Word: polishing
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Listen to the rhetoric of politicians across Europe and you won't hear the relationship between Poles and their host countries described in such friendly terms. In 2005, Philippe de Villiers, leader of France's Euro-skeptic Mouvement pour la France, darkly warned of the "Polish plumber and Estonian architect" triggering "the demolition of France's social and economic model." Before the E.U. admitted 10 new members back in 2004, populist fears of unwashed hordes stealing jobs from local workers led most of the old E.U. countries, including Germany, Austria and France, to keep their labor markets closed...
...decisions taken on enlargement has been a concentrated flow of Poles into Britain and Ireland. And although politicians and media in those countries warned that an influx of workers from Eastern Europe would undermine local economies, steal jobs and bankrupt the welfare system, the impact has been quite different. Polish migrants like Chudzicka have integrated seamlessly: 75%, in one survey, said the Irish have "made them feel welcome...
...positions migrants are filling, economists say, are either ones that locals don't want, or new positions altogether. In fact, the infusion of educated labor drove growth in host countries' most dynamic sectors. Chudzicka arrived with a diploma in economics and now stars in her own Polish-language TV show (see profile). The majority of expatriate Poles have at least a secondary education, and many have a university degree. Most are working at jobs - in hotels and restaurants, construction and agriculture - well below their skill levels. (Plumbers are coming too, but immigration officials do not keep track of how many...
That hasn't gone unnoticed in the rest of Europe. The Polish story is feeding the debate as new countries such as Romania and Bulgaria join the E.U. As the Union continues to expand to the east, the toughest question facing its older members is whether to open labor markets. Among ordinary Europeans, opposition to enlargement has focused on the fear of losing jobs and the impact on expensive social welfare systems. (Despite their positive experience with Poland and other Eastern countries, both Britain and Ireland decided to maintain labor restrictions on Romania and Bulgaria for the time being...
...from Eastern Europe to Ireland. Low-cost flights to Dublin from Katowice, Cracow and Wroclaw were jammed for months. Newspapers sprang up to serve the new arrivals; bulletin boards outside Catholic churches across Ireland filled up with notices looking for laborers, many of the advertisements written in Polish. In one English county, officials have begun erecting Polish road signs because immigrant truck drivers were getting confused...