The Polish phenomenon
11 Grudzień 2007
The rapidly-expanding Polish population is having an impact on many aspects of life in East Anglia.
Over
a week starting on December 10 of Look East is telling the stories of
some of this region's Polish migrants – why they came, where they work,
how they have settled, how they are treated and the sacrifices some are
making to provide for families back home.
It was in 2004 when
Poland joined the European Union that what had been a constant trickle
of Polish migrants turned into a flood. Most popular areas
UK
government projections about immigrant numbers from the newly-enlarged
EU were way out. A report in June 2003 predicted the figure would be
"relatively small" at between 5,000 and 13,000 newcomers a year for
seven years - that's between 35,000 and 91,000.
Our live broadcast will be from Gdansk
In fact by January 2006, 293,000 new migrants had applied for work permits - and the Poles make up 64% of them.
Northampton,
Peterborough, Fenland and East Cambridgeshire are ranked among the 10
areas most popular with Eastern European immigrants and at the last
count 60,000 of them had chosen to settle in England’s eastern counties.
Our
first broadcast was live from Northampton - home to the UK's
fastest-growing Eastern European community outside London as migrants
come to find work.
In 30 years the community has grown from 400 to about 8,000, mainly because many of the town's big employers recruit in Poland.
Perhaps
the biggest impact has been felt in Peterborough where in the last
three years as many as 16,000 Eastern Europeans have arrived, 10,000 of
them Poles who make up 10% of the city's workforce.
Peterborough’s
mushrooming Polish community is so big that the Baltic port of Gdansk,
which is desperate for skilled labourers, sent over a delegation to try
to persuade expatriate Poles to return home. Live from Poland
Our
week-long Polish series includes an exclusive interview with the iconic
former president Lech Walesa. Look East presenter Stewart White met the
shipyard electrician who helped to shape the 20th Century by sparking
the collapse of Communism in Poland 26 years ago.
The week's
highlight will be a live Look East special broadcast presented by
Stewart from the heart of Christmas-decked Gdansk, exploring the social
phenomenon of the Poles in East Anglia.
If you have a story to tell related to our Polish week, we would like to hear from you.
last updated: 11/12/2007 at 14:40
created: 07/12/2007
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