118 Polish immigrants sent back home from Ireland
Posted on October 7, 2008 by admin
This year, so far 118 Polish immigrants (of a entire number of 511 citizens of EU) decided to come back home to Poland with the financial help of Irish government. The program, conducted by The Reception and Integration Agency is dedicated to the immigrants fro the other EU states, who are homeless, unemployed and without the money. Usually those don’t speak English, they have neither savings nor contacts (like friends).
I remember when two years ago, during my stay in Ireland (Carlow), me and my wife went to Dublin for sighseeing. It was july and 2 weeks before I tried to book two beds in a hostels. All of them were full for entire holiday season. We finally decided to go to Dublin for one day and took the last bus to Carlow. On the O’Connell’s Street we met many Polish immigrants who just left the airlink buses (Dublin Airport <-> Dublin City Centre) and they were asking us about the accommodation and work. Many of them came to Ireland with 200 or 300 Euro. Try to imagine what would they do after staying couple of days in B&B. Some of them have run out of money very quickly.
Some people can not understand my very critical point of view over the Polish immigration, but I was always of the opinion that we should be able to communicate in English – at least, before we will pass the customs at Dublin airport. It would prevent many sad stories of happening and, what is also quite important, of closing ourselves behind the ghetto walls.
Comments (7)
as I can see from your recent posts you are trying to increase this gap and fortify the wall of “ghetto”.
It is really sad that your blog is showing Poles in the bad light. You are a Polish as well, but the only thing you do on this blog is moaning and bitching about bad Poles.
Honestly, what’s the purpose of this blog?
Ghetto walls are built of our ignorance and overgrown pride… I am not telling lies on my blog and you know that.
I am showing both good and bad sides and I am not dealing only with us, and this is not a blog about immigration only. The last one – Ireland from a Polish perspective was about us and Irish natives in Ireland, though you can be as well unsatisfied due to my point of view presented on the Irish blog was rather critical.
If you want a “magic mirror” that will show you exactly what you want to see, this blog is a wrong address for you.
Regards
Mirror mirror on the wall what is the the worst nation of all…
Argueing is pointless and I don’t want that. I know one thing other nations try to defend themselves and try to emphasise their good and positive sides and blur the bad ones. You are one of the ones who act the other way round. But as long as it suits you, I’m not bothered.
So I am not really understanding the argument, is what being said here all lies to stain the good reputation of a nation? Or exaggerated truths?
“Blurring bad sides”
Don’t you think, Dominik, that there is too much blurring going on in the world already? I will leave it at that.
I am not Polish, I only know 2 Polish people in person and they are wonderful people, they are my friends, and they are proud being Polish. But they convey the very same thoughts which I read here. If you can’t criticise and say what you know to be true, speak your mind, what good is talking at all? I think it would be called “censorship”.
I was in Ireland for 9 months and I observed the Polish – or rather, the immigration phenomenon there. I do agree that people going to Ireland should at least be able to speak English (or the language of the country they are going to be a part of), because it turns out to be a sad affair if they are unable to communicate.
On the other side, I met someone who had an engineering degree and was driving a taxi, and another who was a qualified teacher and was cleaning houses for a living in Ireland. There are more grey areas here than just the black and white. People move and migrate for their own reasons and choose to live their lives among people who might or might not welcome them as part of a society. Both sides have a responsibility to try and make it work that is mutually inclusive for both sides within the communities. Integration is impossible without effort.
I agree 100% with your comments. I think you hit the nail on the head. I don’t think many people can understand it because they’ve not been immersed in that atmosphere or the Polish existence. But for me it brings back many bad memories………and a few good ones.
I lived with a Polish girl for a few years, I speak Polish (taught myself). I met hundreds of Polish people. In the end, I had to choose my friends so carefully among the Polish people because I couldn’t trust them. I think they saw me as a bank.
It used to annoy me so much that they would complain about not having money, but every time I saw them, they would be drinking or already drunk.
Some of them used to be quite angry that I could speak and understand Polish because they had somehow lost an advantage over me. Others were quite pleased as saw it as an opportunity to use me.
Many of the Polishmen cursed my girlfriend because she was with an Irishman, they felt since she was Polish she somehow belonged to them and they would frequently make sexual comments which I gradually began to understand as my Polish improved.
This culminated with me throwing some of them out of my house one day and threatening to break their jaws if they showed up around my house again.
I often wondered if the “Favour” system exists in Poland as it does in Ireland? I visited Poland a number of times, but really I felt there was a huge difference between the Poles in Poland and the immigrants in Ireland. The Poles is Poland seemed much happier and more content, despite whatever problems in their environment and many of them simply seemed glad to see their new European neighbours. Its been 3 years since I was in Poland now so I don’t know the present situation, but I was stunned by the sudden rise in affluence the last time I was in central Poland.
In Ireland, the “favour” system drove me crazy because I was doing favours for a lot of Poles but they never gave me any favours in return, or they would try to make money/profit from me if they did do a favour….too many biznezmen!
The argument about teachers driving taxis etc. is nonsense in my opinion. All of the people I met who claimed to be teachers or scientists had a very low level of English. What did they expect?
Many of them were plain liars anyway. A lot of them were alcoholics to boot.
Many of them didn’t have any qualifications and were ashamed so they would simply lie. The gullible Irish would believe them, because in Ireland, it wouldn’t really occur to someone to lie about these things. It is a gap between the two cultures.
A lot of the Irish people who had no skills would freely admit they were lazy or useless or go get training. The Poles lived in a different reality where they didn’t have skills, but pretended to everyone that they did…even other Poles.
By and Large, I think most of the Polish woman are very decent and very fair, very classy and hard workers. But a lot of the men, I grew to hate. So many of them were wannabe gangsters..”KILLAR”….or “BIZNEZMEN”. Driving old BMWs, conducting nonsensical business deals – it makes my blood itchy just to think back to these times.
Allow me to finish by staying that I still count a handful of Polish people among my close friends. But I learned a lot of valuable lessons about life during those years and lose a lot of innocence.
I am also fed up of Poles coming to Ireland and being expected to be treated differently. I often go to Poland and speak fluent Polish. The Police there are corrupt and often ask for bribes. They think I do not understand the language and openly ask each other about getting a bribe from me. Besides this the Polish authorities discriminate against foreigners (Irish included) when they have cases between them and Poles. Recently some Irish people were accused of fraud and without any proof the Police in Poland arrested them and they are being held for three months.
Anyone coming to Ireland MUST learn to communicate in either English or Irish and respect our laws and lifestyle. Its a case of love it or leave it
In closing whenever I go to Poland I make every effort to respect their customs and laws. I expect Polaks to do the same or leave Ireland to go back to their homes.
Mr. Robert… are you going to take part in the discussion or to insult all of us only becasue of your bad luck? You know what I am talking about…
BTW… I would love to see all Irish speaking Gaeilge… at least at the very poor level that I can speak…
Is mise