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

It’s saddening to hear that you have been badly treated in our country, OP. My own experiences with East European migrants has been overwhelmingly positive, and I think their work ethic, values and willingness to fully integrate into British society are very admirable. It’s a shame that the same cannot be said for all the immigrant communities in our country.

We are all Europeans, and the amount of culture that we share can sometimes be obscured by the fact that we speak different languages.

@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'm sad that you feel that way. Our next door neighbours are Polish, great friends over the road are Lithuanian, my son's housemate is Estonian and their friend is Ukrainian - we love Eastern Europeans in this house. I hope you soon feel very welcome in the UK

I think their work ethic, values and willingness to fully integrate into British society are very admirable. It’s a shame that the same cannot be said for all the immigrant communities in our country

What I feel like you're trying to say here is that you don't mind immigrants who are white...

I might be wrong...

currently where i work we have workers from Hungary, Checz republic, Albania, South Africa, and Poland and i look on each person as who they are not where they come from and work well with everyone

re the term eastern european.
it depends on age, not geography.
we grew up with the soviet block dominating half of europe. and then there was yugoslavia, another totalitarian non democratic country.
even half of germany was eastern european.
that's also why some of the attitudes are a little dubious. there was no visiting these countries, hardly, unless one had relatives there.
they were not seen as desirable locations, because of the regime.

as to racism from some easterns, i think it's similar; ie lack of knowledge/ acquaintance.
it's like attitudes here from the 40s/50s, where most people grew up never seeing a black/brown person except on film.

I too have found EE to be racist towards black people.
Not all, thankfully. And you know when you meet someone from that part of the world who isn't a racist - that it is a genuine position, likely against the majority opinion "back home" and views of family and friends. While in Western Europe I find anti-racist views often to be, for the lack of a better word, a position of convenience.

What I feel like you're trying to say here is that you don't mind immigrants who are white... I might be wrong...

Yes, you are wrong.

My view is that all immigrants should learn the language of and integrate into the culture of their new countries. That includes people of all nationalities, ethnicities and cultures who come to live in the U.K. and British people who emigrate to France, Spain, the Middle-East or anywhere else.

So @agelikewine what communities do you think don't try to integrate?

I work with quite a few Eastern European’s and mostly they are friendly And hard working as are the other people I work with.

I also have two Eastern European’s who have married close family members. They are from two different countries and I love both of them.
But their home countries are racist. I have visited the home village of one it is 100% white orthodox. Even the large town 45 minutes away is the same and my relative admits you would never get permission to open a mosque and even Catholic Churches are seen as “other”
The other relative comes from one of the newer countries which came into existence from the break down of the former Yugoslavia. She admits that seeing a black person is so rare that they get stared at and they hate their neibouring country.

I'm sorry you've been made to feel unwelcome :(

DH is second generation Polish but he 'passes' so we have had no trouble. I doubt anyone would ever guess his heritage and he rarely returns to Poland now.

I live in rural Lincolnshire and the only bad attitudes I see towards Eastern Europeans are on local FB groups Some of the things people post on there are unbelievably prejudiced!

In real life a lot of staff at the hospital I work at our from Eastern Europe and I never hear any prejudice against them, we are very good friends with one couple who came here six years ago from Lithuania and they say they have felt very welcome but they have friends who have had problems

I can also report that they do in general hate 'the blacks'. Again, lived experiences.

@DrinkFeckArseGirls....dziekuje...as my dear history teacher memorably used to say. .....'never get your Baltics mixed up with your Balkans..'

In regards to racism a lot of it comes from ignorance and lack of exposure. I didn't see a black person in real life until I was 20. There were only two black people on telly.
All we knew , including language , was from films and music, so while we were very familiar with the n word for example, it's history,implications and the racist use of it largely passed us by.

I used the p word once or twice , which I learned here with no idea that it was racist. In my mind it was just a handy short version like "Brit". That was a steep learning experience.

I don’t have a single opinion of Eastern European’s. I have a positive experiences with polish families, no experience of Hungarians and have had sexist abuse from men with accents closer to Russian but not Russian.

I wonder if it's where in the UK you live?
I've found some places more than others tend to be a bit unwelcoming towards any newcomer be they from abroad or just another part of the UK.
For me personally, I judge individual people on their character rather than where they're from, their accent, or what they look like.

Dp is Polish (although he absolutely doesn’t class himself as Eastern European!

Is this a snobbery thing? Do Polish people look down on EE?

I think of Poland as being part of EE. I'm not going to write a post telling you that every EE person I've met has been amazing. They haven't nor has every English, Irish or Australian person I've ever met been amazing and it won't be of any help to you.

Some of the EE people I've worked with have been blunt to a fault which makes me uncomfortable. But that is the same for other nationalities. Some EE I have spoken to have been very negative about where they now live. One mum at my kid's school makes constant comparisons about how great things are in her home country, how this or that is a rip off and I find it tiring to listen to her.

Where I now live, there are two houses that are owned/rented by EE. There are three families living in each house. One of the houses has a dog that is never put on a lead and their dog soils our garden, they never clean up. The (big) dog barks and frightens my kids, they don't make any attempt to call the dog off. They are aggressive drivers and think nothing of blocking the road by parking cars everywhere. Between the two houses, they have six cars and only two parking spaces. They frequently block me in and when I ask them if they will move so I can get out, they tell me they'll move it when they are ready. Its only six families, but unfortunately that has been my personal experience. I don't think for one minute that all EE are the same nor are all English, Irish, Australians or Americans but naturally my neighbours are my experience.

In other words OP, if you have felt unwelcome where you live for ten years, is there any possibility that it is how you act/what you say that results in people not being friendly?

Or you could be right. It could be racism and I don't have any answers for that other than you are better off without these friends.

Alongcameacat just few posts down I explained what countries lay in Central Europe. Your reaction to another poster’s comment is very typical tbh - just because you think Polish people are EE then when they say otherwise it must be out of snobbery . It’s quite offensive what you wrote but I shouldn’t be surprised.
I think your snobbery shines through.

There are many EEs in London in different sectors and walks of life.

OP, you said you are building a career in an industry. When you feel left out and stigmatised for being from EE, it is in a professional context or in every day life? Are you able to give an example?

I think of Poland as being part of EE

Lots of people think it but it doesn’t make it so!

I’m fascinated by how we all pick up inaccurate ideas and stick to them even when they are objectively wrong (Poland being part of Central Europe). I wonder why so many Brits think otherwise? Was a it an idea fed to us by the media back when they joined the EU (agreement made in 2002 and became official 2004).

So many myths have been printed about the EU, we’ve seemingly internalised lots of them?

(Not a dig at the quoted MN poster, just a thought relating to the comment)

That is quite some show of superiority (that I’ve come across before) for a Brit to assume they know better about another person’s country then that person does. 🤷‍♀️

DrinkFeckArseGirls

And that is quite a chip on your shoulder. You should not assume where other posters are from either 🤪