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Joined: Jul 2004
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Chipmunk
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Article from the Times Online discusses the influx of workers from eastern EU to the UK. Not as many plumbers as they worried about, but "skilled laborers" did include 10 circus performers. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1748221,00.html


August 24, 2005

Few Polish plumbers, but eastern influx tops 230,000
By Richard Ford, Home Correspondent


MORE than 230,000 Eastern European migrants have applied to work in Britain since the expansion of the European Union last year, according to a government report published yesterday.

The figure is 18 times higher than estimates given in a Home Office study predicting the number of people from the former Soviet bloc states who would seek work in Britain.

But the much discussed phenomenon of the �Polish plumber� � partially blamed for the defeat in France of a referendum on the proposed EU constitution � appears to be little more than a myth.

The study shows that only 95 plumbers and heating engineers were among the hundreds of thousands arriving in Britain to take low-paid and low-skilled work. The arrival of mainly young, single people from eight Eastern Europe countries has caused a small, but significant, increase in unemployment among the native British population.

(read the rest of the article online: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1748221,00.html

Last edited by Nancy M.; 09/13/05 05:25 PM.
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Newbie
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J
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Good self employ Polish Plumber ,dont need a job in West Europe ,he will more likely make the same money in Poland ,without going true all that stress of relocation etc.Good trade people make good money these days everywhere .Just the less skilfull fellows ,need job and look any place they can find.

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Hello Joe, I guess you're right but it's walking on thin ice in the Polonia-based discussion forum <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

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Joe, Hi. Welcome to the forum.
A lot of Polish plumbers have emigrated to the UK and the views of people expressed in the national newspapers has been that they are more easily and quickly available than English plumbers, they do a good job of work, they do not hang around and their charges as not as exorbitant as those of many UK plumbers. I have friends who have used their services and the one occasion that I needed their services, I was completely satisfied - as were my friends. We are short of many tradesmen (and other occupations and professions) in this country and they are more than welcome from Poland. Many, even at lower rates, make sufficient to send money back to their families in Poland and still have money left on which to live. We say 'Thank God' for the Polish plumber,and many the many other Poles with other skills who have come here and are helping our labour market.
Leslie

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Tiger
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***The study shows that only 95 plumbers and heating engineers were among the hundreds of thousands arriving in Britain to take low-paid and low-skilled work. ***

There was actually a discussion in Polish mass media about it. The typical manual jobs which were so much in price until the last 70-es are not more in Poland. There are less and less people who are turners, carpenters or plumbers.

Recently... even in Poland there is a demand for these workers, but there are just too few.

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Jaga
Could it be something to do with a pay differential?
Leslie

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Tiger
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Leslie,

I believer that people who are professional carpenters, turners etc - can earn quite good money but there was a time when there was an overproduction of people with these qualifications - since many large industrial plants were being closed in a short time. Not anymore!

Since labor in Poland is cheaper than in majority of developed countries blue collar workers are in demand!

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Hi A_dam

Honestly I dont know much about the whole issue .Just when I was in Poland last year ,talked with few trades people and they were quite happy with the money they were making .
No plans to go to another country for more .But that is only few people.Not the whole country .
Well if Polish plumber could get to Canada and get job with some good union company ,he might be pay 40$ per hour with no sweat .That money he won't make yet in Poland for sure ,it just the problem ,is not easy to get job like that from far a way country .Some day this wage gap will disapiar.Just is hard to say how fast.
Joe

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Oh yes you're probably absolutely right and the problem is more complicated than just the raw wages gap. Ie. the plumber that looks after all this magical pipe machinery in my house did leave for the three-months reconaissance in the UK (and we were almost in panic - our house IS old - that something happens and I will have to look for a new plumber <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> He camr back and said that he'll never move there: he did earn more, but he did spend more. And he was away from his wife, his pierogi, his armchair opposite his Polish-speaking tv set and so on and so on...
And this is the way it is in Poland, no matter what your profeesion is, be it a plumber or univeristy professor: if you do have a job - you don't move for good anywhere.

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Would the Polish plumber in Britain be required to use British plumbing techniques, or would he be allowed to work the way he does in his native Poland? <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I once met a British tourist in Petersburg who probably did not use the toilet for a whole week. Even in her upscale hotel in downtown Petersburg, the Soviet 1970s plumbing scared her! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

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