gangmasters (Licensing) Act 2004 comes on to statute. There is a growing amount of regulation, and that's fantastic news.”
The million-dollar question is how many Poles are going to stay on? Nobody knows for sure and estimates vary around the country.
In Southampton, Mr Barker says that, anecdotally, around half of those asked said: “We're here to stay, we like it here.”
The Centre for Research on Nationalism, Ethnicity & Multiculturalism has been researching Poles in London and suggests about a quarter may settle. Meanwhile, data on dependants in the Accession monitoring report hints that the trend for A8 nationals who see a future here may be rising. Partners and children are being increasingly brought over. In the first quarter between May 2004 and June 2006, 2,470 dependants were brought over. In the final quarter, there were 5,885. Lincolnshire CC's schools have had to cope with 500 new migrant children, of whom up to 90% are Polish, whose parents work in agriculture, factories and care homes.
The chief challenge is language; helping Polish children to catch up and ensuring there is no adverse impact on those who do not speak English.
But Polish children generally make good pupils, says Jill Chandar-Nair, head of the ethnic minority achievement support service: “We come across a number of children that are above average and in the end will come out with good results. That's the message I get across to schools.”
However, there are problems: “One of the biggest impacts is that the schools are full. We've got to be prepared for parents who will think 'in normal circumstances I'd get my kid into this school, but because of eastern Europeans this is going to be more difficult',” says Ms Chandar-Nair.
So far there have been few community cohesion issues surrounding Poles. But one concern is the attitude of Poles themselves.
Gavin Barker says: “They are amazed by the diversity of people in Southampton. [They make] comments like 'I'm surprised to see so many foreigners'. You have to point out that many in the Pakistani and Bengali community were born here, whereas the foreigners are people like them.”
He adds that there have been tensions and “one or two” incidents between the emerging groups and communities of British Asians.
Ted Cantle says: “I've heard that Polish people are quite racist in their views and have expressed that on the streets. They don't have the same ethos of tolerance. There's a strong feeling in some areas that some of the Polish groups have been responsible for racist sentiment.”
There are concerns that the new communities could feed the far right. The Local Government Association has warned that if funding is distributed unfairly and council tax goes up, this could be exploited by far-right groups.
A spokesman says: “It only takes one bozo to turn round and say 'our council tax is going up because of all these migrants'.”
Curiously, London boroughs had little to say about the wider implications of Polish immigration. Haringey's only comment was: “We have a diverse community, we're used to engaging with it.”
Perhaps thousands of Poles in a predominantly white British community create a stir, but thousands of Poles somewhere like Haringey are, paradoxically, just more of the same. If so, this may be a symptom of what academics have called 'superdiversity'.
Steven Vertovec, director of the Centre on Migration, Policy & Society, argues that if a community contains hundreds of nationalities, there could be a limit on how far services can be tailored for each of them and that using prisms like legal status or gender might be more effective.
Although the government has indicated it will restrict immigration from Bulgaria and Romania, due to join the EU in 2007, there is no evidence yet that migration is slowing.
Vince Mancini, community cohesion and diversity officer at North Lincolnshire, says: “[Poles need] easy access to English classes, interpretation, translation, booklets on their rights and responsibilities as a British citizen to help them integrate successfully.”
Mr Barker agrees: “Let's get something translated before [the Bulgarians and Romanians] come, rather than after. We have to be prepared. The rules have changed.” Polish migration - past, present and future
A short history of Polish immigration
“The Polish are the new Asians,” according to one local government source. But like 'Asians', the Polish diaspora is far from homogenous and today's Poles are quite different from those who settled here in the past.
The first significant wave of Polish migration to the UK came after World War II. Most of Poland was handed to the Soviet Union in the Treaty of Yalta and around 160,000 Polish soldiers came here. This elite officer class settled in London and the south, where they formed strong community associations, kept Polish traditions alive, but pushed their children to succeed in British society.
A humbler group of Poles settled in northern cities such as Bradford and Sheffield where they worked in industries such as textiles and steel. Many were exploited and conditions were considerably harsher.
These northern Poles were slightly less likely to associate with one another than military Poles, but every bit as ambitious for their children. Like those in the south, their tactic was to adopt a double identity, passing on Polish culture to their children at Saturday schools while integrating with British life.
There was a strong centrifugal force keeping this double identity together — the historic memory of Poland's suffering during two world wars and its continuing ordeal under communism.
A disconcerting anti-Semitism was noticed among some Poles. But overall, they have been considered an example of 'model migration'.
For second and third generation Poles the connection with the old country began to fade. The post-war Polish community is moving towards assimilation, with many younger Poles feeling they are no more than Britons with Polish surnames.
Post-accession Poles are quite different. They are young, here to have fun and make money and usually plan only a few months or years ahead. They have easy access to their homeland, but little nostalgia for it.
However, there are similarities between the two waves. Like the post-war Poles, many today take jobs below their skill level. Both groups are renowned for their hard work. And like the post-war Poles, A8 Poles are ambitious for their children and support them to do well at school.