I would like
to ask you for an opinion about the sources of cruelty
and solidarity in national and social groups out of their natural environment. I mean emigration and any
other kind of being out of your regular environment. I realize that the topic that I am
raising is very complicated, but I’ll try to make it more
simple :). For the past few months I have been in New York and in smaller than London cities in UK and
please forgive me, but most of my sources are my own experience.
I love to
visit national districts in large cities and
talk with people, how, when and why they moved
there and about their experiences ( of course I
do the same thing with immigrants in Poland).
Story nr. One:
Poles in USA
Location is
Greenpoint, NYC
The entire neighborhood is full of Polish bakeries, kiosks, bookstores,
grocery stores, bars. It looks like taken out of the 80s in Poland. Everywhere hanging posters of
Polish lawyers offering assistance in the
field of labor law, employment fraud and problems arising from the lack
of insurance.
My first
interlocutor is Włodek from Piła, he is tall, fiftyish, he has lived there for 20
years now. This morning someone has broken his nose. After a few minutes we know that it wasn't someone but
his young cousin who has come recently and
lived on the street so he took take of her.
The nose was broken with a chair because she got mad after he had
said something (unspecified). He needed a drink cause he
still doesn’t have medical insurance. He doesn’t don't speak English as well.
Krysia, the owner of the bar who
came here in the early '70s, told us that half of Polish immigrants, even those who have been there for 20 years, still don't speak English and don't have a green card or even visa with a work permit.
It seemed to me that nothing has changed since the
80s – “Szczęśliwego Nowego Jorku” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSPqHVKwzvM
Story nr. two: Poles in UK
Location is
Leicester.
My friend has been living there for two years now, running his
mysterious (to me) business building some machines. One month
ago when he was picking
me from the airport, we saw police officers checking his vehicle’s data. It turned out
that the insurance is invalid. The car was insured by the taxi driver who is his friend also Polish. He said that he has a lot of cars so
he can pay lower rates. Of course, the lower rate paid my friend.
After the first phone call the taxi driver never picked up the phone again.
The car was taken to a police parking lot. Getting insurance after such an
offense is actually impossible because it costs £ 5,000 and without
insurance getting your car back is
impossible. Fun, right?
Story nr. Three: Ukrainians in
PL
Location is
Warsaw.
My
interlocutor is Ludmiła. Back in Ukraine she studied ethnography and then
ran her own business. After whole war mess in the east she escaped to Poland with her two daughters. Here she is
a cleaning lady and she is struggling with cancer.
" The
first year was terrible until I met the Poles who helped me. I lived in
Łomianki in a big house belonging to rich Ukrainian women, renting a room in the basement
with mold on the walls. It cost 1200zł. The rich
Ukrainian woman also offered
me a job which pays
for the rent.“
After one
year the Ukrainian woman
said that actually she never got any money and asked Ludmiła to move out at night with small children. She handed her papers indicating
that if she didn’t pay the
rent she would be sued.
Story nr. Four: Jews in UK
Location is
London
My interlocutor, named Uri ,came here from Jerusalem, he is a Hasidic orthodox who decided to leave Israel because he didn’t agree with the policy of the government.
He is a
designer and shoemaker. He decided to stay at first in the
Jewish
district of Stamford Hill. He came alone and
also he doesn’t have any family
there.
He was
welcomed very well, for the first few days he could
stay at the community center, met many people and after one week he got his first job at a shoemaker’s, a simple job, not a dream job, but good enough to pay
for a room. He said that he had such a warm
welcome, so many people wanted to help him immediately at finding a job,
finding home, applying for the legalization of his residence, etc. He is wondering if it's the
influence of the kibbutz’s
policy ( shared parenting or joint budget and work) or hundreds of
years of diaspora and its problems in finding their place in a foreign country. Who
knows...
http://dalstonist.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/5544206457_c4415b5775_z-528x396.jpg
Epilogue
I am far from generalization, I realize that these are individual stories.
Unfortunately, such stories I usually listen
to. Also there are many others, about support among the LGBT
community in each bigger city in Poland, Europe
and USA or in broadly defined environment of
Punk leftists.
I would like to listen to your thoughts,
opinions and experiences in this field.
Also I would like to recommend watching
a miniseries "Run" about
immigrants in GB.
"Four gritty no-holds-barred human stories of the
streets, all linked together in some respect."
http://iitv.info/run/
Great article. After I had read the headline I was sceptic about this topic but now when I have ended I know that I was totally wrong. These stories were interesting for me and also imao your style of writing is pleasant. To get straight to the heart of the matter it is pretty sad to hear stories like this which was told you by Włodek. He has lived there for 20 years and he doesn’t speak English and also he even doesn’t have green card or medical insurance. I suppose that have to be hard to live as he does…
ReplyDeleteBtw. You forgot to remove editorial changes in your presentation ;)
Thank you for appreciate my text, maybe you know any interesting stories or you have your own theories about the differences in the behavior of specific nationalities?
DeletePS. I already remove editorial changes, thx :)
Interesting stories, but I'm not sure what this article is really about. First story is about Poles(illegal immigrants) in the United States, second about a driver, who was tricked, third is a story of Ukrainian woman, who was used by rich lady and forth about Jew in London. The only connection I see is that they're all emigrants, but some of them were lucky, some of them not, so I will comment each story.
ReplyDeleteFirst and second:
In my opinion it's very common nowadays that Poles are escaping to UK or United States. They thought it will be easier out there and I think that some of them made a good choice - they settled there, have a job and they're not being bothered. While leaving they had to realize that it will be difficult. While reading those stories I thought about "Londyńczycy" series (http://www.tvp.pl/seriale/obyczajowe/londynczycy/wideo) about Poles in UK. A TV Show, which presents the stories you wrote about.
Third Story:
First Thought: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s3HVyJS7wY
It's very common in US, that Mexicans are being used for unwanted labour. They take care of the gardens, clean up houses, work in fast food restaurants. But even in Poland I know many families, where Ukrainians Ladies come to clean houses, but they do have better opportunities than they have in their home country. And I have some friend, who went to Germany or Sweden to work as cleaning crew, because salaries are higher!
Fourth:
First thought: Fast food bars serving kebabs. How many of those re run by foreigners? Or Jews shown in Family Guy are shown as good bankers and economists:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h2wMIfRUb0 (song from pulled episode "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein")
I think that it all depends of personals skills, connections and luck. Nothing more, nothing less.
PS Those editorial changes were one problem, but sometimes it's hard to understand your sentences:
'He was welcomed very well, for the first few days he could stay at the community center, met many people and after one week he got his first job at a shoemaker’s, a simple job, not a dream job, but good enough to pay for a room'
It could be divided in shorter sentences and sometimes you can add some comas, but it's a small thing.
I have heard quite interesting story recently. It's connected a little bite with you first story.
ReplyDeleteFew weeks ago friend of my who lives in UK had some accident and hurt his thumb. It was very bad and he couldn't even drive a car (he works as a truck driver). So he was out of job for a while. What surprised me a lot is a fact that there is no such thing like Illness Benefit.
Couple month ago I was in London and stayed in some hostel at city outskirts. There were such a lot of Polish shops, bakeries and like you mentioned Polish lawyers it was very strange for me.
Well, in my opinion the situation of immigrating people depends mostly of the people. They think, the situation is bad in place where they live, so they think that anywere else is better. Especially in UK or US for Polish people. But the problem that nothing changes where the migrate, because they have problem to face their life. Of course there are situations when someone cheat them or have very bad luck. But imfo most of them depends on personality
ReplyDeleteIt's quite interesting article but I couldn't focus because of editorial changes and really really long sentences. You mentioned about a very serious case. I agree that many immigrants (if not all of them) are exposed to exclusion. In my opinion the worst thing is that these visiting or strangers usually don't help their countrymen in need. Exactly like in your stories, 2nd and 3rd. All immigrants should know that most beginnings (in a new city or country) are difficult and it's a very long and hard road. Therefore, it should be obvious people help each other. Usually, they don't and that's sad.
ReplyDeleteThis is nothing new, we are the worst kind of people on emigration. We can't socialize with people from Poland. We can't help eachother and so on. Every single nationality can socialize with eachother, make community, have friends, sadly we can't. We have though life on emigration it would be nice to make a proper community based on friendship. In USA, UK, Germany they treat as like we are treating people from Ukrain, Bulgaria or Romania. It's really hard to form community but we aren't trying.
ReplyDeleteI hate this picture, but there is a lot of truth in it:
http://img2.demotywatoryfb.pl//uploads/201407/1405862155_vlthhe_600.jpg
People have chosen emigrations on different ways and i`m not trying to evaluate this. Creating of some social groups abroad is nothing new and it’s absolutely normal. When we look at polish case we have a lot of foreigners and they create some solidarity groups too. After I read this article first time I`ve returned to beginning and I was reading again. After second time I still don’t know what was a main envoy of this presentation so I have to share opinions from previous posts of my colleagues. I`m really sad because I need to write about poor text formatting and not really friendly form of presentation. I`ve seen better ones but in the end thanks a lot for your effort
ReplyDeleteThe older Polish immigrants with no knowledge of language (mainly in the US) landed there during communism to escape the dark reality in Poland and make some money. Some wanted to earn good cash, working with dishes or caretakers because there was no good education for many of them in Poland. These guys relied on stories about supporting Poles and were almost certain that they could start a new life in new culture without accustoming to the new language and environment. These are the proverbial Greenpoint people who created this legendary enclave for Poles in New York. People who really wanted to blend into American culture have started successful businesses and have great ambitions, beyond just surviving in Greenpoint, being dependent on other Poles.
ReplyDeletePeople leave to work in England without having any real skills or even knowing the language and then they are suprised that they are not respected. I'm sure that specialist have no problems with finding work abroad and being apreciated. If you're smart enough you can make a living everywhere. If not...changing countries won't help you.
ReplyDeleteI agree in general but sometimes people are so desperate that they are able to take the risk no matter what. Sad but true.
DeleteYou should take a look on that:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhFkL67089E
This is S.Mrozek's drama "Emigranci". Excellent piece. That's a sad reality, unfortunatelly.
What can I say... Living abroad is associated with different situations. They choose living like that and should be prepared that not everyone is open for foreigners just like in Poland. Most of Poles doesn't like Gypsies, Russians, Germans or Ukrainians because of hitorical facts or stereotypes. In the UK Poles are accused of taking jobs from native Brits but one of them made a short movie explaining why they should be thankful for immigrants: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9856BFZyUI
ReplyDelete20 years with out learning language ? How it is possible ? Your topic is very heavy but also very interesting. Migration is now very hot topic mostly cause of things that are happening on Ukraine and in Africa. Whole world is talking about this. As for me, I don't think we'll find any good solutions for current problems of migrations and addapting by foreigners.
ReplyDeleteInteresting stories when treated separately. I need to agree a little bit with one of the previous comments, regarding a lack of significant connection between the stories.
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be a solidarity of some kind between people from one country when meeting abroad, but just up to a point. I personally find it annoying, that when f.i. meeting Polish touritst abroad, it's always assumed, that we have something in common and I will find the necessary exchange of "Oh, and where are you from? Bydgoszcz? Great." positive.
Some of the stories above end with a happy-ending, some not. I think regardless the nationality or current place of residence, stories like these happen. I think a lot of people in the US don't have health insurance, and a lot of people around the world get ripped-off by people they know, that's my sad conclusion.
Hi guys, I agree with you that this stories are completly different, but I guess that I know what Iza wantet to tell us by
ReplyDeletethis. She shared us her memories and personal expiriences connected with UK and people behaviour.
I think that conclusion for this article could be that we should trust only ourselves.
Some time ago i was intrested this kind of problem also - people going abroad and dangers connected with decision like
this.
I've heard about plenty of situations, when a compatriot defrauds unexpirienced "fresh" person from Poland.
Thats kind of bussiness I guess, a way of get some extra money, or even A NEW PROFFESSION!
So, just imagine it: If you sell enough fake insurances, or rent your rooms for a unbeliveble price you can life like a king in UK. Just to use your expirience, influences and contacts.
So, my point is: Be careful, thats not a kindergarden, and not any compariot is obligated to be your friend and mentor!
They say, you emigrate with the bad luck or a good luck, so wherever you are you can expect the same style of living. That's for me 50% truth, because second 50% depends on society you are in. Leaving a country tho' in my opinion is a overkill, in most cases changing a group of people and friends you live with can change your life 180 degrees. I'd even say that leaving your country is not the best solution, because I know from my experience, because I travel alot, I almost live right now outside of my lovely country and I know how much I miss Poland and how much I fall in love again and again when I come back.
ReplyDeleteImportatnt topic. Nowadays the emigration is a huge problem of Europe. Imigrants from Africa and muslims keep togheter. This is my observation. They help each other. I can't understand the nature of Poles. Why they are such envious? Many times I heard similiar stories that you should not trust Poles outside the Poland. They are friendly - but most of this is fake. They are just dodgers. I am not surprised that worldwide opinion of Poles is not good. 20 years in USA and they don't know English. It is shame.
ReplyDeleteWell in my opinion this article does not cover the whole subject. It could not be covered even in a book!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all we can reflect to groups of immigrants which does not assimilate in a new place. Somehow it is a natural behavior to keep company with the same ethnic, national, religion or else group. Probably it is created by biological specifics of human being. People simply looks for similarities. Nonetheless this is sad and creates problems for them and for local communities. As there is lack of good communication between different groups they start to be misunderstood and feared of each other. It is not easy to overcome such difficulties. On one hand every individual should try to assimilate with new social environment. On the other every government should facilitate such integration.
Second of all this article is a combination of personal experiences of the author and in my opinion it does not shows the truth. I can come up with many stories from my personal experience where immigrants have found they way to “soak” into the society and now they are very renowned people.