As promised, here is a thread about and for Poles living in Germany. There are more Poles living in Germany than there are in the UK, Ireland and Sweden combined, nearly 2 million. How come we nearly never see a discussion about them? What do they think of living in Germany? How they experience live in Germany? What do they like about Germany? Et cetera, et cetera.
I was always wondering why there is no "Polonia - Germany" under the Poland Abroad section, given the fact that it is the second largest Polonia in the world. Some inconvenient truth?
They don't want to say too much online in case the Germans decide to take Gdańsk and Wrocław back ;)
Actually, speaking of Polish diaspora... if there's 15-20 million Poles abroad, wouldn't it be more cost-effective to simply turn Warsaw into a massive maternity hospital, and move everything else abroad? Well, they're all going to end up abroad anyway! haha :)
Not anymore. In fact not since 2004. Germany just closed the borders for 3 years. Yet most of them found a way to live in Germany anyway. And besides, there are around 2 million Poles living in Germany.
>^..^<
M-G (so let them speak up! break this UK-Poles hegemony!)
[i]The European Commission on Wednesday reacted with dismay to a decision by Germany and Austria not to allow workers from eight eastern European states free access to their labour markets.
The two countries are now the last to block foreign workers from competing with their own labour force after Belgium and Denmark agreed to drop any restrictions on tern European workers from next week.
European Union countries were given a maximum of seven years from the time of accession of the new member states in 2004, but most dropped the restrictions on foreign workers much earlier following political pressure from Brussels.
BTW: did you notice that the whois information has been deleted? It's not even in Off Topic... ;-)
Anything that could be considered personal information is likely to be deleted unless it is posted by the person themselves or they have given permission for it to be posted. Thanks.
The parts you left out (the article is from 29/04/2009):
Free movement of labour has come up the political agenda since the start of the recession, with a strike at the Lindsey oil refinery in February in the UK caused by visiting workers accepting lower wages than local labourers.
"Migration only works if it benefits the British people, and we are determined to make sure that is what happens,” said Phil Woolas, immigration minister.
Yet there are 2 milion Poles in Germany. You as anti-immigration fighter, should be happy with Germany's and Austria's decision. But it doesn't really matter, as Poland as well as Germany and Austria are both in the Shengen agreement.
did you notice that the whois information has been deleted?
Yes, now you mention it, I see it too. Where are the conspiracy theorists? Maybe they can shed some light on this :)) But yeah, I think they are indeed sleeping as they are living in Germany and they have to be on time, pünktlich as the Germans say :)
There is a difference between freedom to travel and freedom to work.
Yes, but they can stay there, can't they? In Holland, for example, there are a lot of illegal workers being rolled up by the Police all the time....
Also, there are those who were born in Gdansk and certain other cities considered of German descent that can get a German passport hence live and work in Germany. A lot of Poles have taken this opportunity before the Iron Curtain fell.
>^..^<
M-G (is sure they are working in Germany as well, albeit illegal)
(is sure they are working in Germany as well, albeit illegal)
I am sure they are, but they would find it harder to find employment, compared to in the UK and Ireland. My gripe is not with the Germans and their immigration policies, it is the double standards in Brussels. This is the same political class that urged the UK and Ireland to embrace freedom of labour during the Nice referendum, now, they are entirely casual in refusing to accept it.
Yes, but they can stay there, can't they? In Holland, for example, there are a lot of illegal workers being rolled up by the Police all the time....
Of course. They are in the Schengen area. I only pointed out the fact they needed a permit to commence employment.
Most earlier Polish migrant workers to Germany settled originally around the Ruhr Pott area in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia, where most worked for generations as miners etc.. It's here still to heard commonly in the last names of many inhabitants 'Waschniewski', 'Wierzbicki', 'Grosenick', 'Brakensiek', 'Krummsiek' 'Krawitz' etc.., typical Westphalian family names.
Hi Well my wife was one of them. We lived in Munich for over ten years...too long. We have just moved to Biesko Biala. So any Polish, Germans or Brits out there with some good advice...we need it.
German poles think of themselves more as Germans than as Poles. Quite different from Turks in Germany, who were born here but consider themselves Turks. :/
here :D i'm a german pole. i only get into this forum because i wanted to know somethink about the raccist actions in UK against polish (you hear a lot of it in the german polonia formus). the think is that in germany there are some big communitys only for poles living in germany. for a pole it was much easier to get and work into germany than in uk before poland joined the EU. the live is i think about the same like in eu, with the diffrent that here you get more money from the state when you are unemployed xD. i think you all gets suprised when i say that the germans don't have anythink against the poles, yes, they have somethink against albanians, turks, arabians etc, but they like polish people much more than them, in my whole live i never heard somethink seriously against polish immigrants here in germany (not like in uk, where newspaper writes against the "polish flood" and grafitys with "polish out" were sprays (as i heard)
another good point is that it's really near to the home country, it's about 1000km to our home village :) and with the new Autostrada it needs only about 8 hours by car^^
so when you have more questions about live in germany, ask^^
where newspaper writes against the "polish flood" and grafitys with "polish out" were sprays (as i heard)
Well as TS I would like to thank you for your contribution :) Finally somebody Polish who's actually living in Germany and comes to this forum. Indeed, you're right, the British are pretty racist, more than the Germans are in fact. Although that's a fact that they don't like to hear :)
And you won't hear the Brits admit too often to British racism as this forum seems to be dominated by Brits and Americans ;) Of course, exceptions do the rule and plenty of them are good ppl, let's be clear about that. As for the infamous Polish anti-semitism, as far as it exists, it mainly lives in the heads of the Americans of Polish and Russian descent.
most of those who went to live in the Ruhr area where Schlesien(Slask) people - a minority, neither German neither Polish -although they are more culturally close to the Polish and the language is much more like polish than like german.
Alot of these people and also Poles who immigrated to Germany did so during the past 500 years, so why mention only 2004 Europ4ean Union accession period. During the Socialist years they could have gone there and remained as permanent residents .
I think its more justified by Poles moving to Germany rather than Britain, not only because of WW2 but mainly because the second largest ethnic minority in Poland after Jews since Poland came to existance were in fact Germans, some cities and towns leading up to WW2 had on average 20% Germans , in some like Lodz where there were more textile industry there were more.
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