What will happen to Polish communities etc?

[sweetkitty]

Just thinking. We have a very large Polish community in our town who have been here a fair few years, loads of Polish children at the DCs school. Will anything happen to them after Brexit?

If it’s like here, quite a few will simply vanish. Our local (previously oversubscribed) schools are down to 20 in a class in some cases. A number of factors at play, of course, but many of our farm workers seem to have gone.

I imagine some/most will stay and some will think 'fuck this' and go.

I'm from the EU and amongst family friends (Italian, German, and Dutch) about 2/3rds have stayed and 1/3 have gone. Poor DM 'lost' her 2 best friends, she mainly sees them on skype now

I would imagine some may choose to leave (for a variety of reasons and to a variety of places). They are unlikely to be replaced by new arrivals so numbers may diminish. It depends of course. In some areas you get more turn of a turn over (e.g. unpleasant but cheap areas where migrants go for a few years before getting firmly established and moving somewhere better).

I’ve noticed quite a lot leaving already. I live in a town with a very high Eastern Europe population and lots are leaving.

My DH is Polish and all the Polish people we know are staying, most have been here since about 2004!

The Polish government has also introduced measures to “attract” back its emigrants, particularly young families, with cuts to income tax and heavily subsidised family supports (if I well understand). That’s not related to brexit, it could attract also young brains that left for Germany or other countries. I’ve got to say, if the economy in the U.K. sinks, if someone has to pay an arm and a leg for nursery fees...and your country instead rolls the red carpet...I’d be tempted. (Not my case. My native country stays depressed)

I caught a snippet of the Italian news yesterday talking about proposals for free nursery for some under 3s ...
All my cousins find it hard to believe lots of English women can't go back (like me) don't go back to work due to high nursery fees.

DD3s best friend is Polish I was just wondering that’s all we probably have 5 Polish children in a class in our school.

I suppose it depends a bit on quite how unwelcome Polish people feel

In the financial sector a lot of polish people are returning to Poland as the jobs have moved there now. A lot of Irish and British people I know have also moved out there to work in banking.

Nothing. Why do you think it would change anything?

If the Tory government continues I expect they'll get deported from 2025 onwards.

Our council was planning on facilitating new free schools but has scrapped this for extra classes in existing schools as demand has decreased and it's a cheaper solution.

I’m confused by ConfusedDotty

It’s not even 100% sorted that anyone will be allowed to stay is it?

ConfusedDotty
Given the chaos over settled status procedures, rather a lot has changed already and more will undoubtedly do so over coming months.
P. Patel announced an end to FoM on Nov 1st, overriding all previous information on deadlines for applications for settled status, until she was told she hadn't the legal power to end FoM on Nov 1st, and that little gem of a plan was shelved.
There is some insight there into what is intended and how sudden and brutal it might be...

I remember the day after the referendum vote, radio 5 live were interviewing people in the street and they asked a Polish guy for his reaction and he said he was delighted with the result.
When asked why he said there was enough foreigners here now and any more would just drive down wages!

Among the EU people from my country of origin, who I'm in any contact with, aren't really doing much different. There's a slow and steady stream of people return back home, but very few have really mentioned Brexit as their motivation - more about wanting to live near their families, wanting their kids to go to school there, just not adapting well in the UK and so on.

The change I have seen is that eg. our closed social media groups used to get a lot of people planning a move to the UK. It was always one of the popular choices for students and young adults looking for somewhere new, and asking for advice or experiences. Those posts haven't quite completely vanished, but really they mostly have.

I can imagine most will leave.

Some of my Polish friends have gone home - their economy is doing well and they have good degrees and work experience with transferable skills.

We walked through a huge orchard outside Canterbury 2 weeks ago, through about 30 mobile homes, obviously to house seasonal workers. A couple seemed occupied but the others were completely empty.

I guess those workers got better offers elsewhere, though I'd imagine many would be Romanian rather than Polish these days.

Seasonal workers from the EU are likely to be in very small numbers going forward. British workers will need to do the seasonal work or pay for workers to come from outside the EU.

I've said it before on these type of threads, at the more 'skilled worker/'educated' end of the Migrant scale I think Germany's going to do well. It's become the country of choice for erasmus/work experience type jobs amongst young people I know.

Camomila -that surely can't be right!

Didn't someone on the Brexit thread tell us recently that Germany's economy was 'in free-fall'?

One of the reasons is that university is free in Germany (well, there's a fee of around €230 per semester but that includes the travel card so it's a pretty good deal)

I live in an area with very little immigration. 1 Polish family in our school (about 400 children). No plans for leaving right now. The father does a high-skilled job. However the industry is sensitive to EU membership. With his skills he can pretty much pick and choose and I can see an up-and-coming Poland being attractive.

Didn't Poland manage to avoid the recession completely? Our area manages to have very low wages without any help I can't imagine pay will shoot up if this family leaves