Foreigners in Poland - the identities of our native or the host country

The reality is that when foreigners come to Poland they settle in the traditional large cities like Warsaw and Krakow. These are historically Polish areas with many fair skinned, blond, blue eyed people. Further east, in places like Lublin and Bialystok there are many ethnic groups that have been in Poland for centuries. Ukrainians, Belarusians and Lithuanians tend to look like Poles. But there are also Armenians, Tatars/Turkish and Roma/Gypsies. My mother's family is from Bialystok of Tatar origin. We are darker than ethnic Poles with black hair and olive or darker skin and brown eyes. We consider ourselves Poles and speak Polish. In the Bialystok area people never question our "Polishness" because I guess they are used to seeing other ethnic groups, but when we have traveled to Warsaw or central Poland, we have experienced racism. There are racist people in Bialystok as well but I think the people in Bialystok are more aware of the different groups around them. If you are a foreigner living in Poland, especially if you are mediterranean or middle eastern, visit Podlasie, especially some of the small ethnic villages and even the city of Bialystok. You will feel quite different than in greater Poland.

Oh, make no mistake. I appreciated your post a good deal. I was just curious if you had considered that some leave their countries and consider their new country "home" even when they don't change their citizenship. It triggered with your "American" emphasis.

Always remember that forum conversations suffers from no smiles or body language, little or no timing and no beer or coffee to lubricate the camaraderie. IIt was a simple question, without an agenda. If we were sitting in a pub/cafe and I had asked you with a smile while looking you right in the eye you'd have seen there was no guile or hidden agenda behind the question, just,...curiosity and conversation.

I remember the first time an expat told me he had made arrangements for burial (Ukraine), another who was just as matter-of-fact that he had not been "home" in over 17 years and no longer thought about going back even for a visit. I remember when he died his daughter (mid-to-late 40's) took the news with an "okay, thanks for telling me", hung up the phone and didn't even come to get his money from the bank (almost $17,000) or pick up 3 un-cashed social Security checks. Friends took up a collection for his burial expenses and the last I heard the money was still stuck in the bank since no relatives showed to claim the account. Another friend died overseas after a relatively routine surgery and was buried over here as well.

I like the places I have been, even say I "love" the ambiance and sense of being surrounded by history every day, but like yourself, I expect to return "home" someday even if it is just for burial or being scattered after a memorial service.

That's so ridiculous what you have wrote. Besides that it's other way round regarding Białystok and Warsaw. Białystok is quite notarious for those reasons.

If you read the stories of young ' Zammenhof ' it is true of pre war Bialystok, it was a cultural melting pot. I have a colleague wbo plays football for Jagiellonia Białystok, he is black, chooses to live in Warsaw and travel everyday to Białystok for training, the reason Warsaw has a better quality of life than Białystok, never has he mentioned racism in either city.


I have visited Białystok quite a few times and never experienced any form of cultural isolation for being a foreigner, quite the opposite the people of Podlaskie are some of the most welcoming I have had the pleasure to meet in Poland. Podlaskie should be on everyones list of ' must visits' when they visit Poland.

:)
The PLAN... about 5 years
though I may visit Poland sooner while seeing my good friend in Helsinki and my cousin Marya in Poplze.
(lol..i have learned to always consider plans as a goal.. in case life throws a spanner in the works)

The "schedule" that my paramour relocates here to the US,
(and if I do not reject him for a third ear or having a tail:: I'm being silly.. but he does seem sure to leave me a"break out clause"' to avoid his secret RL hideousness- and if you are reading dear? :p )

...we marry this year and we both sock away money for a few years enough to start a business. He thinks to move back in about 5-8 years. So I expect some time to learn about day to day life in Poland and get a modest vocabulary of Polish.

Reality is that he is very close to his family and if ANYthing happens to his mum or dad, he'd want to go back right away. And if he is successful with a job within his BA robotics..he may embrace American lifestyle to point of not wishing return except in the case mentioned above. He is already more American than I am except on the view about firearms.

Edit: BTW he is from the region of Bialystok.. I haven't noticed anything particularly provincial about him ^-^


:) you are right about that. Though I took it as more of a surprising question than one of any bad intent. Since I box "temporary visitor for work /vacation" separate from "resettling/retiring in another country".


:( that is sooo sad. it can happen even if the child lives in same region and country.
I'm the only person left who attends to and sends flowers to my X mum-in-law's gravesite. And I pay a kid to clean it up every quarter...well I pay his kid now. LOL child labor.She left millions in trust to her kids and the grandkids, but will be forgotten by all but my oldest son when I'm gone.

Well, just for the record there was an amnesty for illegal immigrants in Poland last year... so it isn't like Polish gov. don't see the issue of immigrants to Poland.


It is worth to mention that EU job market opened entirely to Polish citizens quite recently (since may, 2011).
In case of business - "Directive on services in the internal market" so called Bolkestein Directive - was hugely castrated and EU service market is still full of obstacles to foreigners. So both Poland and EU are still in the transition period.