To ask what you think of Eastern Europeans living in the UK?

[Bananasinpjs7]

I have lived in the UK for almost 10 years which is pretty much a 1/3 of my life. I never thought I’d stay this long but met my partner here and decided to build a career in an industry that we don’t really have in my home country... yet.
I’m trying my best... language wise I think I’m pretty fluent. English is the language I speak 95% of the time.
I try to fit in as much as possible, learn as much as I can about the UK to understand it’s history and culture...
But I feel extremely left out ... I feel people look at me and think ‘she is from eastern eu’ as if it has some sort of stigma. It feels like if you are from somewhere glamorous like France or Scandinavian countries you are much more accepted... I’m so tired of constantly feeling like this

I've had a mixed bag. Poles I have had no issues but I have found Romanians very difficult to work with.

The eastern european countries are:
Belarus
Bulgaria
Czechia
Hungary
Moldova
Poland
Romania
Russia
Slovakia
Ukraine

and can include Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Croatia, Bosnia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Why this "Eastern European"? There are good people and bad all over the world, it doesn't matter where they come from! They can be "true brits" around the corner who hang their St. George's flag out at every opportinuty - are they better?

I have no issue with EU citizens being here. None whatsoever.

OP, did you actually expect anybody on MN to say they hate a certain group of people?

Well I've been mugged twice by Roma men and their career option seems to be theiving so no I dont have a high opinion of roma people.

Can people not just be honest and say that the working classes were fucked over by an unprecedented influx of cheap Eastern European labour and that’s what cause the bad feeling and eventually Brexit.

That’s not to say that Eastern European people can’t be wonderful, racist, hardworking etc etc, it’s not their fault on an individual level.

This thread is mostly extremely patronising and actually mental.

@LazyFace

OP, did you actually expect anybody on MN to say they hate a certain group of people?

One poster did

Well I've been mugged twice by Roma men and their career option seems to be theiving so no I dont have a high opinion of roma people

I've heard Romanian people speak very badly about Roma people. One lady I know from Romania said she sees them as an embarrassment.

I think racism and prejudice is very complex and certainly not as simple as thinking white British people are the only people who hold racist views.

I voted to leave the EU...one factor for me was because the only racism we experience as a family has been from EE migrants.

MikeUniformMike

Some people have said Poland is Central Europe and not Eastern Europe and seem to take exception to being called Eastern European though? One poster said her Polish husband would never say he was Eastern European?

@formerbabe yes I've heard romanian ppl are not keen on roma either they are known for causing trouble in Romania as well.Think they were glad to ship them of to England!.

Well I've been mugged twice by Roma men and their career option seems to be theiving so no I dont have a high opinion of roma people.

DH had a client in Romania. We went over there, for him to do some work at the client’s. Romanian people told me they were fed up with the Roma, giving all Romanians a bad reputation!

Where I live there is a huge amount of anti Polish feeling. A lot of the problem stems from school places - schools round here are very full, especially the RC ones, with a lot of Polish children. I've seen a lot of comments about how 'they' wouldn't like it if the British all started to move to Poland and suddenly Polish children couldn't get school places. Our school has plenty of African and Chinese first generation children, but I have never, ever, heard any negative comments directed towards them. I think it is just the sheer number of EE's that seems to have 'upset' people here.

I'm married to an Eastern European, we've been together for 11 years. The only place he's experienced overt racism was in Blackpool (a woman aggressively asked how much he earned, he was so surprised he answered honestly - she was furious and said either he was taking money from a UK born person OR was lying) 🙄

i think it is just the sheer number of EE's that seems to have 'upset' people her I agree, a combination of: the assumption of their home countries (ie ex communist), the high numbers which migrated over in a short space of time and the fact that they seemingly “had it easy” when compared to the financial and bureaucratic hoops non-eu migrants have to jump through to set up a life in the U.K. I think there’s ill feeling due to these factors

Central Europe countries are: Austria, Croatia, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland.

I’m Polish and whenever (not that often grin) I say to people Poland is in Central Europe they don’t believe me 🤷‍♀️
I think they assume it’s a way of separating myself from the term “Eastern European” but it’s just a geographical fact.
Geographically those countries are indeed Central Europe. Politically though, some aligned themselves with capitalism and NATO, others were communist and aligned with the Eastern Bloc. The economic inequalities caused between the different systems are far more significant than where a country appears on a map.

I love Eastern European’s. There have been 2 at my workplace and they’re always so kind!

The Eastern European’s I’ve worked with with have all been lovely, friendly and hard working. Other mums mums in the neighbourhood have been friendly and cooperative. I count many as my friends. :-)

@whenwillthemadnessend

I have no issue with EU citizens being here. None whatsoever.

Do you have a problem with non EU citizens ? And if yes, why? In what way are they different? Aren't they people too?

Parts of Sweden and Norway further east than Poland.
Poland is in Central Europe.

Geographically those countries are indeed Central Europe. Politically though, some aligned themselves with capitalism and NATO, others were communist and aligned with the Eastern Bloc.

Yes I think this is how many Western Europeans still differentiate between Central and Eastern Europe. I have travelled quite a bit and I would never say Austria and Switzerland were similar countries or had a similar feel to Poland and the Czech Republic. They are very different.