Brits moving to live in Poland

Whilst most articles in the English press seem to be about the mass migration of Poles to UK, there's an excellent article in today's Daily Express which tells how Brits are moving over to Poland and making a successful life for themselves :o))

A lot of what is written in the article expresses what I've been saying all along ..... they see Poland as a land of opportunity, where they can have a better standard of living compared to UK;

excerpts from the article :

"I'll never go back to England now as I couldn't enjoy the same standard of living there. Here my daughter and I have a lovely flat in one of the safest and most prestigious areas of Warsaw. In England all I'd get is a shoebox in some dodgy area on the outskirts of London." - Jane Rankin who is a part-time teacher in Warsaw.

"selling a one-bed flat in Streatham, South London went a long way to paying for a five bedroom house in one of Warsaw's poshest quarters; there's no way we could have a house like this if we lived in London. It would be like having a five-bedroom flat in Notting Hill" says Annie Krasinska

British newcomers to Poland say the standard of life in London can't compare with Warsaw, where a can of beer can cost as little as 60p and a 24-hour ticket on public transport costs only £1.20. The streets are safer, you can walk to work, children are not obese or spoilt and family values are still important

It appears that many Britons are quite happy to have made a new life in Poland; they see Poland as a country with a great future, and they are wanting to be part of that future.

Hum... I finish Uni here in the UK soon.

Going to PL to live for a bit would indeed be an adventure.

can you post the link ?

Its not an easy life in Poland , but i think a better one , as long as you have a bit of money behind you....

i think you have to subscribe to the online version of Daily Express .... i read the article this morning ...paper version :o)

Poland is a wonderful country with kind and friendly people.

untill you have to visit an office

Very true .....Poles still have a lot to learn in the art of customer services !

indeed, and in cutting red tape and bureaucracy!

Hi I'm new but thought I would make my first post, I'm a 23 year old brit living in Poznan and I can agree with most of the comments above. Poland is a land of oppotunity and theres plenty of fast cash to be made here providing that you have cash behind you and more than 2 brain cells to rub together. Ive been here since the summer and am renting a fairly decent apartment in a good part of Poznan. I drove over from the UK and have been having a great time. The main problems I have encountered is if you can't speak polish or only have limited ability there are quite a few people are very racist towards brits and charge extra for everything. The majority of the people I have met here are awesome and the society as a whole is far more civilised that that in england with teenage pregnancies and the chav culture almost unheard of. You can live well out here for not a lot of cash and the nightlife is amazing. The girls are also very pretty too although they don't like brits :( The roads are also terrible and the standard of driving is far lower than that in the UK with accidents happening when there is a slight sprinkling of rain. The police however are very lenient towards traffic offences unlike in the UK and if you drive a british car they just leave you alone. Forget all the stories about bribes etc because they just aren't true and you can usually out run them anyway if need be. If anyone is planning on moving here my advice would be to just go for it as britain seems to be in social decline and this place really is on the up!

unfortunately, bribery is still common in Poland especially in health service and higher institutions. You do not encounter it in everyday life, but when you are in a hospital you realise that to receive good care you have to bribe nurses and doctors.

Hi dnz,

Sounds as though you're enjoying Poznan :o)) ..... it would be interesting to know what , if anything, you do to earn a living ? Native speaker perhaps ?

Some people just take a few months to settle in and live off their savings or some other method of income (rental of property back in UK)


I remember when my mother-in-law was in hospital, my wife suggested straight away that we give the doctor in charge of her case a couple of bottles of cognac :o) , and there have also been stories of gifts/donationS being given to professors/lecturers so that students got better grades.

Bribery seems to happen everywhere ...... not just Poland ; take a look at the present British government and the scandal regarding donations to the party :o))

Yet another article in the press about the reverse trend of Brits going to find work and a 'better life' in Poland !

This time it's about a bus driver (Paul Brannan) who quit the UK, and moved from Newcastle upon Tyne to the mountain town of Zywiec. He reckoned that as there were so many Poles in Britain their must be loads of jobs in their country :o)

He decided on his move after a skiing holiday in Poland 3 years ago and says he has never looked back. The local bus service snapped him up without even giving him an interview. Paul says that even though he earns less in Poland, because everything costs a fraction of what it does in UK, he is no worse off. ( A bus driver can earn between £240-£340 per month depending on experience).

Paul said "the pay is more than enough and now that I have married I don't see why I should ever go back. I'd urge other British drivers to copy me. In England they earn more but they have to spend a lot more too. Life in Britain is very expensive, whereas here you can settle down very comfortably on a bus driver's wage. Anyone whio sells a shoebox flat in UK can afford a big house with a garden here."

Paul who married a local girl , Kamila, and also says "the women here (Poland) are fantastic - even my mother-in-law."

Life is so good for Paul Brannan in Poland, that he says he is not coming back to UK. Paul is not alone - since 2004, when Poland entered the EU, the number of Britons emigrating to Poland has increased by nearly 55%, according to Poland's Central Statistics Office. It said 1,592 British citizens became permanent residents in Poland in 2006.

This is still a drop in the ocean compared to the several hundred thousand Poles who have made the journey to the UK :o))))))))))

Hello all. My name is Helen Pidd. I am a journalist from the Guardian newspaper based in Berlin. I am hoping to travel to Poland tomorrow and Thursday to interview Brits who have recently moved to Poland. If any of you would be interested in speaking to me, or know people who might, please let me know at helen.pidd@guardian.co.uk

thanks a lot
Helen

can you give the link or are you making this up


this this so much bolocks


they are old with some money saved come here where is cheaper to live in some small town not in the big city like warsaw

so been old with some cash find some pretty girl to marry and life is good


I wonder why !!!!!!!

the article is in todays Daily Express (Tuesday 4th December 2007, page 26, ); as I mentioned earlier in this thread there is an online version of the newspaper (express.co.uk), but apart from being able to see the front and back pages for free, one has to subscribe.

why would I make this up ?


the manner in which you express your disagreement leads me to believe you a) have a very limited vocabulary, or b) are a person of very low intellect or c) are an immature person who thinks it's clever using such words. In any case, try using the correct spelling :o)

In fact I think a, b & c are correct.

The quote on living comfortably on a bus driver's wage came from Paul Brannan himself , the guy who moved to Poland to work as a bus driver, and is not necessarily my opinion.

Every person is different and will have different expectations; he was stating his opinion. For him, the salary is sufficient to live very comfortably. Whether one can live comfortably on such a wage is very subjective; it is down to each individual.

Remember he is living in Zywiec, and not one of the major cities like Warsaw or Krakow.


what would you class as 'old' ?

of course nearly all of these Brits will come over to Poland with savings or loaded with cash after selling their home(s)/business in UK. From what I have seen majority of Brits coming over would be in the 25yrs-45yr range - what it is in reality, I couldn't tell you.

Some Brits will choose to live in smaller towns, but from what I have seen there are a fair number who settle in the big cities ... Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw, Lodz, Poznan etc..


being old = not so good, although wiser in many ways.
some cash = good,
finding some pretty girl = very good, and not hard to achieve in Poland !

Living in Poland = Life is Good ....... most of the time :o)

in response to polanglik's question, I am a recruitment consultant working for a UK based company which relocated to Poznan back in July. I was given the choice of staying in the UK and driving 100 miles a day to work and back or coming to Poznan initially for 6 months. After speaking to my parents I decided to just go for it and havent looked back since. I'm 23 years old with no collateral or real savings. I'm looking to get into the real estate side of things whilst i'm over here and unlike England if you have an idea and a logical approach to how to implement your ideas Poland really is a country of oppotunity. I would also be interested in working as a Native speaker in my free time not so much from a money point of view but for the chance to meet new people. Any ideas?

Girls that is why is good becouse let been honest here

wheater is crap
cusine is crap
roads crap
trains crap
infrastruture is crap

but i guess if you are a 40 year old with a 20 years old girl you over look all that and life is good when you spend most of the time in bed with you whild Polish bird

The weather is a damn sight better than in the Uk as there are distiguishable seasons, The roads are terrible I will Agree and the food is different but you can get a fantastic steak here. The beer is good and the women are fantastic although I do get the impression they don't like british men, they seem to go with the skinheads or guys that walk like they are constantly carrying a television set,. Trains are crap in most countries and I just wouldn't use them as I hate public transport. and petrol is cheap enough here anyway so its easier to just drive.

dnz: I think that the fact about extra charging isn't really all about racism. I think it's because Poles think that UK = money (that's why they invade it) and if you're Brit you may pay more. That's stupid.

that is Poland a stupid country sometimes

i really wonder why you bother to stay in Poland Zeze .... there's not much about Poland you seem to like ..... apart from the women.

Polish cuisine is like a lot of things .....a matter of taste ... i absolutely love Polish food, but then again I was brought up on it :o)

dnz makes a valid point regarding the weather


I'd have to agree with you about the roads, but then again I have experienced worse .... Russia for example.

Trains could also do with some improvement, and we all know about Poland's infrastructure, or lack of it, however we have been promised that all of these things will improve ... it's just a matter of time :o)

Instead of concentrating on the negative aspects, look at all the good things Poland has to offer - like you have already mentioned the gorgeous women and then there is also cheap beer, excellent food (in my opinion), cheap standard of living, beautiful historic places to visit, a successful national football team (hopefully) etc..

Go to the shop... buy meat and potatoes a few other veg.... and cook your own dinner.

Then, if the cuisine is still crap you only have yourself to blame.

i like lof o things what i dont like is that some of us dont seems to see the problems .why some many

well we all know with the high numbers of poles that left is clear that something is really wrong Poland is harder the in the UK to make a living that is why so many left

What's that? Someone or something that does wheat?


One of the best things about the place.


The quality driving can be bad, but not all the roads.

The thing is Poles not all of them but a great numbers can not take critical views on POland

you ask a guy working in the UK he will say `` I love Poland is the best place in the world `` why is he not there them he sould said Poland is good in that that and that but very bad when a guy like many poles with high education is whiling to move to the uk to do any type of job just to make it once in poland doing the job he got a education on it will pay hin almost nothing

you guys see lot of post in here are from poles with hight education asking saying that would do any job in holland or the UK or ireland

this is a guy i would shake my hand with.ask any brit who lives in another country the same question about england.i bet he would say-"yeah the weather isn't great taxes are a bit too high ect but i love my country and it's the best country in the world"this is how NORMAL people say.someone ******* his nest is not worth to hang around with.

i was waiting for someone else to do that re the wheater??

bla bla bla

Ive never once said that britain is the best country in the world since being here. I miss the good driving roads of devon and cornwall and my family but the UK really has gone down hill from the country it was 100 years ago when people could be proud of being british with a booming economy, fantastic manufacturing industry and a good empire. Now we have a country full of feral scum sucking retards who beleive that it is beyond their dignity to work and live at taxpayers expense. I really have noticed the difference in morals and values between the UK and Poland, the feeling of pride and the lack of teenager getting pregnant in order to get the easy life on a plate. England has gone to **** and I don't really have much national pride anymore. We have good roads and thats the only thing I can say in its favour... If anyone can think of anything please let me know. Oh although I don't like polish food at least its more adventurous than fried fish with fried potato which I equally despise.

One of the reasons i left , and moved to Poland....