To think people don't realise how much racism is directed towards Eastern Europeans ?

[rudolphrainbownose]

My boyfriend is Latvian, I am English. I've never really mixed much with the eastern european community until we started dating two years ago, so naively assumed racism wouldn't be so much of an issue.
However, my boyfriend works security at a railway station. He is often allocated to a very small station in town, and so is normally the only employee/ worker present. Due to this, his employer provides him and all staff with body worn cameras so there is audio/ visual proof of the following. Whenever people start behaving in an antisocial way at the station, ( e.g. kids trespassing on the tracks, smoking/ drinking alcohol, attempting to board trains without tickets etc), he will challenge this as part of his job. Obviously, as soon as he starts speaking/ engaging with these people, it is clear he has a strong eastern European accent. Without fail, they will normally retort, "well f back home/ back to Poland", ( he is not Polish, has never even been to Poland, but it is always "go back to Poland," ), that is the insult. Yesterday evening he tried to stop a man from stealing a passenger's bike, ( they have bike lock/ sheds there) . The man became enraged and started yelling , "just here for our benefits, go back to Poland!" ( despite the fact my boyfriend was in work uniform and obviously working). When my DP pointed out he was working and so not a benefit claimant anyway, the guy became very aggressive, shouted , "just f off back home and pushed my partner over." I'm genuinely shocked. Whilst physical violence like last night is rare, the "go back to Poland!" comments seem to happen at least once a month or so, just for doing his job and asking people not to steal/ smoke / drink/ tresspass etc at the station.

It's got to the stage that he insisted our daughter , ( two months old), had my surname when we registered her, as he didn't want her to receive abuse for having an eastern european name. AIBU to feel we don't actually recognise this group receive a lot of abuse ? To be perfectly honest, I was not aware of the extent of it until I met my partner.

On the other hand, it may just be that working security , ( and therefore "annoying," people by asking them to stop antisocial behaviour so they retaliate), means he is unfortunately much more prone to abuse than someone working in a shop/ factory / office etc

Well most of us are net contributors to UK, have assimilated (i think not sure what it means in uk, I still don't drink tea), work etc
Yet we get yold to go back to (usually Poland) home.

This sound really like victim blaming.
"You didn't try hard enough to be our mate so we will bully the shit out of you"

There is difference between taking a piss and burning houses down or posting through letterboxes "go home".

I am sick to death of hearing racist remarks, posed as economic ones.Normally they are made by people with fuck all political or economic understanding, coupled with some fair grievances over their lot on life. It's been common in our history to blame others more, when the economy is in bad shape. Looking round for someone to blame. It stinks. (And I'm white British, so have little understanding of the effects).

Wow. This is a first. Thank you.

Sorry to hear your partner is experiencing such bad racism OP, it's nasty & inexcusable.

its not just UK citizens being anti Eastern European my last job one guy from checz republic one lady from Hungary she was very disparaging about anyone from their country calls them lazy benefit scroungers despite the fact he works there etc

My feeling is that what many people object to isn't so much the presence of non-British nationals living in the UK, it's the fact that some of them don't assimilate themselves into British society, preferring to function entirely in ex-pat communities
I have been told to go back to my country in circumstances when I wasn't around people from my country of origin and I have totally integrated into British society. Been here almost 30 years, think about applying for British nationality regularly and would be so already if it wasn't for the almost £2k it cost. I've been insulted professionally just because I had to tell people things they didn't want to hear, and despite remaining perfectly polite, got told to go home based on just one fact: I have an accent.

@vivainsomnia I totally get what you mean about the passport.
Price went up but soon it will be weaker.
It's bit of a fight between "do i want it and be british" but you know it will make no difference to people, maybe just to yourself because with the latest succession of Home secretaries it might be the one paper keeping you safe (frankly, EUSS is very much Windrush 2.0 waiting to happen) or just screw it because why getting nationality of place which doesn't like you much for 2 bloody k.

Mixed emotions about it. I took the plunge at the beginning of the year simply because I don't trust Home office not to lose my data.

Anyone who has to deal with the public will find they get abuse when they try to get people to stick to the rules, name calling, spitting, violence.

Racists will also resort to racism as part of the abuse. This should be taken much more seriously.

No one should have to work with the public.

In his job he will come across all sorts of scumbags. If it wasn't his accent, they'd just pick on something else.

Have BTP taken the assault against him seriously? It should qualify as a hate crime so zooms up their list of priorities. I've been the victim of hate crimes on two occasions, one due to (inaccurately) perceived sexuality, the other involved a racial slur. The offender for the first one was fined in court, the second case is still under investigation.

I'd be quite concerned about lone working, he really could do with back-up.

Really sorry to hear what you and your partner going through. I wish you every happiness.

He's lucky to have someone standing up for him like you,

@LadyGaGasPokerFace I don't quite know what you mean about your father declaring he was British, many of my friends have become British on settling, but they still have accents and often can be distinguished through their Mediterranean appearance, for example. My lovely husband has the strongest accent possible, you could not mistake him for someone born and brought up in the UK.

@Sarahcoggles I have not heard of many Poles or other Slavic/Baltic groups being accused of not assimilating, most work and so use English as part of that. There were, before Brexit, about 1 million Poles in the UK and they don't all live in Polish enclaves not speaking English whatsoever. 1/5 have already left and 1/3 of the remainder are thinking of leaving, which is why many shops, hospitality, care, NHS sectors are panicking and there's vacancies everywhere.

The U.K. has a substantial population from Eastern Europe.
the number of Poles who could not go home due to Yalta is the single biggest immigration into the U.K.

but you never hear about that. It’s ignored. Probably because we were sold out by Churchill

how many times on British TV do you see a character with Eastern European heritage? In Scotland the largest ethnic group is the Poles. But that is never reflected on tv.

www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/census-results/at-a-glance/ethnicity/

of course we receive abuse - I’ve been verbally abused, I’ve been spat on.

This country was built on immigration. Clearly these racist know Jack shit about their own history.

I've been at the end of this of this for years.
Not many actually abusive incidents and a few go back home to Poland. Yeah mate,never been.

However I had countless of jokes and banter and just being treated like shit.

• jokes about being a pickpocket or a gymnast/prostitute. Bonus points for all at once.

• people pointing at first issue sellers or beggars or flower sellers and telling me "oh look it's your lot".

• being referred to as cheap help.

• being asked if I'm even legal by a coworker.

-being told they can't understand me.

-being specifically asked if English grammar issues are trickier for me.

• being asked where I'm really from.

-being asked where I'm from, told I sound -insert exotic destination here- and then people visibly cringing or just saying "oh" and walking away.

• being asked if i started packing my bags after Brexit(by so called friends).

-being asked if calling me foreign is ok.

-being told I've done well for myself when opening a bank account and saying OH own his own house.

-being called a gold digger.

• having to listen to rants about immigrants and EE's but "no ,not you. You're all right."

Countless of others that don't spring into mind right now, from complete strangers,coworkers,friends, OH's family. People from all walks of life and in different circumstances.

It's like shooting fish in a barrel. I'm an easy target. It is what it is. At least DD looks and sounds English and has English name and surname so she's protected from most of it.

I'd think about the people around you! I work in a very diverse team. I've never felt the need to question them like this. Neither have my team. Or any parents, managers, mutual friends.

Indeed, those coming from Anglophone nations are often seen as just one step beyond expat Brits. They all speak the language (everyone forgets the Quebecois) and don't eat any funny food.

That said, some Canadians have noticed that they have been treated better once the other person has realised that they are not an American.

That’s good to hear @Sometimeswinning but unless you’re on the receiving end of this sort of behaviour it’s sometimes easy to miss. There’s an insidious drip drip drip of these sorts of comments, sometimes in a passive aggressive way, sometimes in a more direct and aggressive way. Not every single day, not every single person, but it’s definitely there. Sometimes it’s not verbalised but you can clearly see how particular attitudes inform the way in which certain groups of people are treated differently from others. It’s found in many aspects of life, both social and professional and somehow it seems to be, for many, completely acceptable to behave like this.

I'd think about the people around you! I work in a very diverse team. I've never felt the need to question them like this. Neither have my team. Or any parents, managers, mutual friends.

I've lived in different areas ,worked different jobs , associated with various people. It still happened.

There's no point in talking about it though since it's dismissed as x area, y job, z people. That's why I rarely do and I have an it is what it is attitude.

English name and surname so she's protected from most of it

many of the EE immigrants I grew up knowing Anglicised their names - so my Uncle Hans was known as John by local people, but was still Hans to family and friends.

at one point things got so bad Dad considered changing our surname. I’m so glad we didn’t. Im proud of my heritage.

My personal bugbear is the film Enigma which deals with the deciphering of the Enigma machine codes by the British at Bletchley Park, which was true, but conveniently makes scant mention of the fact that much of that work had already been done by Polish cryptologists who had managed to smuggle a duplicated machine that they had constructed out to Britain before the Nazis captured it. It also creates a fictional Polish traitor character who was supposed to have collaborated with the Nazis when in fact the only traitor at Bletchley was a British man, John Cairncross, who was spying for Russia. It’s nothing more than an open insult.

Anyway, this thread is more about attitudes towards eastern Europeans in general so I’ll just leave that there.

You should be proud. Me too.

Many films do this. Titanic and Captain Smith is the film which always jumps to my mind. Its not right but its dramatised.