Polish immigration in UK

And the reality is........ if you live in a small town, with seasonal unemployment, and with a high influx of foreign nationals, then the "average wage" is going to be a lot less than what you hear about in towns or areas that have little unemployment and a demand for manual workers.

I unfortunately live in such a town... and I can't move away easily. I'm unskilled, though certainly not stupid, and have seen my wage drop because Poles have come here in massive numbers. It's depressed the wage earning potential of those who ARE willing to work.
Saying that, I don't have a single problem with any worker moving to any part of the world to seek better prospects for themselves. I'd do the same if i could. I certainly don't blame the Poles. I personally have more in common with fellow working class Poles than I do with a British boss. It aint the Poles driving down the wages, it's the bosses knowing their is a pool of labour the can exploit and let us fight out as to who is willing to work for the lowest price. (which is £5.52.. minimum wage)

But, there isn't a "one size fits all" solution to this debate.... what is true in one town/area, isn't in another.

Don't think BW would care, as he works for himself, and if a Polish person wants to do the same thing as BW, then more power to him....it is afterall their right.

So why the hell do you think you have a right to have such a strong opinion about the English, now I understand why you are so negative, here's an idea, why don't you go back to where you come from - Im sure it wont be too long because Im sure you dont want to over stay your visa!



The British actually work longer hours than anyone else in Europe - so again you are wrong - but being a foreigner it's quite believable that you haven't got all the facts.

And if the average hourly rate in Pakistan is practically the same as the UK then why the hell are there so many of them over here same as the rest of them - figures can say what you want them to, fudging figures is a favourite of those in power, so I will take the above with a pinch of salt.

Postie, I saw an agency near to where I work in the city centre of Manchester advertising for warehouse staff for £5.00 an hour - two years ago the same job would have been circa. £7.00, whilst inflation rises along with everything else - salaries seem to have reduced.....it doesnt take a genius to work out the reasons behind this.

Im not anti polish and the few Polish people on this board will tell you this, but I am concerned about the state of my country.

I am also concerned about the state of your country. If things carry on like this (5.50 an hour) us Poles will have to start looking eslewhere for work. It's ok for Brits to earn such low wages in their own country, but what about us we have to send our families money At 5,50 there won't be a lot to send.

The fact is the British economy is far stronger since the large immigration of Polish people to the Uk and unemployment has actually went down.

Fact the Polish economy is now stronger and unemployment has also fallen.

Fact the Irish and Scottish people are some of if not the biggest immigrants in the world (Think of any major capital city in the world where there are not Scottish or Irish business)

By the way I am Scottish.

Britains Immigrants Report by the IPPR

thats what they keep telling us, fact of the matter is property is no longer selling and an estimated 45,000 properties will be repossed in the next 12 months....hmmm not what I call a booming economy! I've seen some write about how we have credit cards and debt in the UK, but thats how a lot of families survive each month because there isnt really an alternative because life is so expensive in this country and property prices are only obtainable for most if they do juggle their credit cards!


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Quite simply ShelleyS, the legal minimum wage that can be paid to an adult is now £5.52. I just copied this from a Govt website:



Maybe the advert you saw was for someone on the lesser rates????

I've said on a different thread on this forum, that a few years ago, as an agency worker, I was in demand and could pick and choose who to work for, with the highest paying job normally chosen, though sometimes it would be a lesser paying job, but with a better shift/conditions/breaks/work.
Now, it's all the other way around, I'm no longer in demand, as there're more temporary workers than temporary jobs. And yes, if you took every Polish worker out of the equation, I reckon it would revert back to how it was a couple of years ago. That's not Anti-Polish, it's just statement.

Saying that, without the amount of Poles here, and with some Brits prefering to be bone idle, a lot of shifts around the factories here would simply not have enough workers to cover the basics if the wasn't so many Polish willing to work, which could impact on local full time jobs. It happened last week at one factory I was at. They'd contracted 10 agency in to cover some work, of those 10 expected, only 5 showed up. The line had to be run at half speed. Costing the company profits...

So, yeah, ShelleyS, I agree. ;)

I have to admit I was surprised to learn that the UK only brought in the minimum wage in 1998 whereas it began in New Zealand in 1896 – more than a hundred years earlier. I also believe that the minimum wage is set too low to be realistic for those supporting a family. However that is not the fault of the Polish, but rather the British voter who has allowed the politicians.

As for those who are low skilled, and generally restricted to low paying jobs, what is stopping you from retraining? I doubt that any of you are stupid, so why not motivate yourself to learn new skills, to make you more valuable to an employer?


Sorry to disappoint you Shelley, but I have a five year work permit issued by the Home Office as I’m a Highly Skilled Migrant possessing skills identified by the British Government as being ‘highly desirable’. The right for an opinion is given by the fact I pay high levels of taxes and NI contributions. I'm also entitled to vote in the UK.


The Annual work hours (source: OECD (2004), OECD in Figures, OECD, Paris. shows that workers in Great Britain work on average 1652 hours per annum; New Zealand 1767 hours and Poland 1984 hours. South Korea have the most recorded working hours, at 2390 hours per annum.

Maybe they were looking for someone under 22, so it was quite a generous rate ;-)

I always find that people who big themselves up are rarely what they seem - but I'm sure your job is desirable by some :)

Im surprised you wanted to stay in such a country for so long, since the men are all drunkards that go to stag parties abroad, apparently the women are all so ugly British men have had to start taking Polish lessons...and we are lazy scroungers....

Oh and you keep banging on about retraining, which is a nice thought, but its not realistic for most since they have families to support, so its the old catch 22 - and where do you suggest these people go to retrain and who do you suggest pays for it?

Hmmm - your figures are out of date by 3 years, sugguest you find some new ones!

anyway Liza I would love to stop and chat all day but I'm far too busy in my highly desirable job :)

And whats the German minimum wage?.......eeeemmmmmm they aint got one! neither do a few other EU countries.

As ever its not wot you've got....but how you use it...hours as a total mean nothing, some countries 10/20/30% more productive per hour compared with the UK....presenteeism is a condition affecting many EU countries....people turn up to work ......but do feck all else!

In Ireland the Polish population are very well rehearsed in the hourly rates for all sorts of jobs, North and South..they have been very choosy and they challenge those offering less than the going rate, so in some respects they have put pressure on bosses to pay the correct wage......no doubt there are plenty of bad payer/bosses ( including Polish employers!)all the same!

I could probably qualify as "low-skilled". Though in no way am I an idiot. I worked for almost 20 years for one company. I never thought I'd need a "skill" as it was what i liked doing and thought it would see me through to retirement. I've been on the agency since I got booted out of that job.

So, for me, yeah, retraining is a real possibility. Getting a training course on the other hand is nearly impossible. Around here, firstly, there isn't that much training going on. What training that is available is pretty poor. On top of that, if you're actually working, you tend to go to the back of the queue (or have to pay ludicrous fees), in favour of those who aren't working.
Many of those who end up on any worth-while course, are only doing the course because it keeps the Dole off their backs while they sit around scrounging some more, as they're then "in training" and off the Dole count. Then they use whatever skills they have learnt, to do some illegal work while carrying on claiming dole.

Personally, for me, I quite like low-skilled jobs. I'm not career minded, and work to live, rather than live to work. As long as I can pay my bills, I don't care what i do. This week I'm working in 2 factories, one putting leaflets into next weekends sunday newspapers magazine, dull and tedious work, but work. Later this week I'll be packing frozen pizzas.
In the mean-time, I'm learning Polish, as it enhances my life. Maybe I'll find a use for it, maybe it'll just be one of those things I've picked up and it'll never be of any economic use to me. But just because I'm piling leaflets into magazines, doesn't mean I'm not using my brain, I can do that without thinking... having a sheet of Polish words i want to learn next to where I work, passes the time and helps me improve myself.

Me too! LOL

There is no need on my part to big myself up; to be granted a HSMP, you have to show that you have earning potential and skills desirable in the UK. I proved it, I got the HSMP granted. End of story.


If someone really does want to better themselves, they will achieve it. Without giving you a hard luck story, I’ve dragged myself up by the bootstraps, working 45+ hour weeks and studying part time (which I paid for) while looking after my partner while he was sick, and if I can do it without any handouts, so can you or anyone else who wants a better life. If someone wants to progress in life, they need to invest time and money in themselves rather than making excuses and belittling those who are achieving more than they are, as the moaners and complainers merely look small minded and ignorant.


Not everyone in the UK is a lazy scrounger, and not everyone needs to blame someone else. A lot of the British I meet are hardworking, decent, honourable people. It’s just a few vocal moaners who prefer to absolve themselves of responsibility for their own lives.

can people please stop looking up useless stats. and get on with the jobs they are being paid to do instead of wasting time at work discussing immigration issues.

The data you quote comes from a report by the International Labour Organisation. The data contained within the report is from 2004.

So why did you?



Foxy for a first time in a long time people are actually staying on topic, I would say that quite an achievement.

word word word

Enough poles in the UK

send them home

now

The hard story would have been giving the full details rather than the bare bones..

Low skilled doesn't mean an idiot, and I apologise if I've given you the impression that I thought that. I don't know how old you are (so please don't get offended), but I understand that a couple of decades ago, it was possible to leave at 15 or 16, and settle in for a job supposedly for life. I understand that the world has changed, and there are some who have experienced bigger changes than others, such as yourself it appears.


Thats a healthy attitude to have; I only wish it was valued more in a financial sense. I really don't understand why the minimum wage is so low, as there are bigger corporates who are making good money who should be spreading a bit more of the wealth around (which is not the fault of the Polish).


I can understand there are some lazy jobsworths who are more interested in massaging the figures, so they put dole bludgers on courses to make them look like active job seekers instead of bums (unfortunately it happens in many countries). Any chance of doing training by correspondence, depending of course on what you would like to do. It does seem as though you're happy to use your brains and you seem smart enough from your posts on here; what about doing a TEFL course, and perhaps teaching English to the Polish in your area (although I'm not sure what the pay rates are for teaching English as a second language in the UK).

what nationality are you ZEZE? just curious..

no it doesnt, and of course there has to be a balance, people willing to do these jobs
although I think these jobs should have a higher pay, without these harder jobs
and harder workers theres no company..

Honey, there is no way that guy is going to give you a straight answer :(

doesnt the govt set the minimum wage?

in my opinion an employer can pay more, but with the govt standards saying how much
is enough, do we think they will change this? no. its the same in the states. and people have to have two working adults to actually own a home and or pay rent
and the younger generations cannot afford to leave home until they are out of college
and even then its rough. but we also changed our way of living to.

you are probably right, he may not even come back at all.

Yes, and they need to have motivation to change it. I'm not up to date on the number of people receiving the minimum wage in the UK who are eligible to vote, but I would still hazard a guess that there are enough to make a difference. If they were vocal about increases, perhaps then the government would listen. From my experiences in the UK, it seems that the major political parties listen a lot to corporate business, but not to the 'Joe Average' worker. The minimum wage in my native country has doubled in ten years; in the same period for the UK it began at £3.60 (April 1997) and is currently £5.52. If it could rise to £7.20, it would be a great help to the low paid worker in the UK.


It is the same in many countries unfortunately, not just the US or the UK. I do support higher taxes for those in higher income brackets; realistically does someone need a 100k bonus on top of a 400k salary? Perhaps if there was some correlation in company tax in relation to staff wages, it would motivate employers to pay more reasonable wages.

yes they do, it ranges depending a persons age I think the maximum is circa. £5.60 - when you consider the average house costs circa. £250,000 its not that good and not really that easy for a person to have a family, because despite what would we like in an ideal world where everyone had a profession - thats not realistic - so you see, people living under the poverty line is high in the UK, but of course that's their fault because they were destined to be lazy poor brits!.....arrrh well.......