Polish British Totally Explained

Everything about Polish British totally explained

Polish British People or Polish Britons are people of Polish origin who were born in or emigrated to the United Kingdom over the course of history. Today, many people living in the United Kingdom have Polish ancestry. Among those born in Poland there are also migrant workers who reside in the United Kingdom.

History

In the 16th century Polish travellers came as traders and diplomats. In the 18th century some Polish Protestants settled as religious refugees due to 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 fighters came to the UK in search of political sanctuary.
   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. During the Second World War the majority of the Poles came to the United Kingdom as political emigrés during 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 at least 20,000 soldiers. Many other Poles based themselves in other parts of the United Kingdom and in practice London became the nerve centre and military headquarters of the Polish liberation movement. Most of the other European Union member states have exercised their right for temporary immigration control (which must end by 2011) over entrants from these accession states, although some are now removing these restrictions.
   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 31 June 2007, of whom 430,395 were Polish nationals.
   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. 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.

Population and distribution

Following the recent migrations (see above), several towns and cities in the UK now have a significant number of Polish inhabitants. However many towns and cities in the UK have long established (since c 1950) and relatively large Polish communities, most notably in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester. Other established communities exist in many other locations such as Leeds, Sheffield, Leicester, Nottingham, Slough, Reading and Melton Mowbray.
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) on King Street. Polish newspapers and food shops are increasingly apparent following Poland's entry into the European Union in May 2004.
Poles have also settled in Leeds, Sheffield, Bolton, Bury, Peterborough and Chorley in Lancashire. There is a long established Polish community in Bristol and there are also concentrations in Nottingham, 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, with around 5,000 in the Highlands region. This has led to the creation of a bilingual English-Polish newspaper . Carlisle in Cumbria, which is twinned with the Polish city of Słupsk, has a Polish population of over 1,600. Blackpool has about 5,000 immigrants living in and around the resort on the Fylde coast, mostly from Poland, and the local newspaper is one of a handful of British newspapers to have its own online edition in Polish, Witryna Polska

Famous Britons with Polish ancestry

Joseph Conrad, novelist
Canute the Great, King of England (Polish mother)
Henryk Gotlib, leading expressionist painter
Phil Jagielka, football player
Waldemar Januszczak, art critic
David Miliband, Labour Party Member of Parliament
Kazia Pelka, actress
Peter Serafinowicz, comedian
Chris Dreja, musician, photographer
Daniela Denby-Ashe, actress
Lysette Anthony, Lysette Chodzko, actress
Rula Lenska, Roza-Marie Leopoldyna Lubienska, actress
Nicky Ladanowski, actress
Janick Gers, musician

Further Information

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