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

Are Finnish people have to have Russians living there?

Large proportion of Russians are Finno-Ugric.

FINNO-UGRIC PEOPLES OF RUSSIA BEFORE 1917
www.suri.ee/hist2/plen/sanukov.html

Thanks WhatifIfeellikeacat Will have to read that on a big screen!

@KenDodd and others regarding Finland not being a Scandinavian country Scandinavia is a group of countries = Sweden, Norway and Denmark who all share the linguistic ties. Finland and Iceland are often lumped together in this even though it's not correct.

Finland is part of a Fennoscandia which covers Finland, Sweden, Norway AND part of Russian known Karelia which in fact belonged to Finland but we lost it in the winter war in 1940's to Russia. My memory is bit hazy, apologies for any errors.

Finnish language is very different to say Swedish which is based in Latin, whereas Finnish belongs to an Finno-Ugri language group. Fascinatingly enough Hungarian and Finnish languages are closely related even though culturally and historically our countries are very different.

@DrinkFeckArseGirls Even though Finland belonged to Russia (and to Sweden before them) Finland always had an autonomy over it's own affairs and was never a communist country. Russian has never been widely spoken here, however Swedish is an official language alongside of Finnish and it is mandatory to learn at School. This is why we've never been referred as Eastern Europeans.

My maternal grandfather was a Karelian refugee but interestingly my DNA test didn't identify any Russian in me. I got Sami and Western European fragments instead.

I know many Romanians and have had some friends front here as well as Polish and Ukraine.

It annoys me when posters are so glib with their welcomes to immigrants - so , if they're all welcome, how many should we have - a million from the Indian sub continent? 5 million from S America ? Siria? Saudi - we are one of the few rich countries in the world and one of the very few with free nhs and education. Millions of people want to settle here. Hence they are drowning daily in the Channel. It's a serious problem and you diminish it by brandishing your politically correct welcome.
As for the OP. We get many posts on here from lonely people saying they have no friends/ don't feel welcome. I would say the same to the OP as to them - join a club, find an interest thatyou can share with others. No one will care where you are from or how you speak once you are contributing to the fun of the group.
I'm sure some people are bigoted and nasty but you know they aren't worth the time of day, keep smiling and find your own set.

Also, what links the Scandinavian countries Sweden, Norway and Denmark together is the heritage of Vikings. When Vikings roamed and pillaged the world, Finland was mainly populated by the Sami tribes who were nomadic reindeer herders (and still live and have their livelihood in reindeer herding in Lapland).

The same as I think of anyone, really. I have nothing against them as a whole. You're just people like anyone else. I'm sorry people are shitty to you.

So sorry you're feeling alienated OP and just echoing what others have said, you're more than welcome to be here and please don't let the xenophobes drag you down.

It's small minded people who think like that. A lot of Europeans in the UK either do jobs that the "native British" aren't willing to do or aren't qualified to do. Especially Eastern Europeans are known as hard-working and very diligent. By the way, I'm originally from Germany, but have lived in the UK for about 10 years now and I also feel xenophobia has gone up. People have also been racist with me after the referendum.

It annoys me when posters are so glib with their welcomes to immigrants - so , if they're all welcome, how many should we have - a million from the Indian sub continent? 5 million from S America ? Siria? Saudi - we are one of the few rich countries in the world and one of the very few with free nhs and education. Millions of people want to settle here. Hence they are drowning daily in the Channel. It's a serious problem and you diminish it by brandishing your politically correct welcome

I definitely think there's a lot of people who are so desperate to prove they're not prejudiced or racist that they throw out statements like ' as long as you're law abiding and hard working you're welcome here'. I understand the sentiment but the reality is the world is full of hard working law abiding people...but immigration is more than about a person's worthiness...I mean can public services cope? Is there enough housing? Are there enough employment opportunities?

Fascinatingly enough Hungarian and Finnish languages are closely related even though culturally and historically our countries are very different

Historically the Hungarians used to live closer to other Finno-Ugric tribes; then moved to the present location. Estonia, which is a neighbour of Finland, also has a language from the Finno-Ugric language group. It also borders an area of Russia which had Finno-Ugric native population, e.g. St. Petersburg. Now it's different of course as during the Soviet Union big cities used to attract people from the other republics and many have stayed.

''It annoys me when posters are so glib with their welcomes to immigrants - so , if they're all welcome, how many should we have - a million from the Indian sub continent? 5 million from S America ? Siria? Saudi - we are one of the few rich countries in the world and one of the very few with free nhs and education. Millions of people want to settle here. Hence they are drowning daily in the Channel. It's a serious problem and you diminish it by brandishing your politically correct welcome.''

Well @Bluemoooon the point is the OP is not an illegal immigrant and has lived here for 10 years...They are perfectly entitled to work and live in this country and should not be facing negative comments simply because they are not UK born.

We should treat people with respect as a rule no matter where they come from.

No - Irish heritage is tied into the vikings too - they wanted our gold and silver (where we got that from I've no idea - not aware of any gold mines in Roscommon).

I remember reading this some time ago. There could be the answer about where the gold came from.
www.irishtimes.com/news/health/ancient-irish-had-middle-eastern-ancestry-study-reveals-1.2478780?mode=amp

@Bluemoooon

It annoys me when posters are so glib with their welcomes to immigrants - so , if they're all welcome, how many should we have - a million from the Indian sub continent? 5 million from S America ? Siria? Saudi - we are one of the few rich countries in the world and one of the very few with free nhs and education. Millions of people want to settle here. Hence they are drowning daily in the Channel. It's a serious problem and you diminish it by brandishing your politically correct welcome. As for the OP. We get many posts on here from lonely people saying they have no friends/ don't feel welcome. I would say the same to the OP as to them - join a club, find an interest thatyou can share with others. No one will care where you are from or how you speak once you are contributing to the fun of the group. I'm sure some people are bigoted and nasty but you know they aren't worth the time of day, keep smiling and find your own set.

It looks like they’re going to bring in a points based system by January. So everyone has the same chance of coming here regardless of where they are from.

despite Ireland and the UK having reciprocal agreements (Common Travel Area) where both are entitled to avail of everything the other country has.

The movement is mostly one way. Same as with Eastern Europe.

@DrinkFeckArseGirls you'll be online reading for a long time.

I think it's the case of the quality of migrants we're talking about.
'quality'?

Plus you're always villains in movies oh, I see; you can rest your case then and Putin certainly doesn't do much good as an ambassador. Yes, let's all judge every nation by the calibre and behaviour of its leaders. Can't go wrong, I'm sure.

I've always been fascinated by Russia however. Oh that's OK then.

@GimmeAy

It isn’t incorrect. Some Brits of Irish origin may move to Ireland but on the whole, more Irish move to the UK than vice versa.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/articles/livingabroad/2017-09-21

Of the British born living in ROI a good proportion are of Irish origin.

It’s quite simple, richer countries attract those from poorer countries. Not the other way round.

@GimmeAy

Can you share your source? The one that proves that there are more Brits living in Eastern Europe and Ireland than vice versa.