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

but quite often they just look down when I smile

No idea if it's true but I've heard that smiling at strangers is not something that EE people do as a cultural norm.

I think it's great and often feel proud that people from other countries have chosen to make the UK their home. Though also a bit confused because I think it's pretty horrible here and would emigrate if I could.

I find it interesting how a lot of posters equate EE with Polish. You do realise there are a lot of other countries in EE right?

I'm not sure it is racism? Thing's have changed massively since free roam of EU citizen I agree, I think most people having genuine concerns about freedom of movement Have have been ignored and branded racists for too long. I also think most people, from all walks of life, make sweeping statements about all types of people based on origin, race and class but when challenged would near on all admit that when dealing with individuals it’s irrelevant.

There appears to be a misunderstanding here that Roma = Romanian. That is not the case. It's like claiming that Jewish = Israel. The Roma /Sinti come from a wide range of countries, it is a culture and not a nationality.

Yes well I can't speak for everyone but I do know that the polish people that i have spent time with do think that going around grinning at strangers is odd.
In fact I ended up agree g with them. These days if a stranger grins at me I am quite likely to think they might have a mhp. Or that they are being patronising. One or the other.

@formerbabe there is no such thing as Eastern European culture.

@chaoticisatroll55 they are just taken by suprise and dont know how to react. Poles need time to warm up.

I've heard that smiling at strangers is not something that EE people do as a cultural norm I believe that is true.
The few I know personally thought we were smiling loons when they arrived.
A friend from Latvia said over there you don't mix with strangers or chit chat unless you want something.

I like our smiling at strangers culture.

DdraigGoch Poland didn’t “aligned” itself with Eastern block. Poland was occupied by Soviets during the second world war (as it was by Germans) and at the end of the war till 1989 was under the Soviet rule.

I'm not sure it is racism? Thing's have changed massively since free roam of EU citizen I agree, I think most people having genuine concerns about freedom of movement Have have been ignored and branded racists for too long.

Except I have yet to meet someone irl with 'concerns about immigration' that wasn't based on fundamentally racist untruths. Like costing us money by claiming benefits for example or using the NHS.
What exactly are your concerns about FOM? I'm happy to be proven wrong. Also, don't forget FOM is a two way street, we've removed a lot of rights and opportunities from our children. I know posters will come on and say working class kids couldn't access those opportunities anyway but I think it was quite the opposite (speaking as someone working class with middle class children). My kids will probably be ok, will still be able to access educational and work opportunities abroad because we have the money to enable this. It's working class kids who won't be able to just rock up in the Costas or in Amsterdam or Berlin and get summer (or longer) jobs in bars or kitchens. These are life enhancing experiences we have taken away from them.

I’m really sorry you feel this way. I lived in Poland for a while and was treated extremely well the whole time I was there. Since coming back I have tried to be as welcoming as I can go all Eastern Europeans I meet round here. I suspect it does depend to some degree where you are. There will be some thriving mixed nationality communities, especially I imagine in the South East. I honestly hope you find your feet here and settle-
As far as I’m concerned you’re more than welcome and your work ethic and culture is of real value to us.

Like costing us money by claiming benefits for example or using the NHS.

OP has the same train of thought so as far as I'm concerned, all her whinging is tough titties .

@DestroyedPeople oh gawd do people think that when I smile at them. I live in Yorkshire I think it's more common here. A complete stranger told me she loved my T shirt yesterday 😁

I really welcome any European. In my experience they are all hard workers, and just nice people.

@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

Well if you're fluent in the language then you're doing better than 95% of Brits abroad.

You've moved here, you're working, you've made a life.

I don't know what the answer is. As far as I'm concerned, this is your home.

@chaoticisatroll55 Keep doing what your doing, they'll warm to it and join in, they're smiling loons too.
Some EE countries were very corrupt for along time people become suspicious.
The stories my friend from Poland tells of curfews, food rations, homophobia the older generations were hardened.
The unrest in Ukraine too now they're used as baby makers for the more financially stable Europeans.
I can't blame people been cautious on arrival and trying to make a better life.

The Eastern Europeans I have met are hard working, honest, kind and incredibly determined to build a future for their families. These include Romanian, Polish and Lithuanian . I judge as I find.

What exactly are your concerns about FOM? I'm happy to be proven wrong. Also, don't forget FOM is a two way street, we've removed a lot of rights and opportunities from our children well FOM worked well when the countries included were similar ie the same number of French came to the U.K. and vice versa. Whilst the odd poster will come on and say “my daughter did a gap year in Warsaw”, on the whole the numbers from the more newly added countries are flowing one way.

I don’t think immigrants come here to take benefits but I think there are lots of benefits to living in the U.K. There was a nurse interviewed for the bbc during the referendum who said that she had many colleagues from the EU Granted but she saw a greater number of EU migrants needing treatment in recent years. Are U.K. schools underfunded, do we have a housing crisis? Absolutely- but that doesn’t mean the issues of supply and demand aren’t real. Everyone needs a home and children need an education, a supermarket worker, a fruit picker- whilst admirable in their work ethic, don’t pay enough tax in their day to day work to fund their c-section, their child’s schooling etc...That’s not to say all British born people do either, but you don’t ship in more and more net takers to show “fairness”.

If you see the hoops non-EU migrants have to jump through and the money they have to pay to stay here, I don’t think it’s fair that an EU migrant who will ultimately be a net taker to the system can just walk in. I personally think the U.K. could be far fairer to migrants from the common wealth for example before prioritising those from Europe.
Also many people will point out the U.K. didn’t impose number limits or enforce the right to remove- 100% agree but we all know the U.K. has shit admin skills (ie windrush), Also the cost of deporting all these migrants would be astronomical, we should have the right to scrutinise people before they enter. We ended up where we are due to the poor decisions taken my consecutive governments but I don’t blame people for voting how they have

Most Eastern Europeans come for a bit and hope to go back actually so a lot have been net payers into the system. I did not see much Roma/Romanian confusion on the thread - in fact my post was the opposite - distinguishing them although I welcome both groups as long as they follow the rules.

The EE I know smile a lot but may be they have just been here for a while and started being similar to us but I don't need a UK where everyone is the same - just one where everyone follows the law.

@OnlyFoolsnMothers you're right, I don't pay much tax. That is because it is considered acceptable to be paid peanuts to help educate children.

I could quit my job I guess , but I enjoy it and I'm really good at it.

KenDodd
I have concerns over freedom of movement. Relating to housing shortages, service shortages/schools, the fact that we are in quite a precarious position already as a small island incapable of being self-sufficient in food production and making it worse by adding more people, the way we can "poach" professionals another country has paid to train, the problems caused by expecting different cultures to mix and get on without putting resources into facilitating that. Oh, and particularly the effect on working conditions, expectations, and pay for people already here (by expectations I mean working long hours, expected to live on site etc). And the sheer unfairness of certain people being allowed FOM whilst others can't get here for love nor money! (Well actually I suppose money would do it )

Actually I'm not totally comfortable with the better-off end of the "economic migration" scale either... It feels like having someone come to stay in your house because they can save money on food/bills at their house, rather than because they actually want to see you.
All this works both ways, of course, with Brits behaving terribly abroad too.

There's a lot of complicated factors in it all. But that is all general. I view and treat individuals on an individual level, based on their own behaviour and circumstances.

I do think people on the political left (as I am in general... hard left in many ways...) are making migration issues worse by generally not talking about or trying to solve the complicated bits, pretending it's all rosy. So the people who are really struggling with the effect on jobs, housing, and so on find no-one gives a shit except the actual racists who only want to use it to stir up hate, rather than actually have a conversation about how to solve the issues fairly. It infuriates me when people are automatically sympathetic to migrants' plight but ignore the complex troubles of other groups who they demonise as lazy and thick.

I find British people to be very unwelcoming and off with a lot of people so as an EE I wouldn't take it personally.

The place I've felt the least welcome out of everywhere I've lived (4 other countries and up and down the UK) is in England and where I live now. I'm northern, living in a village in the south. I've lost count of the amount of times I've been asked in an off tone "why did you decide to come and live here?".

Sorry you feel left out. I have friends from all over the EU, including the East. I have heard my Eastern European friends say the same thing as you, they put it down to the amount of Eastern European’s who have been allowed to come here with children, work part time and claim a lot of benefits, so now there is a stigma attached to being Eastern European and living here.

Other Western European countries tend to have a better benefits system than us but the key difference is that you have to have contributed / been resident before you can claim. Eastern European countries tended not to have much of a benefits system - it made sense for those people to jump on a cheap flight and be immediately entitled to benefits here, as we have a needs based system, rather than a contributions / residency based one. The low paid / benefits claimants in Western European countries are better off staying in their own countries, so we don’t see them here, we only get the middle class professionals from those countries moving here.

My wife is polish, she is a wonderful person a great mum and I couldn’t ask for a better partner - all of her family I’ve met and friends from Poland, and those go have come to live here are great. I’ve nothing but good things to say about the vast majority.