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On July 26, 2008, [[The Times]] published a comment piece by restaurant reviewer [[Giles Coren]] containing general [[anti-Polish sentiment]]. In his piece Coren uses the [[racial slur]] '[[Polack]]' to describe Polish immigrants in the UK, who can "clear off".<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giles_Coren</ref> The article has been [[Giles Coren#Polish official protest|subject to major criticism]].
On July 26, 2008, [[The Times]] published a comment piece by restaurant reviewer [[Giles Coren]] containing general [[anti-Polish sentiment]]. In his piece Coren uses the [[racial slur]] '[[Polack]]' to describe Polish immigrants in the UK, who can "clear off".<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giles_Coren</ref> The article has been [[Giles Coren#Polish official protest|subject to major criticism]].


In June 2008 Polish Tatar James Lipka was awarded £22,000, including aggrivated damages, for racial discrimination suffered while working at the Response Handling call centre based at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow. Mr Lipka had been subjected to racist abuse after raising concerns about discrimination against Irish and Asian callers by agents working on projects for the Rangers Football Club and the Student Loans Company. (Mr J Lipka v Response Handling Ltd S/123726/06 F603/30)
In June 2008 (Mr J Lipka v Response Handling Ltd S/123726/06 F603/30) Polish Muslim James Lipka was awarded £22,000, including aggrivated damages, for racial discrimination suffered while working at the Response Handling call centre based at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow. Mr Lipka had been subjected to racist abuse after raising concerns about discrimination against Irish and Asian callers by agents working on projects for the Rangers Football Club and the Student Loans Company.<ref>http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2008/06/glasgow-22000-for-osama-abuse.html</ref>


== Notable individuals ==
== Notable individuals ==

Revision as of 21:03, 2 August 2009

Polish Britons
File:Joseph Conrad.jpg File:Mark Lazarowicz.JPG
Notable Polish Britons:
Joseph Conrad, Henryk Zygalski, Stanislaw Maczek, Władysław Anders, David Miliband, Mark Lazarowicz
Regions with significant populations
Throughout the United Kingdom
Languages
English, Polish, Yiddish (mostly in the past)
Religion
Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Judaism, Islam (Lipka Tatar)

Polish British People or Polish Britons are Poles who settled in United Kingdom and their descendants. It is estimated that over 1 million people living in the United Kingdom have Polish blood.

Early History

Poland has a long history of religious tolerance, and this is how the first cultural exchanges between Poland and the British Isles took place. In medieval times, Polish King Casimir the Great offered sanctuary to English Jews being persecuted in York and London. English, and particularly Scottish Protestants, also fled to Poland when they were persecuted at home, bringing surnames such as 'Miller' that are widespread in Poland today.

In the 16th century, when most grain imports to the British Isles were derived from Poland, Polish travellers came as merchants and diplomats, usually on the Eastland Company trade route from Gdansk to London. Poles are mentioned in Shakespeare's Hamlet, which Israel Gollancz says is an influence of The Counsellor by Wawrzyniec Grzymała Goślicki. As early as 1608 there were enough Poles in England for the Virginia Company to hire a group of them to sail to America to salvage the Jamestown Settlement, where they formed an early trade union.[3]

After the Battle of Vienna a central London pub was called the 'King of Poland' and soon after the road it was situated in, was named 'Poland Street' - which exists to this day. In the 18th century some Polish Protestants settled around Poland Street as religious refugees from the counter reformation in Poland.

In the 19th century, due to the collapse of the November Uprising of 1831 against the Russian Empire, many Polish insurgents came to the UK in search of political sanctuary.[4] After the First World War Poles settled in large numbers in London– many from the London Polish Prisoner-of-War camps in Alexandra Palace and Feltham.

World War Two and the Polish Resettlement Act 1947

The majority of Poles came to the United Kingdom as political émigrés after the German and Soviet occupation of Poland. In 1940, with the fall of France, the exiled Polish President, Prime Minister and government transferred to London, along with a first wave of at least 20,000 soldiers and airmen.

The Polish contribution to World War II was outstanding, and directly led to the formation of the Polish British community as it exists today. Poles formed the fourth-largest armed force after the Soviets, the Americans and the combined troops of British Empire. Poles were the largest group of non-British personnel in the RAF during the Battle of Britain, and the 303 Polish Squadron was the highest-scoring RAF unit in Battle of Britain. Special Operations Executive had a large section of covert, elite Polish troops and close cooperation with the Polish resistance. The Polish Army under British high command were instrumental at the Battle of Monte Cassino, the Battle of the Falaise Gap, the Battle of Arnhem, the Siege of Tobruk and the liberation of many European cities including Bologna and Breda.

Perhaps most importantly, the Poles broke the Enigma code and gave their knowledge to the British.[5] Former Bletchley Park cryptologist Gordon Welchman said: 'Ultra would never have gotten off the ground if we had not learned from the Poles, in the nick of time, the details both of the German military... Enigma machine, and of the operating procedures that were in use.'[6] After the war, Churchill told King George VI: 'It was thanks to Ultra that we won the war."[7]

By July 1945 228,000 troops of the Polish Armed Forces in the West were serving under the high command of the British Army.[4] Many of these men and women were originally from the Kresy region of eastern Poland including cities such as Lwow and Wilno. They had been deported from Kresy to the Russian Gulags when Hitler and Stalin occupied Poland in 1939 in accordance with the Nazi-Soviet Pact. When two years later Churchill and Stalin formed an alliance against Hitler, the Kresy Poles were released from the Gulags in Siberia, formed the Anders Army and marched to Persia to create the II Corps (Poland) under British high command.

These Polish troops were instrumental to the Allied defeat of the Germans in North Africa and Italy, and hoped to return to Kresy in an independent and democratic Poland at the end of the War. But at Yalta, Churchill agreed that Stalin should keep the Soviet gains Hitler agreed to in the Nazi-Soviet Pact, including Kresy, and carry out Polish population transfers (1944–1946). Consequently, Churchill had agreed that tens of thousands of veteran Polish troops under British command should lose their Kresy homes to the Soviet Union, with the implication that relatives including wives and children would be at the mercy of the NKVD.[8] In reaction, thirty officers and men from the II Corps (Poland) committed suicide.[9]

Churchill explained his actions in a three-day Parliamentary debate starting 27 February 1945, which ended in a vote of confidence. Many MPs openly criticised Churchill over Yalta and voiced strong loyalty to Britain's Polish allies.[10] Some reporters felt Churchill wasn't confident Poland would be the independent and democratic country Polish troops could return to, because the prime minister also said: 'His Majesty's Government will never forget the debt they owe to the Polish troops... I earnestly hope it will be possible for them to have citizenship and freedom of the British empire, if they so desire.' [11]

During the debate, 25 MPs risked their careers to draft an amendment protesting against Britain's tacit acceptance of Poland's domination by the Soviet Union. These members included: Arthur Greenwood; Sir Archibald Southby, 1st Baronet; Sir Alec Douglas-Home; Commander Sir Archibald Southby, 1st Baronet; James Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, 3rd Earl of Ancaster and Victor Raikes.[12] After the failure of the amendment, Henry Strauss, 1st Baron Conesford, the Member of Parliament for Norwich, resigned his seat in protest at the British treatment of Poland.[13]

When the Second World War ended, a Communist government was installed in Poland. Most Poles felt betrayed by their wartime allies, and refused to return to Poland, because of the Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939–1946), Soviet conduct around the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, the Trial of the Sixteen and other executions of pro-democracy Poles, particularly the former members of the Home Army. The result was the Polish Resettlement Act 1947, Britain's first mass immigration law.

Large numbers, after occupying resettlement camps of the Polish Resettlement Corps, later settled in London, many recruited as European Volunteer Workers.[14]

In the 1951 Census, the Polish-born population of the UK numbered some 162,339, up from 44,642 in 1931.[15][16]

The relaxation of travel restrictions to and from Poland saw a steady increase in Polish migration to the United Kingdom in the 1950s. Brixton, Earls Court and Lewisham were a few of the London areas where they settled. As these communities grew, it was felt by the Polish Catholic hierarchy and the English and Scottish hierarchies (the majority of whom were Irish[citation needed]) that Polish priests should settle and minister specifically to the spiritual needs of the Polish people. The first such parish was Brockley-Lewisham in 1951 and today there are 10 Polish parishes in London, in places such as Balham and Ealing. Thriving parishes also exist in many other UK towns and Cities.

The longer established communities that ensued after the church established itself were mainly set up by former members of the Polish Resettlement Corps (PRC) in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Around the hub of a Polish church would be Polish clubs, Cultural Centres as well as a variety of adult and youth organisations such as the Ex-Combatants (SPK), the Polish Youth Group (KSMP) and the Polish Scouting Movement (ZHP pgk). The original aims of these organisations was to ensure a continuation of Polish language, culture and heritage for the children of the ex PRC members. Many of these groups are still active and steps are being taken to attract newer Polish migrants.

The Polish Government in London was not dissolved until 1991, when a freely elected president took office in Warsaw. The Polish people fought hard to combat communism, and for their right to liberty. Previously a base to fight against the communist regime in Poland, London came to be seen as an important centre to foster business and political relations.

Recent economic migration

Many of the Polish British community formed after World War Two had friends and relatives in Poland. Partly because of this bond, there was a steady flow of immigration from Poland the UK, which then accelerated after the fall of communism in 1989. Throughout the 1990s, Poles used the freer travel restrictions to move the the UK and work in the grey economy.

At the expansion of the EU on 1 May 2004, the UK granted free movement to workers from the new member states.[17] This had the effect of bringing the many illegal immigrants from Poland into the British income tax system, reduced exploitation and encouraged more Poles to move to the UK.

There are restrictions on benefits that Polish immigrants can claim, which are covered by the Worker Registration Scheme.[18] Most of the other European Union member states exercised their right for temporary immigration control (which must end by 2011[19]) over entrants from these accession states,[20] although some are now removing these restrictions.[21]

The Home Office publishes quarterly statistics on the number of applications to the Worker Registration Scheme. Figures published in August 2007 indicate that 656,395 people were accepted on to the scheme between 1 May 2004 and 30 June 2007, of whom 430,395 were Polish nationals. However, this figure is only indicative as the scheme is an opt-in system without incentive: it costs Poles time and money and isn't enforced. Poles are able to ignore the scheme and work in the UK provided they have a Polish passport and a National Insurance Number Card, which has led to estimates of Polish nationals in the UK being much higher. [2][22]

The Polish magazine Polityka has launched a 'Stay With Us' scheme offering young academics a £5,000 bonus to encourage them to stay at home.

Rapid economic growth at home, falling unemployment and the rising strength of the złoty have, by the autumn of 2007, reduced the economic incentive for Poles to migrate to the UK.[23] Labour shortages in Poland's cities and in sectors such as construction, IT and financial services have also played a part in stemming the flow of Poles to the UK. According to the August 2007 Accession Monitoring Report, fewer Poles migrated in the first half of 2007 than in the same period in 2006. Launched on 20 October 2007, a campaign by the British Polish Chamber of Commerce, 'Wracaj do Polski' ('Come Back to Poland') encourages Poles living and working in the UK to return home.

There was a baby boom during Martial Law in Poland in the early 1980s. Consequently there has been over-supply of new workers on the Polish job market in the 2000s. Unemployment rose and emigration has been a solution for many young Poles. Now that Poland's demographic bulge is ageing, the rate of new entrants to the job market, and therefore emigration, is slowing. Some commentators say the Polish baby-boomers are returning to Poland as they reach child-rearing age themselves. [24]

Population and distribution

See also: U.K. locations with large Polish communities

The main hub of the London Polish community is Hammersmith in West London, as well as Ealing, Enfield and Haringey. The activities revolve around the Polish Social and Cultural Centre (POSK) in King Street. Polish newspapers and food shops are increasingly apparent following Poland's entry into the European Union in May 2004. Many towns and cities in the UK have long established and relatively large Polish communities, most notably London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester. Other communities exist in locations such as Leicester, Slough, Reading and Melton Mowbray.

Poles have also settled in Leeds, Sheffield, Bolton, Bury, Northampton, Peterborough and Chorley in Lancashire. There is a long established Polish community in Bristol and there are also concentrations in Nottingham, Derby, South Yorkshire, South Wales, North Wales mainly in Wrexham, Rugby, Banbury, Luton and Swindon. Scotland has seen a significant influx of Polish immigrants with estimates of Poles currently living in Scotland ranging from 40,000 according to General Register Office for Scotland up to 50,000 as per Polish Council,[25] with around 5,000 in the Highlands region. This has led to the creation of a bilingual English-Polish newspaper.[26]

Carlisle in Cumbria, which is twinned with the Polish city of Słupsk, has a Polish population of over 1,600[27]. Blackpool has about 5,000 immigrants living in and around the resort on the Fylde coast. The local newspaper is one of a handful of British newspapers to have its own online edition in Polish called Witryna Polska .[28]

According the Labour Force Survey, 458,000 Polish-born people were resident in the UK in quarter 4 of 2007.[1] This figure is for migrants and doesn't include British-born people who consider themselves members of the Polish British community. Estimates for the total number of immigrant Poles plus British people of Polish descent put the figure at 1,000,000.[2]

Following the recent migrations, many towns and cities in the UK now have a growing number of Polish inhabitants. Polish workers are employed in agriculture and light industry in the countrysides of low-population density regions such as East Anglia and East Midlands.

Racial tension

Polish people living in Britain reported 42 racially motivated violent attacks against them in 2007, compared with 28 in 2004.[29]

On July 26, 2008, The Times published a comment piece by restaurant reviewer Giles Coren containing general anti-Polish sentiment. In his piece Coren uses the racial slur 'Polack' to describe Polish immigrants in the UK, who can "clear off".[30] The article has been subject to major criticism.

In June 2008 (Mr J Lipka v Response Handling Ltd S/123726/06 F603/30) Polish Muslim James Lipka was awarded £22,000, including aggrivated damages, for racial discrimination suffered while working at the Response Handling call centre based at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow. Mr Lipka had been subjected to racist abuse after raising concerns about discrimination against Irish and Asian callers by agents working on projects for the Rangers Football Club and the Student Loans Company.[31]

Notable individuals

See also: Category British people of Polish descent

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Pollard, Naomi (2008). "Floodgates or turnstiles? Post-EU enlargement migration to (and from) the UK". Institute for Public Policy Research. p. 21. Retrieved 2008-06-15. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  2. ^ a b c http://www.argostranslations.com/articles/poles_in_the_uk/
  3. ^ http://www.polamcon.org/jamestown/roles-and-accomp.htm
  4. ^ a b BBC London, Polish London. accessdate 2008-01-02.
  5. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8158782.stm
  6. ^ Gordon Welchman, The Hut Six Story, p. 289.
  7. ^ Cited in a 2003 Imperial War Museum exhibit on "Secret War.'
  8. ^ http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/about/index.html
  9. ^ pp.374-383 Olson and Cloud 2003
  10. ^ pp.374-383 Olson and Cloud 2003
  11. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=BTsNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_mkDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4479,4501733
  12. ^ pp.374-383 Olson and Cloud 2003
  13. ^ pp.374-383 Olson and Cloud 2003
  14. ^ Kay, Diana (1998). "Refugees or migrant workers? The case of the European Volunteer Workers in Britain (1946–1951)". Journal of Refugee Studies. 1 (3–4): 214–236. doi:10.1093/jrs/1.3-4.214. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ Holmes, Colin (1988). John Bull's Island: Immigration and British Society 1871-1971. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
  16. ^ Burrell, Kathy (2002). "Migrant memories, migrant lives: Polish national identity in Leicester since 1945" (PDF). Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society (76): 59–77.
  17. ^ Tesco caters for an estimated 1.1 million Poles visiting the UK or living and working there
  18. ^ Home Office, Border & Immigration Agency, The Worker Registration Scheme Accessed 2007-12-27.
  19. ^ Freedom of movement for workers after enlargement Europa
  20. ^ Barriers still exist in larger EU, BBC News, 1 May 2005
  21. ^ EU free movement of labour map, BBC News, 4 January 2007, accessed 26 August 2007
  22. ^ Home Office, Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue & Customs and Communities and Local Government, Accession Monitoring Report: A8 Countries, May 2004-June 2007, 21 August 2007, accessed 26 August 2007.
  23. ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3378858.ece
  24. ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3378858.ece
  25. ^ Polish immigrants swell Scotland's new baby boom
  26. ^ Bilingual paper for north Poles
  27. ^ Polish immigrants in Carlisle
  28. ^ Polish Gazette in the TV spotlight
  29. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7435935.stm
  30. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giles_Coren
  31. ^ http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2008/06/glasgow-22000-for-osama-abuse.html

Further reading

  • Michael Hope, The Abandoned Legion, Veritas Foundation Publication ISBN 1-904639-09-7.
  • Dr Diana M Henderson(Editor), The Lion and The Eagle, Cualann Press ISBN 0-9535036-4-X.
  • Peter Stachura(Editor), The Poles in Britain 1940-2000, Frank Cass ISBN 0-7146-8444-9.
  • Robert Ostrycharz,Polish War Graves in Scotland A Testament to the Past, ISBN 1-872286-48-8.
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