Powisle
25 Dec 2007
UK, Ireland / Poles in Ireland, are they second class citizens? [90]
To begin, I’m Irish. My sympathies are with and immigrant/migrant worker. I was one, in England and in Poland. Any Irishman or woman who complains about foreigners coming to Ireland to work needs to remember that to be and Irish is to be an immigrant.
With regards to the original post I would like to point out that there was a bad translation from Polish to English which has changed the meaning of the article. This concerns the meaning of the word "can". The translation should read: "Irish employers may become racist ...". Just in case you think this is guess at the writer’s intentions, here is a copy of a post by the writer of the article taken from The Beatroot blog:
"in the news paper we didint say the irish eployers are racist, but they can become ..."
The verb “can” is a rather devilish one and has different shades of meaning in both languages. It is typical for even advanced Polish speakers of English to say “It can be” when they mean, “It may/might be”.
Further, with regards to employers being racist, I think this is a mistake. Employers, some at least, will pay as little to their employees as possible regardless of race, creed, colour, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. Some Poles in Ireland are being paid less then their Irish counterparts. Anecdotally I know this because I know a Polish guy who took a job on a building site at below legal wages. This was possible because he was hired by a Polish company in Poland and sub-contracted to an Irish builder. In this case both the Polish and the Irish employers are exploiting his need to earn money. The fact that he is Polish is unimportant to them. I have plenty of stories of friends in Warsaw being very badly treated by their employers and Irish friends in Dublin have received similar treatment. Is this racism, or simply how workers, especially the young or immigrants have always been exploited by certain employers? I echo Parisien’s advice to join a union, or at least seek advice on your employment status. Being an immigrant makes you an easier target because you know less about Irish labour law. But … there are plenty of Poles who are making excellent money, have excellent jobs, and are building their lives here.
Yes, of course there is racism. There is racism everywhere. In Warsaw, in London and in Dublin. Some people are nasty. Why are we so surprised? This brings me neatly to my next point …
Eddien: Stay out of Polish-Irish affairs. The Polish in Ireland are very welcome and as a non-Irish, your opinion is irrelevant. We need Poles, they need us. (As a side note, there is a mistaken belief that Poles are Ireland’s largest immigrant community. They are not. Brits are, but over twice the number. They too are very welcome – except eddien.)
Lastly, to the second-class citizen issue. A Pole or a Brit does not have to become an Irish citizen to have equal citizen rights. They already have it as European citizens. The only thing they cannot do is vote in out presidential elections. The same was true for me when I lived in Poland.
To begin, I’m Irish. My sympathies are with and immigrant/migrant worker. I was one, in England and in Poland. Any Irishman or woman who complains about foreigners coming to Ireland to work needs to remember that to be and Irish is to be an immigrant.
With regards to the original post I would like to point out that there was a bad translation from Polish to English which has changed the meaning of the article. This concerns the meaning of the word "can". The translation should read: "Irish employers may become racist ...". Just in case you think this is guess at the writer’s intentions, here is a copy of a post by the writer of the article taken from The Beatroot blog:
"in the news paper we didint say the irish eployers are racist, but they can become ..."
The verb “can” is a rather devilish one and has different shades of meaning in both languages. It is typical for even advanced Polish speakers of English to say “It can be” when they mean, “It may/might be”.
Further, with regards to employers being racist, I think this is a mistake. Employers, some at least, will pay as little to their employees as possible regardless of race, creed, colour, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. Some Poles in Ireland are being paid less then their Irish counterparts. Anecdotally I know this because I know a Polish guy who took a job on a building site at below legal wages. This was possible because he was hired by a Polish company in Poland and sub-contracted to an Irish builder. In this case both the Polish and the Irish employers are exploiting his need to earn money. The fact that he is Polish is unimportant to them. I have plenty of stories of friends in Warsaw being very badly treated by their employers and Irish friends in Dublin have received similar treatment. Is this racism, or simply how workers, especially the young or immigrants have always been exploited by certain employers? I echo Parisien’s advice to join a union, or at least seek advice on your employment status. Being an immigrant makes you an easier target because you know less about Irish labour law. But … there are plenty of Poles who are making excellent money, have excellent jobs, and are building their lives here.
Yes, of course there is racism. There is racism everywhere. In Warsaw, in London and in Dublin. Some people are nasty. Why are we so surprised? This brings me neatly to my next point …
Eddien: Stay out of Polish-Irish affairs. The Polish in Ireland are very welcome and as a non-Irish, your opinion is irrelevant. We need Poles, they need us. (As a side note, there is a mistaken belief that Poles are Ireland’s largest immigrant community. They are not. Brits are, but over twice the number. They too are very welcome – except eddien.)
Lastly, to the second-class citizen issue. A Pole or a Brit does not have to become an Irish citizen to have equal citizen rights. They already have it as European citizens. The only thing they cannot do is vote in out presidential elections. The same was true for me when I lived in Poland.