MareGaea
14 Feb 2008
UK, Ireland / Do Polish immigrants wish to stay in UK - long term? [92]
For me the transfer here meant a step backwards. Moneywise I just about levelled with what I got before; maybe a little bit more, but that does not equal the huge rise in costs of living. I didn't need to go here, had some personal reasons to accept the offer of transfer here and I am not going to stay here. My plans are eventually to go to the US or Canada (like four years ago a transfer within the same company - so I basically don't need to go through complex visa-procedures). Also I do have certain reservations towards the way the society has been organized. But that's just because I am from a very-well organized and advanced country. Personally I think that any move to any country in the world would mean a step backwards, behold a very few exceptions. I can understand that when you come from a poor country with basically no opportunities to get a decent job with a decent income, you go to places where there are chances. Alas, most of those ppl end up in some crappy job like convenient stores, waiting in bars, clubs or restaurants - grossly underpaid and exploited to the core (that is actually an issue that should be addressed publicly in Ireland and the UK). But in all, what they make there is actually more than they would've made home with a more educated job, but it just generally annoys me how the locals think they should treat the so-manieth Eastern-European girl/boy who picks up the glasses in a pub. However, the costs of living are just as high as they are for me - and they make much less than I do. So I wonder about that quick money. There is a percentage of them that lives with 12 ppl in a 3 bedroomed house, pays about a tenner per week for rent, eats at the pub where they work for free and sending 80 per cent of what they make to the homecountry. Sure. But I think the majority has spends most of the income in the country where they work.
And yes - you see a shift in migrationstreams happening. Ireland and the UK are no longer the main focalpoints of migration, mainly due to the high costs of living and the fact that the economy is going down (Ireland experiences the first downward movement of the economy since the ocurrence of the Celtic Tiger - most young ppl haven't got a clue what is happening to them as they simply don't have any experience with a good economy going down: Ireland has been at the bottom of the European economics Top40 for almost always. 15 years ago they suddenly rised to the first place. And that is what most young ppl over here only know: rise to the top. They simply never have experienced economy going down, which it always will do: the wave-movement, which all other economies of Europe know and have gotten used to).
M-G
For me the transfer here meant a step backwards. Moneywise I just about levelled with what I got before; maybe a little bit more, but that does not equal the huge rise in costs of living. I didn't need to go here, had some personal reasons to accept the offer of transfer here and I am not going to stay here. My plans are eventually to go to the US or Canada (like four years ago a transfer within the same company - so I basically don't need to go through complex visa-procedures). Also I do have certain reservations towards the way the society has been organized. But that's just because I am from a very-well organized and advanced country. Personally I think that any move to any country in the world would mean a step backwards, behold a very few exceptions. I can understand that when you come from a poor country with basically no opportunities to get a decent job with a decent income, you go to places where there are chances. Alas, most of those ppl end up in some crappy job like convenient stores, waiting in bars, clubs or restaurants - grossly underpaid and exploited to the core (that is actually an issue that should be addressed publicly in Ireland and the UK). But in all, what they make there is actually more than they would've made home with a more educated job, but it just generally annoys me how the locals think they should treat the so-manieth Eastern-European girl/boy who picks up the glasses in a pub. However, the costs of living are just as high as they are for me - and they make much less than I do. So I wonder about that quick money. There is a percentage of them that lives with 12 ppl in a 3 bedroomed house, pays about a tenner per week for rent, eats at the pub where they work for free and sending 80 per cent of what they make to the homecountry. Sure. But I think the majority has spends most of the income in the country where they work.
And yes - you see a shift in migrationstreams happening. Ireland and the UK are no longer the main focalpoints of migration, mainly due to the high costs of living and the fact that the economy is going down (Ireland experiences the first downward movement of the economy since the ocurrence of the Celtic Tiger - most young ppl haven't got a clue what is happening to them as they simply don't have any experience with a good economy going down: Ireland has been at the bottom of the European economics Top40 for almost always. 15 years ago they suddenly rised to the first place. And that is what most young ppl over here only know: rise to the top. They simply never have experienced economy going down, which it always will do: the wave-movement, which all other economies of Europe know and have gotten used to).
M-G