According to Onet.pl, kids of the former Polish emigrants have problems in school due to the differences in the education policy in Poland and in the UK and Ireland. Kids that left Polish schools couple of years ago, had to get used to the completely different system in UK and Ireland, and now, they have to go through it again, here in Poland after they returned to Poland with their parents. Ministry of Education is working for special act that will assure the program of adaptation to the Polish system that will also help the kids to make up at school. However the Polish schools are facing the problem right now. The costs of additional courses for each kid of former emigrants are rather high – 5000 PLN (1250 Euro) per year. Those costs are not refunded by school-board, so the help is reduced to those schools that can afford. it

Source in Polish (onet.pl): http://wiadomosci.onet.pl/1903769,28350,wiadomosceu.html

During my stay in Ireland I was the active blogger and my blog Ireland From a Polish Perspective is still quite popular in Ireland, both amont the native Irish and Polish emigrants. Both on that blog and here – on MacKozer.com – I am dealing with the issues of the Polish emigration to Ireland, the problems of integration or sometimes lack of the integration at all. I have been always very critical, trying to be not biased on anyside favor – which is obviously quite dificult, since I am Polish myself. However, I have been always trying to understand both my compatriots and those Irish who are rather don’t happy hosting so many of us. The lack of understanding creates many problems and myths on both sides and some negative tendencions are present in both communities. The interesting case is the reflection of the attitude of some Irish to the Polish emigration in the search keywords that led them to my blogs. Today’s example is: “how to get rid of poles“: (here is the link to the refferal Irish search site)

Usually Apple products are realtively more expensive in Poland. Last may 2008, on my Polish blog I compared the prices of MacBooks here in Poland and in Ireland. The difirences in prices were clearly visible at that time. At present, due to the waekness of Polish Zloty (PLN) the prices of new unibody MacBooks are almost the same and they are even cheaper in Poland.

Let’s take the prices of the MacBooks alu unibody available through the website of Apple Ireland and compare them with the prices of the same products available through one of the Polish official Apple reselers – Cortland.

The aluminium 13-inch MacBook.

* Intel Core 2 Duo
* 2GB DDR3 Memory
* 160GB hard drive1
* NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
* Standard keyboard
* Aluminium unibody

Apple.ie (Ireland):

Cortland.pl (Poland):

Apple.ie (Apple Ireland): €1,199.00 gross * 4.40 (today’s value of Euro in Polish Zloty) = PLN 5,275.6 gross
Cortland.pl (Cortland online store): PLN 5,122.23 gross / 4.40 = €1,164.14 gross

So we have €1,199.00 (Ireland) vs €1,164.14 (Poland) or PLN 5,275.6 (Ireland) vs 5,122.23 (Poland).

In May 2008 I was considering trip to Ireland to buy a MacBook white. Even with the costs of the 2 days trip it was still cheaper than in Poland. Nowadays it is more expensive for us to go for shopping to Ireland. Maybe UK is still more attractive due to the weakness of Pound Sterling.

Ryanair is going to cut more connections from Poland. According to TVN24.pl 12 connections from 6 Polish cities are to be closed. Ryanair cuts the connections from Gdansk to Bristol and Liverpool, from Szczecin to Bristol, Birmingham, Luton and Liverpool, from Lodz to Liverpool, East Midlands and Shannon, from Poznan to East Midlands, from Wroclaw to Bournemouth and from Katowice to Bristol. Those connections won’t be available in the spring and summer season due to the very high navigation charges in Poland, which occurred in 2008. According to TVN24.pl Ryanair can not accept these costs, while offering the lowest prices. This is about the fees for the assistance during the take offs and landing procedures introduced by Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (Polska Agencja Żeglugi Powietrznej). According to the Ryanair’s spokesman, this will affect the Polish economy and end up in jobs cuts in Ryanair (about 500 employees).

Source in Polish: http://www.tvn24.pl/-1,1582889,0,1,ryanair-zawiesza-loty-do-polski,wiadomosc.html

Today, Gazeta.pl – online service of the leading Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza – mentioned that Ryanair provide tickets for the flights from Lodz to Shannon and Nottingham only for the period till the end of the March 2009. According to Gazeta.pl the connections to LIverpool and Stockholm are in danger as well. At the same time Ryanair is establishing new connections from other Polish cities and it is going to set up a base for 3 airplanes in Cracow. That means Lodz rather won’t win with the struggle to host the Ryanair’s fleet. The news in Polish are available at Gazeta.pl Lodz section’s site.

Is movement of Dell plant to Lodz from Limerick the answer for possible hold of the flight from Lodz to Shannon? There is still lots of Poles in the regions of Ireland that are better connected with Shannon than Dublin Airport.

Two Poles were attacked by the group of 8 or 10 men in the Bush Manor, a north part of Antrim City, Northern Ireland. According to the site of the Polish newspaper Dziennik – dziennik.pl, the attackers were armed with knives and the hammer. One of the Poles were stabbed and wounded. Policemen suspect that it was a racist attack. Police Service of Northern Ireland is investigating the case and looking for the suspects.

I have mentioned the other racist attack on Polish community in Northern Ireland on my Irish blog (Ireland From a Polish Perspective)

The decision of Dell to close down the plant in Limerick and move the almost entire production and assembly lines to factory in Lodz (in Poland) that was built just 2 years ago, was widely discussed in Ireland. This is the real disaster to the city of Limerick. I guess that about 4 thousands of people is going to loose their jobs in the forthcoming months, but the real impact on jobs and local economy will be more clearly visible in the forthcoming months. Of course bad news for Limerick are good news for Lodz. The plant wil employ more people and this is the chance for the local business. Local and Polish enterprises can co-operate with that big American corporate. For Dell itself the situation is probably even more comfortable. Polish Zloty is falling down day by day. Today 1PLN is 4.31 EU and the average salary in the factories/plants in Lodz is about 1500 – 2000 PLN a month for the ordinary worker. The salaries at Dell plant in Lodz are somewhere between. That means that at the moment the maximum salary is 464 Euro a month and is decreasing together with the worth of Polish Zloty. If we compare the minimum wage in Ireland, which is about 1400 Euro/month it is clearly visible that Dell is saving a lot of money every month. The Dell’s scenario is a warning for the Irish economy – the other international companies can leave Ireland in the nearest future. Actually Dell is not the first company that left Ireland for Poland and Lodz region. Couple of years ago Procter And Gable closed down its factory in Nenagh (North Tipperary) and moved to Aleksandrow Lodzki (satelite town of Lodz). I won’t be surprised if the other intertnational or even Irish ones do the same.

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.

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.

According to “Polska The Times” the number of Polish immigrant pathological families in UK and Ireland is growing rapidly. Over 100 Polish kids were taken from bad parents by the Social Services. Polska The Times claims that the scenario is usually the same – kids are are leaving Poland with their parents and when the can not find the job in Britain or Ireland they start drowning their sorrows and taking drugs. Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs is of the opinion (and I agree to that) that Polish families took their problems and pathologies with them to UK and Ireland. According to Polish societies in UK, over 500 Polish kids faces domestic violence every day. The local – British and Irish social and community societies claims that Poles are the worst immigrant group among the others in terms of pathologies.

I have been always of the opinion that Polish community in UK and Ireland represents the same problems, diversities, social statuses and – of course – pathologies as the entire Polish society in Poland, and problem of pathological families (domestic violence, alcohol, drugs etc) has been always big in Poland. Worth to mention that the immigration resulted in as it is called “Euro orphans” – kids left alone by their parents who left for UK or Ireland.

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