jump_bunny: There are various reasons for what Poles stay outside their own country. A large number of Poles plan to remain for life and will decide to settle in the UK. Living abroad, they are not always happy to socialise with British. The language barrier and cultural differences are not the only reasons. Poles tend to move abroad in little communities and they rather want to stay in them, quite strongly seperating themselves from the rest of society. They often don't even socialise with other Poles they meet
This was not the case until the recent mass immigration since 2004. Poles have been in the UK for at least 70 years (the first Polish paper was printed in 1940, for example), but earlier generations came over mostly for political, not solely economic, reasons.
For most (at least before 1989) return wasn't an option, not something to brag about -"when we've made enough money we will go home". Whereas for my parent's generation, it was all about escaping oppression under the PRL and nothing to with "making enough money to buy a large house back home" (earned while moaning about how bad the host country is, of course).
And that, alongside the fact that we did not come over by the hundred thousand, meant that we were more likely to be accepted by British people.
Apart from Ealing in London, there are few well-known "Polish areas" - outside of London, "Polish areas" do not exist; Poles tend to spread out, not ghettoise themselves, even if they don't know English too well. I've lived in four major cities outside London which had significant Polish populations before 2004, and not one could claim to have a "Polish area". As an immigrant group, we've had a long, peaceful, and almost crime-free history, and few other groups of immigrants have integrated as well as we have. All this has changed since 2004.
Before 2004, there was virtually no resentment or aggression towards Poles, now it is common. Why? To put it as simply as possible, too many came over too quickly, and too many of these have bad attitudes. Even if only 10% of the new immigrant population are "bad" ones, the entire community is now tarred with the "dumb drunken Pole/Polish wh*res.. taking our jobs, housing, etc" image. And you may even have been a victim of that resentment, as have I. 10 years ago, it would have been virtually unthinkable to be racially abused for being a British-born Pole - but this has happened to me several times during the past few years. And this is, in my opinion, due to the fact that ethnic Britons are fed up of mass Polish immigration, and anyone speaking Polish in public, or who has a Polish surname, is fair game.
It's all very well for Poles to exercise their "right" to move to the UK and work, but smugly proclaiming that they are just here to make money to give themselves a better life back home, while spending all their spare time moaning about how bad the UK is, is guaranteed to annoy the locals, don't you think? Especially as those locals are struggling on those wages. And sorry, but "maybe they should live more like Poles" is not an acceptable reply. I know that you (or others) may reply "well, I don't care what they think" - well, that's your choice too - but if that's how someone thinks, they can't really expect to be well-received by the nation they have moved to.
And while they are exercising that right to move around the EU to find work, ordinary people in the host country are seeing rocketing rents, lower wages, higher council tax due to the money being spent on the new arrivals, and increased anti-social behaviour and crime - so are you really surprised that British are fed up and don't receive Poles as well as they used to? Especially as they know that if the roles were reversed, they would be treated FAR WORSE!
jump_bunny: As much as I understand why Lefty is upset, I must say that this is NOT Polish people's fault and they do NOT have to socialise with British at all. Poles often move abroad to work and save up the money, there is no need for them to practice or even try British traditions or customs or stay friends with their British naighbours. If you don't like it, then please blame your government...
Don't worry, we do!
But after the above statement, would you really be surprised to encounter resentment? What makes YOUR generation think that you are so much better than my parents and grandparents generation, as they felt it was essential to integrate in their new country, but your generation doesn't?
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