Poles Go to Work Abroad

Poles are not afraid to work abroad. During the last two years after our accession to European Union around 400 thousand Poles went to work in EU countries. The greatest number went to Great Britain and Ireland as well as Germany. Poles are quite successful; not only do they work on building sites, in hotels and restaurants, but more and more often they occupy positions in administration and marketing, sometimes also supervisory. Since the 1st of May 2006 Poles may undertake legal work also in Greece, Finland, Spain and Portugal, some countries open up new sectors of economy or enlarge levies. There are however countries which do not welcome Polish workers.

There are already over 200 thousand Poles working legally in Great Britain which is a total of 59 % of all emigrants from the new member states of the European Union with Lithuanians being the second (45 thousand) and Slovaks (36 thousand).

Young and single people are among those who mainly choose to seek their future job abroad; over 80 % of them are less than 34 years of age. Only one in fourteen is over 45 years of age, says the report of the British Ministry of Internal Affairs. Poles still leave our country without their families – 94 %. Only 3 % emigrate with children, but the changes are slowly beginning to appear. Home Office report shows that the number of the arrivals of Poles into Britain become more and more intensified. In the second half of 2004 51 thousand Poles went to work legally in Britain whereas in the second half of 2005 the number reached as many as 72 thousand. The most people leave Poland in summer months, June and July, the least in December, being traditionally a family time in Poland due to Christmas which is in our country always celebrated as a family gathering. As many as 97 % of Poles work full time in Great Britain, they are very eager to take up shifts in weekends. On Saturdays they can earn as much as 180% of daily wages, and on Sunday even 200%, so that kind of work is very profitable for them.

Just after the accession of Poland into European Union, Poles took up simple and unqualified jobs, at present the number of Poles working on more demanding positions is growing rapidly; there are 63 thousand Poles working on administrative and secretarial positions. Plenty of Poles work in a production sector; every third Pole works in a big factory, mainly at an assembly line or as a packer, but more and more often Poles supervise the job of others. Many Poles work in restaurants and pubs and this market is literally dominated by our nation with 45 thousand Poles who have found their jobs there. We work as bartenders and waiters, but also 2 thousand Polish chefs emigrated to the UK to work, 20 thousand work in agriculture (with the number receding) , 10 thousand in food – processing and in health system.

The majority of legally working Polish emigrants earns from 4.5 to 6 pounds per hour. Just after Polish accession to the European Union the wages were smaller, but later Poles turned out to be efficient laborers and their wages jumped up. Poles start to gain better opinion abroad, being considered as loyal and effective workers; they do not tend to change jobs frequently, which is appreciated by employers. Half of Poles are employed full time, the rest have temporary jobs (they are mainly students who are not looking for any permanent positions).

All in all I have to say this trend of Poles going to work abroad is slowly changing. Companies start to give better wages and don't treat their employees as slaves anymore. It's getting harder and harder to find a good worker in Poland.

I cant agree with that. Wages are better only for builders who all are abroad. Nothing is changing, going abroad for work is very trendy.

Yesterday I talked to my aunt; she's been working in a Polish factory for the last 20 years. But now she says many of her coworkers quit their job in this factory because there are many new factories being built in in the area and they pay 20% more TO START than after 20 years of working in the old company. Not to mention that the old company didn't give their workers any raise for the last 5 years. Go figure. I think it's especially noticeable in the regions where there's a foreign capital (called "special regions" that have lower taxation rates than in other parts of Poland).

I can only speak for one Polish person I know, I helped her get in the finance sector (well I got her an interview - she did the hard bit) she earns about 7 pound an hour...for a clerical thats a pretty good wage by british standards for a junior member of staff, she gets paid leave and all the same perks that the other staff have she is only on a contract because she goes back to Poland next Sept. to continue her studies, but the company has a student scheme and Im sure if all works out well, she will have a job there the in summer holidays for as long as she wishes. The pharmacist at my Boots chemist is Polish and they get paid well, its not just construction where Polish are doing well, the Polish that have got their degrees after they went in to the EU can use their degrees over here and they are, Polish accountants, Polish teachers, Polish Journalists...you name it they are doing it...

btw, what do people think of their countrymen leaving just cuz UK or US has better standards? are they seen as sellouts?