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

To everyone who has posted here: please do not throw Roma, Sinti, Irish Travellers,(or indeed any nation of travellers) anyone out of"our" realms of thinking - in every culture there are things that are difficult to undertand and accept. We are people of this world and have no right to judge each other. There is good and bad in every culture.

This whole thread is weird.
Eastern Europe is incredibly diverse. How can one say they are all friendly, hard-working or the opposite, that they have racist views? The topic is complex and probably a comment in a thread doesn't take us anywhere but just wanted to clarify a few things.
Firstly, who are economic migrants? They could very roughly be divided into two categories - ones that have no opportunities in their home countries and haven't been able to get a satisfactory job, are usually from smaller towns, are more likely to hold bigoted views towards other races, ethnicities but bare in mind, this is a class issue. The drinking and shouting Polish man doesn't represent Poland, but probably represents the fraction of Poland that is poorer, has less cultural capital and is more likely to abuse substances because of aforementioned reasons.
Secondly, there are people that are aspirational and feel they are not appreciated well enough in their home country and are skilled, educated. Mind that these people are not allocated jobs that they have training in so therefore you get hotel maids and chef assistants that have MAs.
Then you get a mix of classes, mix of backgrounds, mix of ethnicities, appearances etc that at all categorised as Eastern Europe. Personally, I find that offensive and being the snowflake that I am I never refer to myself as Eastern European because well, geographically my country of origin is not in the East of Europe and secondly, I have much much less common with a person from Bulgaria than I do with a person from Denmark for example. So I'm not sure how anyone could say that we are all nice and hard-working and friendly?!?
I mean, it's nice that people think that but we can't all be forced together like that. Also can't all be nice friendly and hard-working.

My friend is from Southern Europe, and she felt similarly unwelcome due to the brexit vote it’s such a shame. That said I’ve come up against prejudice simply from moving from one home nation to another. Some people unfortunately hate anyone they perceive to be “other”.

I’m half polish but look and sound completely English. I’m married, with an English surname now and am disgusted at how frequently people make derogatory comments about ‘The Poles’ to me!

It’s awful!

I have had only very positive experiences with colleagues and students I have known from Poland, Hungary and Romania. Wonderful people.

So I'm not sure how anyone could say that we are all nice and hard-working and friendly?!?
I mean, it's nice that people think that but we can't all be forced together like that. Also can't all be nice friendly and hard-working

It's really cringe worthy virtue signalling...not this thread but I once read on here something like...'i've never met an immigrant I didn't like'.
It's actually embarrassing.

I work with Eastern European's and they are the most hard working friendly obliging people

Friends of mine, who lived in south wales, left the UK after 11 years and returned to Poland, they wanted children and said they would never bring their child up here.

The racist abuse they got was awful, to the extent they stopped using public transport to go to work and bought a car, they are lovely people and i felt very ashamed to be british listening to what they had to say.

That was in 2014, i think the UK is a very racist society, look what happened to the team GB athlete the other day>

I couldn't care less who lives in the UK or who comes from where. Whoever they are, they have to live alongside me :-).

Quite honestly, what does it matter.

I'm 70 and when I was at school I remember people who were Polish, Ukranian and from other places, or else their parents were, nobody thought anything of it.

@Immigrantsong

OP I am an immigrant too and BAME. Lived in the UK for 21 years and still don't feel welcome. We chose Yorkshire and have found it very difficult to develop any social network, even though we moved to all areas of West Yorkshire. Very tight knit communities that keep us at arms length. We tried everything: going to local churches, volunteering on free time, inviting people over...but nothing was ever reciprocated. I kept waiting for my eldest to start school, as that's what people always told me was going to change our social life, but nothing ever materialised.

We do work full time, so hard to meet parents, but sad for my eldest. She never gets invited anywhere. As a result, we have had to turn to other immigrants for support. This defies the point of integration, but it was not for luck of trying.

What I have found depending on where you live people are not always open to allowing new people into their social circle and I have often felt that bitterly.

I want us to relocate as I am convinced Yorkshire is not for us. Very very difficult crowd to crack.

I was only thinking the other day that none of my overtures to make friends have ever been reciprocated. I am also in Yorkshire, white native British, single (divorced) woman. I am resigned to it, but then I enjoy my private space too. It may not be because you are BAME.

DH is from E Europe and he would completely agree with you OP. He has been here over 20 years, has been very successful in his profession, speaks more fluent English than I do (I’m English). The feeling that he has- that he is constantly looked down on- is real. As DC have got older I’ve become more and more aware of it, because it’s them that are being looked down on too. Makes me sad.

@Immigrantsong that’s really sad you have lived here 21 years!. I live in West Yorkshire so I’m a bit shocked you still feel like this. There are some areas that I know of that are ethnic minority.... but plenary of mixed areas too! I even remember my primary school in the 90s was mixed not overly though. But my high school ethnic was the majority but so was the area we went to school in as well.

'This whole thread is weird.
Eastern Europe is incredibly diverse. How can one say they are all friendly, hard-working or the opposite, that they have racist views?'

Yeah it's a bit odd isn't it. My neighbours are 2 Eastern European blokes, one is quietly spoken and you'd barely know he's there and the other gets drunk several nights a week and bellows at the top of his lungs in the garden. It's almost like they're just ordinary people, with their own personalities and everything

Honestly, I am glad they are hwre and adding to the cultural diversity. I admire them learning English if they moved here as an adult. I am interested to hear about their home countries. And I think we all have an equal right to be here.

That is a real shame OP, I can't imagine how it must feel but assume it must be distressing and disappointing to be rejected or singled out on a nationality basis. You deserve absolutely to feel you are at home and a valued member of society.

To answer your question, I don't think anything of 'Eastern European' people with a UK residence, all persons are entitled to reside here and work here and in my own view are welcome just as much as I am (having been born here) though it does make me feel sad to know that integration is so complex and often unattainable for those who are trying to make a life here.

There are some rather odd comments on here in the vein of 'oh all the x people i have met from that continent were very nice, what a nice set of persons' that just boil down to not getting the point, despite good intentions. No nations persons are homogenous are they, come on.

Where in the UK are you living OP, have you found it varies from place to place at all? I've recently moved county, so not that far, and have had my eyes opened by the difference in attitudes to certain things. Of course it goes without saying it isn't a county wide opinion but we have been so disappointed by it and it's made us want to move back as it feels so backwards seeing a high presence of anti immigration (we get leaflets through the door about patrolling the coast for boats, its vulgar) and lack of a welcome for lgbtq community (no indication Pride exists, attempts at it vandalised).

I can understand how you feel OP, I think u have a point. I'm white British (also half southern European as one southern EU parent) and I think you're right that brits have a more positive attitude to western european countries. Maybe because they are our more sophisticated neighbours, whereas eastern European countries are traditionally more unknown and have historically tended to be poorer so people wouldn't naturally look to them aspirationally. As a landlady I've had a few Romanian tenants and they've been great so personally I feel warmly towards eastern Europe. I think people who are economic migrants tend to be hard working and ambitious and that makes then good tenants and I imagine good employees. Therefore overall positive for the uk... I guess the racism is rooted in jealousy as well. Not sure that helps but just wanted to say I get what you're saying.

Don’t care where you come from.
Really struggle to understand people who do.
Generally find they’re not worth worrying about.

It does not matter where you come from. How you behave defines who you are. I rent out 2 of my B2l houses to Eastern Europeans and they are both good tenants, pay on time, look after house and ring me if they have a problem in house. One couple stayed in house for 8 years and then left to buy house of their own. They have kept in touch. Nice people.

Well if anyone is mean to you OP because you're not all French and glamorous (I'm sure you're very glamorous really) you can just wave your EU passport in their face and tell them you might not be French but you can go and live in France anytime you like and they can't.

I'm sorry some Brits are such stupid fuckers and that you get the rough end of it.

I'm not British (not European at all) but I did live there for a time. I worked as a teacher, and was shocked at how often Eastern European kids with little to no English were just placed in classrooms with zero extra support. I felt so awful for those kids, they were bewildered as to what was going on and all I could offer were reassuring looks, given that I spoke not a word of their language. At the time, I really felt that Britain could have done better. It really seemed to me that the attitude was "Well, they chose to come here, they'll have to cope." But I don't believe that all Brits think like that, and I'm sorry, OP, that you have felt unwelcome because some are ignorant.

I’m Eastern European and have lived here for many years and agree with what you are saying OP. I think some PP summed it up really well why: a) Eastern European are viewed as economic migrants coming from poorer countries (hence snobbism) and b) locals (no matter where that local is, UK or other country) mostly gravitate to other locals as their lives have already been settled, they have their social circle, intimate knowledge of the area and life there etc etc
I think the latter is the main reason why it’s so hard to fit in if you move to a different country as an adult. People don’t necessarily reject you because you are Eastern European but because they already have all the social roles allocated to other local people in their lives and don’t have the time (or desire) to carve a new place for a new stranger iyswim
I struggled a lot when I moved here trying to fit in, took it all very personally. And then as years went by, I stopped caring enough. My DH is English and all his side of the family fully embraced me; my best friend here is from another EAstern European country and that is enough for me. Do I wish sometimes that I could form more friendships with the English women? If honest, yes. But I won’t be losing my sleep if I don’t as in the end of the day, if people reject me because they can’t see past my nationality, then I don’t really want them as my friends.

Gosh, I’m so sorry you feel like this. I live in a large city and love the diversity. I’m sorry some people are dickheads.

To be fair my sympathy for OP disappeared when she did the whole "worthy migrant" spiel.

She doesn't like it because she's one of the "good" ones, but the low class,benefits ,not as settled or integrated ones? Oh they're awful.

She's special and worthy though, why can't others see that?

Because you feed into the same narrative and worse, repeat it while moaning you've been treated badly for being foreign and scapegoating the ones that are "less". That's why.

Lovely hard working people that I work with ...our postman is also from the EU and is such a nice guy, He keeps our doggie mentally occupied and waves at her before he posts the letters 😊

@Oliversmumsarmy

One of my 2 very good friends is originally from Eastern Europe.

Dd has friends from Eastern Europe, and so does Ds. They have friends from all over the world

I haven’t ever even thought about it. Let alone get worked up about it.

What sort of reply is this

'...let alone get worked up about it'

Sorry are YOU eastern European? Do you have anything to get worked up about.