No Irish workers signs in Poland – another Irish urban legend?
Posted on January 17, 2009 by admin
Couple of days ago I got a email from one of my friends, an Irish blogger (PrimalSneeze), who asked me if the rumour that has been recently picked up by the Irish press is a true or not. The rumor is that in Poland in the building sites appeared “No Irish workers” banners. I have been living back in Poland for over 15 months now and I haven’t spotted any of them so far. Of course in the time of economical crisis and the fall down of all of the building sector the idea that Polish builders would eventually come back home would be quite reasonable but from the other hand all of the people I have asked what would they do if they lost their jobs in Ireland, would they come back to Poland or not, the answer was always that they would rather stay in Ireland. The socialwelfare benefit they can get in Ireland is about 200 Euro a week instead of 150 Euro a months in Poland. 200 Euro a week is 800 Euro and you can survive quite easily, even you can afford the same quality life as many Polish people that earn in Poland. Remember that average salary in Poland is about 2000 PLN (which is about 500 Euro a months). That is the salary of my wife, and she is the secretary (doing actually also some broker job and manpower manager) in the broker house in Lodz, Poland. And this is the another most important factor that will keep Irish workers miles away off Poland. The average salaries for the builders are not enough for the Irish workers. They won’t imigrate only to get half or even third part of the average Irish salary. There is no Irish immigration to Poland and I don’t expect it to be in at least couple of years (I am rather of the opinion that it will never happen). I guess the more possible scenario is the signs like “No North Korean workers” (they work in the shipyards in Gdansk) or at least “No Ukrainian workers” – whichs is now more possible due to the gas crisis between Ukraine and Russia.
It seems to me that we have a fines example of another Irish urban legend about the Poles after the swans to be our primary meal in Ireland.
