Polish community in Leeds?

hi all,

how many of you guys live in Leeds?
and what do you do for a living?

i was told that there is a large polish community here.

this question is not only for polish users...
just would like to get an idea about numbers

cheers.

I read some place that there are about 4,000 Poles living in Leeds...I am an English guy that lived in Leeds for 20 years before moving in the opposite direction..to Poland....I had a bunch of Poles living at my house in Leeds , and knew a lot of the Poles in Leeds....Many of them living around the Dewsbury road area....

im not far from Leeds 25mins by train im in Doncaster we have between 4-6,000 polish community here :)

quite impressive figures but i believe in Leeds are even more poles than the quoted 4000.
an interesting phenomenom though is that poles usually try to stay with themselves and not to mix with the natives.
why is that? i remember when i came to england i avoided meeting germans (i am german by the way) to get into the whole english thing as quickly as possible. today i consider it being my home and my friends and colleagues accept me completely even if i sometimes start being very german about things... :D

however...
what is it that makes those polish people that decide to come to leeds that makes this place attractive? is it only that you know already someone here before you decide to go to england? or is there a particular work around leeds that attracts polish workers?

many questions... ;)

Nothing special about Leeds i think , its just a city , and cities are the best place to find a job and a place to live....Most of the Poles i knew in Leeds went there because they knew somebody that already lived there , and could have a place to stay , and some help finding work....

Wheres LEEDS?????

I have a old Who album that says "live at leeds"

I`m pretty sure it isnt in Poland?

Question: Is this a Polish forum or a British forum?

Lets do a head count

1) Sledz..US
2)

are you joking???
(maps help...)


are you joking???
(reading the forum title helps)


are you joki....


ok i understand...

The who...great band....Leeds is about 260 kms north of London....at the other end of the M1 motorway....

of course... and if you guys dont know me by know..lol


I dont know where that is but THE WHO ROCKS!!!!!

Does it say on your album where in Leeds this concert was.....?

at Leeds university 2/14/70
Its was a long time ago ..... still sounds good:)

They have had some really great bands at the uni , usually before they got famous....The best who concert i went to was in London....A great show , and a pretty good riot afterwards....those were the days....

Fantastic use of English!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Live...... as opposed to Live :) :) :) :) :)

(I've often wondered the same thing about The Who)

to be more precise it was at the leeds metropolitan university.
the venue still today hosts many great gigs (although not as good as the who one, which was voted best live-album ever by critics on several occasions), but many of the local bands have their first big gigs here...

and yes. the who still are great...

HOWEVER...
can we please stop posting off-topic and come back to the original topic?

thanks... ;)

4000 Poles in Leeds, that Leeds in West Yorks (precising there's also one in Kent n in US...somewhere)???U must be joking luv.I'd say 40.000!!!They're absolutely everywhere in Leeds!!!

Go and get yourself to so called Polish Catholic Centre/Church-lad!it's overcrowded, overflowing.
Polish web site,polish forum and more...
see: bbc.co.uk/bradford/content/articles/2006/07/10/polish_bradford_katie_feature.shtml
and

leeds-manchester.pl//stopka_oleedspl.php?lang=en

yes we do have a lot of Polish over here in Leeds but i dont think it is as many as 40.000
most of them i have met are quite hard working and delightful

it's very simple - the language barrier... English people tend to walk away when they realise your English is not perfect... it's very difficult to find English people who would bother to make an effort to talk to you... (I found few though :))

Once it was really funny when I said I was from Poland the person who asked me that question answered: 'I'm sorry'... What was he sorry for?? I'm proud I'm Polish lol

Also, the fear factor can take place. I know a guy here who lived in Leeds for a while. He came across a fair bit of hostility there. My Welsh friend also lives in Leeds and she says that she hears racist comments against immigrants.

I'm glad you're proud to be Polish, but why are you living here then ?

I do fail to understand sometimes why people think that a certain place is so great and yet they no longer live there.


As a Southerner, I wouldn't be keen on living in Leeds either, but that's the North/South divide for you ;-)

They are proud because they were brought up to be Poles, their parents, their history, their culture and their religion.
The reason people move from their country of origin is usually financial to provide for their family.

In answer to your question: if they think that a certain place is so great and yet they no longer live there, well I guess it is the same with all nations, a bit like the proud Englishman Lewis Hamilton who does not live in UK, or the proud Scotsman Sean Connerry who lives in the US, and many more Celebs. (but that is to do with TAX, which is in my understanding Financial reasons)

You've dodged the question, with respect, as I didn't ask why celebrities with tonnes of cash move around the world. The answer to that is obvious, it's all for tax reasons.

My question was why ordinary people from places like Poland move countries and then go on about being proud to be Polish.

Are the Polish that remain in Poland the ones to be proud and the rest have just sold-out ?

I dont think I have dodged the question: It does not matter if it is celebrities with tonnes of cash who move to other countries, or ordinary people with no cash in search of work to earn money for their familes, in principal it is still the same, they move because it is a financial advantage for them.

If the celebs were not celebs it is most likely they would stay in their own country of birth, and if the Poles that have migrated away from Poland had jobs, or if their jobs were well paid, then most likely they also would have stayed in Poland. (example about 6 years ago lots of British nurses took up jobs in the USA, because the money was much better)

No the ones that remain


No the ones who you classify as the lot who sold out are still proud of who they are (are you not proud of your parents ) and where they were born, but remember a large majority who left did not leave with the thought that they will never return.

The British nurses who left UK to take up better paid jobs no doubt are very proud to be British.

Personally I think there is a difference between someone with lots of money moving around to avoid tax and someone wanting to go and flip burgers in another country, simply because the hourly rate is higher.

Of course I am proud of my parents, but they were born here as were their parents - I'm not trying to say I can trace my family back to the Doomesday Book or anything, just stating a fact.

When it comes to nationality, sooner or later people have to decide whose "side" they are on. If someone emigrates, then good luck to them, but it doesn't mean that their new country will want to indulge their patriotism in a country that they didn't like enough to stay in.

is any polish community in leeds, I am looking for some friends.

There is a Leeds/ Manchester Polish forum you know...check it out in the net...you will meet lots of people on there...