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

Sorry you feel like this. I’ve worked with lots of Eastern Europe people , they’ve all been lovely . Super helpful , friendly , reliable and professional.
I think you’re right that people are more accepting if you come from certain other countries.
I love making friends with people from different countries and ethnic backgrounds.

@GimmeAy Please read your posts back and try to see how offensive you are. You said earlier your child is mixed race, if you replace the word Russian in your statements with Black would you deem that acceptable?

@TazSyd

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.

The last sentence sums it up absolutely right!!

I think you're deliberately missing the point, Gimme.

@GimmeAy you also said you don't like any ex USSR states. There's about 15 of them and you don't like any because of two people.

I think the comparison to black is very appropriate.

So about a year ago, I sent my dad's saliva to the 23andme. It showed that he was like 90% Eastern European .
I then downloaded the raw data and did another test with MyHeritage. So here is their Ethnicity Estimate - 76.7% - EE and the rest is - Balkan.
So they call EE an ethnic group then? EE has many different ethnicities and logically the DNA can't be of EE ethnicity. Just checked wiki and it said that only Russia there are 185 ethnic groups!

Sounds like complete bollocks, yeah?

I don’t think it’s @mollypuss1 who is making a show of herself.

@GimmeAy

Did you know that there are more Brits in Australia than in the whole of the EU combined, including Ireland? Australia only has a population of 22 million.

The migration between Britain and the EU is mostly one way. My point stands.

When the British emigrate, they go to Australia, NZ, Canada and the US. Very few go to the EU and the few that do go to the EU go to Spain and France, not Eastern Europe.

[quote KenDodd]**@ajs88

Have you learnt any Croatian? I don't know if you're planning to have children at some point but to raise them bilingual is such a plus for them. I'm always really envious of the language skills of Europeans, not just EE, all of them, I've never been anywhere in Europe (been to 21 countries in Europe) where I've had the slightest trouble just speaking English, they put us to shame. In fairness, I do think it's easier for them, just because they're surrounded by English, even in their own country, in a way we're not exposed to another language and so it is also harder for us. I'm sure a lot of it is just laziness (or arrogance) we don't bother to learn because others can just learn our language.[/quote]
Yes I am learning and if anything it is very good when we are travelling and it's useful if people don't know I'm English, bartering for example. I am extremely envious of his language skills, fluent in Croat, which can be used across most of the balkan states, English and Spanish (learn't later in life), also has some French and Italian. With all that he make himself understood in most countries. If I regret anything from school it's not taking French and German seriously.

His theory is that English people are terrified of getting it wrong and embarrassing themselves, which I think is true, because I do actually know far more bits of different languages then I'm prepared to try and use in public.

It is true that exposure to English in media does it make it easier to learn, for example children as young as 3 years old can understand me a good bit because they watch Peppa Pig and other cartoons, even if they can't speak it yet.

We both agree our kids should be bilingual, but we disagree on which one. He thinks Spanish is the most useful, whereas I would like them to speak Croatian as it would be part of their heritage and so they can talk with their grandparents (they speak fluent Italian and German, but only his Dad speaks some English). His friends all say they should if only so I can tell them off in public without almost anyone knowing what I'm saying. He also wants them to have English names and even just my surname (which is actually Irish) so they'll have a better chance in life, he even calls himself by the English version of his name in the UK. But again I think it would be part of their heritage and for them to choose when they older if they want to identify or not.

But this is because he doesn't really like the country he is from mostly because of corruption, which in his misspent youth he tried to fight against but of course like the Clash says I fought the law and the law won. If he is anything to go by I agree with the poster who said a lot can be very anti-establishment and rules, it's like a national sport seeing what you can get away with.

I'm a goody two shoes but even I've found myself just shrugging my shoulders if some busy body tells me off for some minor misdemeanor (not using disabled parking though!) instead of getting upset by it.

I'm sorry you haven't been made to feel welcome. I love the fact that my children grow up with a far wider variety of people than I did.

I work in an area where there are quite a few Eastern European's- Romanians, Czech, Polish and Slovakian. All such lovely families who are happy to live here, polite, respectful and hard working ( which is more than can be said for some of the lazy entitled home grown variety of CFs I encounter... )

I've registered for Mumsnet after some time spent lurking, just to say that you are very welcome here. We welcome your contributions to society and our country would be a poorer place without you.

I am appalled at how racist some of my fellow English people are and am not afraid to tell them. I think the standout idiotic comment was the woman (A TEACHER) who explained that she voted Leave because she is offended by the sound of Polish being spoken outside the gates of her children's school. I am offended by the sound of her voice and her general idiocy but I wouldn't make a decision that amounts to national suicide because of it... (I told her this.)

I think the standout idiotic comment was the woman (A TEACHER) who explained that she voted Leave because she is offended by the sound of Polish being spoken outside the gates of her children's school

I also don't understand why it should offend anyone hearing other people speak others languages than English in Britain. Obviously I won't talk in English to my mother or people from my country. When British people go on holiday I don't hear them talking to other Brits in Turkish, Greek or Spanish, for example. It is of course very rude to speak your own language in a group off people who don't understand it. I never do it because I know how it feels. It's simply rude.
There are very large ethnic groups in Britain but I haven't heard of them demanding to have their language as a second or third state language like it happens in some countries. The lessons at schools and at universities are also taught in English. In some countries ethnic minorities demand to also have lessons in their mother tongue in addition to the state language or only in their mother tongue. Imagine how it feels.
And you have nothing of that in Britain.
Sorry for being a bit direct. I am trying to cook chicken at the same time

@GimmeAy

Russians are a nation. I have had bad experiences with them so far so don't trust them. Russians are not all white people. Replacing black with Russian wouldn't fit.

You haven’t had a bad experience with an entire nation. You are judging over 145 million people based solely on your experience with one individual. You wouldn’t accept prejudice against your child for the colour of their skin but you think it’s ok to be prejudiced against someone because of their country of birth? Can you not see the hypocrisy?

@GimmeAy

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

you are utterly utterly awful

One of my best mates (ex housemate) is Lithuanian. I love the food she cooks.

@SmudgeButt

It makes me laugh that some British are so arrogant about people from other countries. Look at how much of the world has been forced to speak English due to all the economic emigrants from Great Britain! Canada, USA, Australia, NZ etc etc etc.

I'm glad of the people that have moved into the UK over the last 25+ years since I came here. I can now get food that I ate when I was growing up! And I like the variety of names and accents!

Errrr I don't think those countries learned English because of economic migrants...

Ajs88, I'm also Croatian and I must say I agree with your husband. Their life is going to be so much easier with your surname and english name. If I were in his situation, I would do the same.

Yes, I think the Croatian husband is right too (other than on bilingual language which I think should be Croatian for simplicity and family relationships and they can always talk to him in that at home and go to Croatian classes at weekends when bigger). I was wrestling with a bit of the family tree yesterday and one Irish ancestor kept her Irish surname and then married anyway so changed name but her father and one brother changed it to an English version which has made it confusing to track down as even the church baptisms were using the English version but civil for some family members Irish and others English. Some Chinese in the UK will adopt a British first name at least and I live in an Indian area (and other groups) and plenty of people use a short version of a very long set of names too just to make it easier for others.

On languages our local council which is mostly non-white did have to ban speaking at work in council officers however of some of the Indian languages as other nationalities at the council felt excluded when they could not understand what two colleagues were saying at work in Urdu or something. However most people in the UK don't mind if people are speaking a different language in public as long as they are speaking as quietly as British people and are not keeping us up late at night (some cultures stay up with their children very late indeed and wake other people up whereas in Switzerland you cannot even flush the loo after 10am in flats in case you wake people up ) so there are definitely some cultural issues which affect others in the UK host country from time to time but others are positive - my sons' school is full of first and second generation immigrant boys who work very very very hard - school full of Tiger mothers etc really and that has a huge influence over the few white boys as they see everyone working very very hard to get to university, not staying up late and not having girl friends.

Elsewyre you could argue the British during the colonial period were economic migrants. They emigrated to improve their economic situation - to get wealthy on the back of the resources of another country.

@DrinkFeckArseGirls

Some were religious migrants (read up on the Puritans).

Some were convicts (originally in the US and then Australia).

What races are Eastern European? Does it include Polish people?