UK, Ireland / Polish immigrants in the UK - victims or criminals?! [128]

Polish immigrants - victims or criminals?!
After almost 4 years in the UK I have to say I am falling out of love with this country a little bit. Haven been attacked a few times and told to go back to my country among other insults regarding my national origin makes me start thinking whether I made a mistake moving here. My partner, who is English, tries to persuade me that it’s partly because of so many Polish criminals who had come here as well and spoilt “our” good name... Asked where he got this idea from, he pointed at daily newspapers... but to be honest, this kind of comments annoy me even more, as I cannot really recall any criminal behaviour amongst my friends or friends’ friends, who decided to settle in the UK for a few months or a bit longer. On the contrary, some of them complain about discrimination and unpleasant comments as well. Even though one cannot neglect the facts, and it needs to be admitted that there were quite a few cases of crimes committed by Polish immigrants. However, I would be far from generalizing that all Polish people are anti-Semite or petty criminals...

What do you think? Have you been attacked or discriminated against? Or maybe you know some Polish persons who indeed are/have been involved in any kind of criminal conduct?