UK, Ireland /
Poles in Ireland, are they second class citizens? [90]
Eddien: it is a common mistake by the British to think that they themselves rebuilt their country from scratch. It is for 70 per cent due to the EU, from which they -grateful as they are- want to pull out asap, and for 30 per cent thanks to immigrants to do the dirty jobs no "über-British" as I come to believe is the general attitude on that island, wants to do. Well, if you are so good at rebuilding yourself, please, please, PLEASE, pull out of the EU and see if you can make it without us. I think the EU should make the right move and kick Britain out as they NEVER comply to any of the regulations as everything is a "decrease of their national integrity", get a bleeding rebate in contributions the size of the gross national budget of the Netherlands, my home-country and just do whatever they please: the EU decides not to go to Iraq; Britain immediately sends troops. So, pls, leave the EU and see if you can make it. I doubt it: the US will support you, but that's not enough as you will be faced with massive duties from the rest of Europe. You will find out that Britain is actually nothing more than just another island off the cost of Europe, which unfortunately still thinks it is a superpower, while in fact they haven't been since 1914. I love Britain, but I definitively hate the British attitude towards the EU, a little gratitude should be in place.
As I am living in Ireland, one can say that unfortunately it is true that there is starting to be a tendency to regard in general ppl from Eastern Europe, Africa and so on as inferior, thieves and the like. But I would like to put this on the account of ignorance, being too lazy to show interest in other cultures or in some cases plain old stupidity. Hell, even I, who comes from a far more advanced country than Ireland was in the first years of my existence here being told to f*ck off to my own country for on average 3-5 times a week. In a way, I don't blame them really as the influx has indeed been overwhelming for the last 10-15 years whereas they were an isolated island since their independence from Britain, maybe they just have to get used to the fact that there is something like immigrants as opposed to emigrants. For me it is so much easier in that respect; being from continental Europe and from a country that has always been one of the richest in the world, we have been used to immigrants for hundreds of years; all they have to do is cross the border and they are in. As an island it is of course much easier to kind of isolate yourself from this and if you are regarded as a 3rd-World country as Ireland was some good 25 years ago, there is little incentive for immigrants to go there. Now with the ocurrance of the Celtic Tiger things look much brighter and for heaven's sake, you cannot blame ppl to go to places where they can make a living if in their own city/country they cannot as I am sure that the lot of the immigrants would rather stay in the familiar surroundings of their hometown if they got the opportunity there to make a decent living, instead of going to a rainy, windy island.
There is no point in denying racism/discrimination amongst Irish employers, the simple fact that I more than once got turned down for a job for which I was well qualified for and had more than enough experience and (at least in one case) an Irish friend with not half of the qualifications and experience got the job says enough. The explanation is usually that I do not have enough experience :) But that is just one of many examples and I hear from other ppl that for Polish ppl it is even worse. So, I think there is a task for the Irish government to take up penalties for this behaviour to nip it right down in the bud. As there will come a time that the Irish economy will go down (as any other European country knows and experienced) and then the ppls of other countries will remember this attitude when Irish come to work in their respective countries.
I personally think the influx of foreigners is a blessing for Ireland as it brings in new blood and in general it's always an enrichment of a culture when other influences start to pour in.
M-G (Ad Valvas)
BubbaWoo: first of all, I am not your mate; my mates are generally educated, secondly if I were to go back to my own country, a lot of ppl (including Irish) would lose their jobs as well: I employ Irish, Polish and several other nationalities, so I guess you're just one of those tracksuit-cult followers which have nothing better to do than complain how well they off they would be without foreigners, because they would like to clean their toilets themselves or work in a Centra with all their education and all.
M-G (maybe Australia is a good option for Bubba?)
Obviously you didn't read my post correctly; if you would've, you would've read that it was only the first years like this. As I am in this country for more than 4 years now, it has ceized to exist. What ppl are trying to tell me by saying this is basically: "hey look at me, I am stupid, I am not capable of forming my own opinion and instead I without thinking take over the opinion of some other retard that has a skewed image of reality and does not seem to understand that Ireland just can't make it without foreigners". Capice?
M-G (impropria impropriae est)
Kilkline: That's a very good one; Holland pays considerably more contributions than Britain to the EU, it's a proven fact. We for one together with Germany and Sweden pay the most money to the EU and get the least back. Your major industries? You're referring to that out-of-date old crap that once was? Or to Selafield, which basically just pollutes another country's sea? Hm, on Industries you are beaten by Germany, on financial matters you are beaten by Holland...By the way, Holland is the biggest exporter of Diary-products in Europe and farout the biggest exporter/producer of flowers. Also in the IT field, after the US was Holland the first country to generally accept the new technology. Holland invented the CD :) Your empire got big because you just stole Dutch territories...And on and on. Except for a handful of bands (Beatles, etc) you guys have done nothing decent since 1945.
It depends on what ppl you meet: not only did it happen to me, but to quite a few other ppl I know as well. And it's not really my accent: my English is pretty good, if I may say so; it leaves the ppl always guessing wether I'm American or not :) But, before everybody gets the wrong impression: I do not hate the Irish nor the British. It's just some bad apples in the Irish basket that do so; the majority of the Irish ppl I know are very sound ppl and wouldn't hurt a fly and I consider them as my friends. Also, as stated, I like Britain, I've studied there for nearly half a year, but I just don't like the British (political) attitude towards the EU, an opinion which is shared by a great deal of the European continental population - if you catch my drift.
M-G (Senatus Populusque Romanus)
