The future's bright. The future's...Polish?

[afleitch]

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article344755.ece

750,000 and rising: how Polish workers have built a home in Britain

'The number of Polish people in Britain has reached record levels after the expansion of the EU, making it the fastest-growing ethnic minority.

Although the EU said this week that the newcomers, mostly young, well-educated and sometimes highly qualified, have boosted the UK economy, relieved skills shortages and cut dole queues, the rise is causing headaches for local authorities, schools, the health service and even the long-standing British Polish community.'

And in Scotland...

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16736300&method=full&siteid=66633&headline=church-look-to-poland-for-new-priests--name_page.html

'A CATHOLIC bishop is on a mission to Poland to headhunt priests to serve in Scotland.

Peter Moran hopes to attract Polish priests to make up for a shortfall of Catholic clergy in the north-east of Scotland.

He also wants to cater for the fast-growing Polish population in Scotland, most of whom are Catholic.'

Scotland has had a long standing Polish and Lithuanian community, mostly Catholic, but many Jew's too, characteristic of Poland before the Holocaust decimated Eastern Europe's Jewish community. They were the 'second wave' to arrive after the Irish in the 1840's and 50's and before the arrival of the Italians.

It is refreshing to see a new wave of immigration from Poland and eastern Europe bringing with them skills and energy that Scotland has been lacking in recent years.

[MasterJedi]

Well good for them!

[Michael Z]

There are a lot of Poles and, more generally, eastern Europeans living here in the Docklands - clearly this is due to loosened immigration rules after their entry to the EU. But what's interesting (positively speaking) is that nobody seems to mind.

[Ben.]

Technically I’m a Polish Count so I’ve got no problem with it

[Filuwaúrdjan]

No suprise at all; IIRC Ealing is already home to the second largest concentration of Poles outside Poland (Chicago is the largest o/c) and there were a lot there even before the current immigration (the Northolt aerodrome is in Ealing).
Immigration is in general a good thing and the lack of much tension between the new Eastern European immigrants and everyone else is a good thing... a lot of the new immigrants are agricultural labourers (a lot round Boston and also Hereford; go into central Hereford on a saturday and it's almost as though English isn't the most spoken language...) interestingly enough.

[Platypus]

We've generally 'skipped' Poles down here, at least in comparison to other immigrants. Most of our eactern European immigrants were Yugoslav, especially Croatian.

[Michael Z]

We've generally 'skipped' Poles down here, at least in comparison to other immigrants. Most of our eactern European immigrants were Yugoslav, especially Croatian.

I always wondered about that - why is it that so many Australians have Croatian roots?

[Platypus]

We've generally 'skipped' Poles down here, at least in comparison to other immigrants. Most of our eactern European immigrants were Yugoslav, especially Croatian.

I always wondered about that - why is it that so many Australians have Croatian roots?

Well, most Croats who emigrated emigrated after world war two; there wasn't all that much before it. Australia was looking for white, European immigrants; Croatia is a relatively white nation, and so it was pretty easy for them to get over here. They had no links to America or Canada, or the UK, and so the Croatian diaspora sort of founded itself in Australia. Also, with most of the other Yugoslavs heading to other parts of the world, Croatia wanted a country where it wouldn't have to deal with the Serbs and Bosnians.