This is a familiar situation to me,
I’m having a quick bite to eat before my lessons in a cheap restaurant close to the university. This restaurant has nine tables and I take the last free one and begin to eat. Immediately I begin to notice one table is occupied with a British couple and three other tables are occupied with other expats of various nationalities. I would guess Chinese, Spanish, French and Italian. The remaining tables, I either couldn’t determine their nationalities or were definitely Poles. So, of nine tables in a restaurant five were occupied by foreigners (including myself) and the rest were presumably natives, not exactly equilibrium.
This is not I bad thing, I like the diversity, but it’s surprising. I seem to notice non Polish people in Poland far more than I noticed non British people in Britain. Could this be because Poland is secretly a migration hotspot? I mean, it makes sense… Poland has good standards in many things and is still relatively cheap. You probably get more value for money coming here than say other parts of Europe.
It’s not just Polish cities, in my small village of a population on the short side of a hundred, two of its inhabitants are immigrants (me and a Canadian). That’s 2% and a percentage that high seems an awful lot.
I spent a bit of time on the Wikipedia page for the Polish economy and it states that Poland is indeed a hotspot for migration due to it’s performance over recent years and out performance of other eastern European economies.
Then I went to the Eurostat website and found paradoxical information. According to 2010 figures only 0.1% of Poland’s population are immigrants compared to 17% in Latvia, 10% in Austria and 6% in the U.K.
Poland therefore, has a noticeably insignificant number of foreigners than other European counterparts but I ask myself how can these statistics be true? Any coffee shop, pub, restaurant I venture into has its foreign clientele. Even at my Polish language school I begin to appreciate just how many foreigners are in my city. And again, this is not a bad thing. It makes Poland a vibrant and multicultural place but I find the contrast between my real life experiences and the statistics stark.
I think Britain, like Germany and other countries have struggled with immigration from both a social and economic point of view. I just wonder how Poland will cope. So far the signs are good. None of the expats I know here in Poland speak of Poland badly and no one seems to be having a really hard time with anything. Rarely have I felt threatened in the city because of my nationality and the times I did were situations I stupidly put myself in. For the most part, Poland is an extremely welcoming place and I would like to see more foreigners here but I wonder how the Polish society will cope? It’s not a secret that ‘MultiKulti’ in neighboring Germany has failed.
How will Poland succeed were others have failed? Personally, I ‘m banking on Polish hospitality to be the deciding factor and maybe native Poles are proud to have foreign people see their country as a good place to live and respect the people who have made the jump and are now functioning parts of Polish society. It pays honours to the huge change Poland has gone through from the ‘dark’ eighties.
Statistic and your observations can both be true, if most foreigners are concentrated where you live (for example in and near Warszawa/Wrocław/Kraków/Łódź).
ReplyDeleteAnd you probably are going to restaurants that are popular among migrants.
Where I live more than 2 foreigners in restaurant is rare thing.
BTW - I would like to see Poland become multicultural like in 18 century, but there are small chances - Poland has less social benefits than Germany, France, or UK, is cheaper, but also less wealthy (one can argue it makes lazy migrants away). People migrating because of money have better places to go, so why should they go there?
I agree with anom, you basically answered yourself in your piece: expats and tourists tend to cogregate around certain areas. You notice them due to their relative rareity. In the UK migrants initialy fill wage-labour jobs whereas in Poland expats tend to take professional positions. Sebsequently they account for a disproportionate amount of restaurant or coffee-shop clientele as many poles simply don't go to duch places. In terms of acceptance things are similar in that there is no influx of people taking wage-labour jobs; were this the case then things could change for the worst as in many other countries: where competition for jobs causes inter-ethnic tension.
ReplyDeleteI disagree there are many many non Poles living in Poland and this is be expected because of the economy.
ReplyDeleteI live in a medium sized town with 60,000 people and foreigners are very common because most businesses are foreign owned. We have several furniture and chemical companies from the U.S, all of the top people are from the U.S or another european country.
The Eurostat figures are completely wrong. poland has a population of 60,000 vietnamese alone but Eurostat puts the number of foreigners at 35,000 (0.1%)
ReplyDeleteHow many British in poland 6,000? 7,000? Irish 4,000? Then when you consider the german minorities in some areas are so important government signs are in two languages.
I think Polands number of foreigners is close 2 1%
There are loads of foreigners in Poland. The official statistics give the wrong idea and I have many friends of different nationalities (Even here in the east).
ReplyDeleteThe poor quality of statistics goes to show how bad Polish beaureacracy is and probably many ukraines and romanians are not registered.
I agree you must think about how many foreign companies are in Poland all have foreingers
I lived in big cities and small towns and there were always many people who weren't polish.
ReplyDeletePoland is a very multicultural place. I miss it!
Thanks for all the comments.
ReplyDeleteI mean, I can accept that Wrocław is a mutltinational city, it clearly is in every respect alongside Gdansk, Poznan, Krakow, Warsaw.
What suprises me is what you can see in my little village or other small towns I'm familar with. Everywhere I look the % of foreigners way exceeds the statistical figures.
And yes, I think that while foreigners are seen to be contributing to the economy, everybody will be accepted - but what about other immigrant groups? that are not from the west? will they be accepted with similar open arms and will this have an effect on the expat population as a whole?
Can't believe I've missed this post. Have many 2p thoughts on this subject, which fascinates me.
ReplyDeleteJust one though, striding down the village of Czerniakow last year a man walks past me with a small boy by his side. I've an hour to spare and am heading to the Vistula to see the nearby monument. As we pass I hear the boy say in English "Daddy when will Mummy come home?" in an English accent. The point is that I think in the last six months I have heard English people in both central Warsaw and outer Warsaw. I'd say the stats are all wrong, as many don't register with the authorities for whatever reason.
Anyway, got lots of thoughts, going to restrain myself before I eat my fish pie but will return later.
Paddy