Most of those [Poles] that I know are extremely polite and outstandingly hard working. They do their country proud.

That’s good to hear, Spitfire Pilot! Not enough Brits here – most of the expat managers have moved on, now there’s an ever-growing number of English teachers settling down. A surprising large percentage are marrying Polish girls…

FlyingOko

… you only have to look at some of the abysmally poor kits Airfix are still producing – Mig 15 (nearly 50 years old moulding) Me 110 (likewise)

The Mk XI Spitfire (JE*J) is another example – it’s utter crap and costs more (at least here in Warsaw) than Revell’s lovely Mk Vb Spit. The Airfix Spit looks awful – nose, rear fuselage and canopy – wrong shape, undercarriage – too short, wrong angle. Complete travesty. Same goes for Boulton Paul Defiant and Fairey Battle. But it’s the Spit – surely everyone’s first kit – that takes the biscuit. It sells on brand name and nostalgia, people get taken in once and never go back to it.

FlyingOko

Hmmm… And I came to this forum to chat about aviation and stuff…

I’m from Poland, live in Warsaw and am fascinated by this debate. I was born in London (Polish parents) and moved to Poland nine years ago, from a mixture of patriotic and economic reasons.

Reading this post, there are many misconceptions to clear up.

1) WW2: Could have looked a whole lot different if the BEF and their French “Allies” had waded into the Rhineland and Ruhr while Hitler was fighting his way through Poland. The Germans had precious few forces on the Siegfried Line. Hitler took a gamble and won – the Brits and French did not have the stomach to settle his hash there and then by opening a second front in September 1939.

2) Polish contribution to WW2: One in eight (over 12%) of German planes brought down during the Battle of Britain were destroyed by Polish pilots. Polish cryptographers did a vast amount of the early work to crack the Enigma code. Poles fought valiantly at Narvik, Tobruk, Battle of the Atlantic, Monte Cassino, Normandy (in particular Falaise gap) and Arnhem.

3) After the war, with Stalin’s goons having replaced the Nazis, some 200,000 Polish ex-servicemen stayed on in the UK. The 1951 census, pre-Windrush, showed Poles to be the second largest ethnic group in the UK after the Irish. Further waves of Poles migrated to the UK from 1956 (after de-Stalinisation), spiking in 1981 (Martial Law) right up to EU Accession in May 2004. As an ethnic group, they were exemplary. Very low crime rates, the second generation blended in seamlessly with the British host society.

4) The massive recent wave of Polish migrants in the UK is different from the previous two waves in that it is economics, not political in nature. It is driven primarily by British employers. Their demand is changing. There’s little need for unskilled/semi-skilled workers today. It’s engineers, architects, IT guys, project managers, pharmacists, dentists. For many years, young Brits have chosen to study humanities rather than sciences, and the labour market is desperately short of the latter. “Too many young people with degrees in Coronation Street Studies from the Polytechnic of Des O’ Connor”, said one UK employer looking for mechancial engineers in Poland.

5) Polish migrants are generally loved by the middle classes, whose gardens they tend, children they look after, companies they work it, farms they harvest etc. They have a solid work ethic which contrasts with the indigenous welfare-client class. The less-educated, unskilled/semiskilled Brits are increasingly fearful and resentful of a new wave of migrants ideally placed to take their place in the economy. As such, yes – migration is proving divisive. And as such, I’d be inclined to keep the Romanians and Bulgarians out of the UK labour market for the time being, until things settle.

6) Ukrainians and Russians are being let into the Polish labour market to ease labour shortages, most noticeable in the construction sector, currently undergoing a boom (buy your Warsaw flat now for 40,000 quid while you can!) due in part to EU funds helping rebuild Polish roads. The health sector, which should be squeeking, is not – yet at least. Poland’s health service had far too many specialists. London desparately needs 80 haematologists. Guess where they will come from. Poland will replace them from the east.

7) Home Office pundits and media commentators have all failed to see the pattern of ‘pendular’ migration between the UK and Poland. I fly to the UK regularly and flights home are just as full as flights out. It’s not stag parties and elderly holidaymakers enjoying an EasyJet break to a cheap city – it’s returning migrant workers that predominate. There might have been 427,000 registered with the WRS, but those figures don’t capture how many have returned home.

8) The UK was one of only three old EU countries to open their labour markets fully on 1 May 2004. But since then, another four EU members have done so. It’s the wretched French (again), the Germans, Italians and Austrians who, by limiting access to their labour markets, have distorted migration. After all, the EU should be economically, like the US. What’s the problem with poor people from Tennessee or Georgia seeking work in San Francisco, New York, Seattle or Boston? The same goes for free movement in goods and services and capital. Now, Dakota, Brits can indeed have a referendum to leave the EU – but then what? Look at Norway – it’s not a member, but it’s in the European Economic Area. The Norwegians have no say whatsoever in what happens in their biggest market – one of 475 million consumers. The UK will never leave the EU – too many UK jobs depend on it.

FlyingOko, Warsaw, Poland.