Photo by Jozef Lopuszynski
There have been many negative stories about Poles in the British media in recent years, but public and political support is growing against this trend.
Our England correspondent Jozef Lopuszynski reports.
Poles in Britain are becoming increasingly concerned at the attacks being made against them in some of the British media.
According to Wiktor Moszczynski, of the Federation of Poles in Great Britain, “though the articles in one particular paper have not always been untrue they nevertheless have an ability to convey a negative political slant.”
At a rally in Trafalgar Square on Saturday, addressing thousands of Poles, the former Labour Europe Minister, the Rt Hon Dr Denis MacSchane personally apologised for the negative reporting by the Daily Mail.
“For instance,” he says, “when the Daily Mail headline screams 'Influx of Immigrants costs Every UK Household £350 a Year', the equivalent article in The Independent, based on the same government report, is headed “Migrants Work Harder, Earn More and Pay More Taxes than Britons”.
But public support for Poles against these attacks is growing from both sides of the political divide.
“And I apologise, as a former president of the National Union of Journalists for the horrible attacks on Poles in our anti-European tabloids including the Daily Mail. I believe the hard-working Poles in Britain deserve an apology from that paper but you will have to wait a long time.”
“May the next 90 years of Polish history be the best decades in Poland's unending story. And may the people of Britain never turn their back on their truest friends, their truest allies, their truest partners in Europe – the people and nation of Poland.”
These sentiments were echoed by Hammersmith & Fulham Conservative MP Greg Hands who begged Poles to stay in Britain and not return to Poland.
Now in my view, despite what you might read in the Daily Mail, Poles are actually Britain’s most popular ever set of immigrants, which I think is also truly remarkable because it’s actually the largest single country emigration that we’ve had in Britain since the French Huguenots arrived in the 17th Century.
There are one or two problems with the recent migration. Every time, regrettably, when I go to visit a homelessness unit in my constituency, there’s always – or very often – a small group of Poles there. So not for everybody has the experience of coming to the UK been a success and been a happy one.
But I must say for the overwhelming majority you’re enormously welcome in this country, and I think Britain has benefited hugely from the Polish migration in the last few years, and connections between the two countries can never have been greater.
And finally, I would just say there’s been some talk in the British press about the Poles all going back home, supposedly. Now obviously it’s a choice of the Poles, it’s a free country, we live in a free market, and certainly I wouldn’t want to stand in the way of anybody wanting to go back to Poland, but I just know that I speak for the vast majority of people in Britain when I say: please don’t go. Please stay here. We very much need you, We very much warmly applaud your presence and we look forward to many many future years of co-operation between Great Britain and Poland.