weekender_060922_polish_media Lyrics

BBC Learning English
Weekender
Poles in the media
Weekender © BBC Learning English
Page 1 of 3
bbclearningenglish.com
Callum: Hello, I'm Callum Robertson and this is Weekender. One of the largest groups of
new migrants to Britain are Poles. In 2004 Poland entered the European Union
which gave Polish people much greater rights to live and work in other European
Union countries.
Immigration is a hot political issue in British politics and the influx of Poles into
the United Kingdom has hit the media in a number of ways. How are Poles shown
in the media and does this influence the way that people think of Poles? And what
do Poles who are here think of their decision to come here and how do they feel
about their new home? In the programme today we take a look at some of those
questions.
Emma Kwesiga Lydersen is a BBC journalist who has been following this topic
closely. How does she think Poles are portrayed or shown in the British Media?
Emma
I think Polish people are generally portrayed in a positive way in the British media. I think they
are portrayed as hard working, that they have high education level, that they're trustworthy,
industrious - so I think they have a positive image here.
Callum: She believes that they have a positive image, they are seen to trustworthy and
industrious, which means they are seen to be honest and hardworking. However
this isn't always a positive, as Mark White comments. What does he say is the 'flip
side' of being seen as hard working, the 'flip-side' which means the opposite side.
Weekender © BBC Learning English
Page 2 of 3
bbclearningenglish.com
Mark
I think a lot of people recognise in the media that many of the Polish people that have come to
Britain in recent years are very hard working, very reliable, people of considerable integrity who
do a very good job especially in the construction industry, catering and cleaning industries and I
think the flip side of that is that some elements of the press are of the opinion that they are
possibly taking jobs from English people. But I think the truth of the matter is that if native
English people were doing those jobs well enough there would be no jobs for the Poles in the first
place.
Callum: Mark thinks that the flip side is that the hard-working Poles could be seen to be
taking jobs from British people. But Mark makes the point that the Poles are only
dong jobs that British people won't do. This point is echoed by Kaz Janowski, an
English man of Polish descent. What reason does he give for Poles doing the kinds
of jobs that British people won't do?
Kaz
And now, the way they're portrayed in the media, I think quite rightly they are taking people's
jobs, there's no question about it. But the thing is, the way they see it is they will do jobs that
people here won't do. And they don't care what they do so long as they're employed because in
Poland, they can't get work.
Callum: Kaz says that the Poles are happy to come here to work because they can't get jobs
in their own country.
So we've heard some thoughts on the way that Poles are portrayed in the media.
But what about the way that Poles themselves feel? The BBC has done a survey of
Poles in Britain to get their opinion - here's BBC economics editor Evan Davis
with some of the results.
Survey results 1
The Poles have been among the changing faces of Britain in recent years but what do they think of
us? Have the British generally been friendly and welcoming? Out of our 135 Poles 105 said 'Yes'
Weekender © BBC Learning English
Page 3 of 3
bbclearningenglish.com
only 4 said we'd been hostile or suspicious. Three quarters said you can generally trust British
people not to cheat you.
Callum: So far so good. To the Poles British people seem mostly to be friendly and
trustworthy. But it's not all good news for the British.
Survey results 2
Now the bad news, are the British hard-working and diligent? Well I'm afraid 80% of those with
an opinion thought not and there was a similar result on British food.
"Do you like the food in England?"
"Mmmm, no, I'm going to be honest with you, just no."
Callum: So although British people seem to regard the Poles as hard working, the Poles do
not think the same about us Brits - and again English food does not get a positive
response - nothing new there! But despite the food, most of the Poles in the survey
do come across as content. Here's Evan Davis again.
Survey results 3
Do they regret coming to Britain? Only 8 said they did. 113 had no regrets. In fact the vast
majority also said they were happier than in Poland.
"I'm planning to stay for a little bit longer than I was planning at the beginning but that's just
because life in here seems to be much easier than in my country"
Callum: So it seems that at least some Poles are happy to be here in Britain.
That's all from this edition of Weekender.