I. The Poles abroad

Poles emigrate, because they are looking for a good paid or even any job. Some of them overbroad to Ireland and they are happy when they wash up because in Poland they were unemployed. I think that’s the most common reason why Poles leave our beautiful country. But there are people who don’t change their place of living because of a job. Some of them do it because of desire to explore the world, learn about other cultures or places. Other group leave Poland when they meet old friends who are foreigners, they fell in love in newly understood country and stay there permanently.

Sometimes they can miss family, friends from Poland or simply living in Poland, but in general, they feel at home.

They don’t have friends only among other Poles. It could be said that they have only several friend from Poland, most of their mates are foreigners from different countries. Also immigrants from other nations.

I think foreigners want to know something about our culture. Of course not in details as important events in our history, but for example our traditional dishes, dances or music can interest them.

This what keeps the Poles together is awareness that there is someone with who other Pole can talk about abandoned country.

II. The immigrants in Poland

Poland is a good place to live in if you are foreigners. I can’t say that about every city, but Poland have many ‘green cities’ where industry is not highly developed. Poland is an attractive place for academics from Western Europe because our universities are cheaper wherein their levels of educations aren’t lower. Poles are really friendly and helpful people. They accept new people very fast. After few years or even months, foreigners can feel at home.

I’ve learned something from a person considered as immigrant. It was recipe for some Bulgarian traditional dishesL: cheese stuffed peppers, dish called ‘musaka’, snack called ‘banica and soup ‘tarator’.

Marta,14

We more and more often meet with the problem of the polish emigration. The most important reason why Polish people leave their native country is the lack of employing in Poland and desire for increase their existence at leaving parts. There are people, who work abroad, because their financial situation is very difficult. Other people leave Poland pursuing profession about high recognition and medium status. But most important reason of their escapes, is the difference in earnings between Poland and other countries.

The phenomenon of the emigration is nothing new – it lasts from many years. Almost all of us have someone from the family who lives and works abroad. My aunt was leaving in United States for 11 years. She experienced it by herself , what does it mean to leave as an emigrant. We say there’s no place like home. Is it true? Can we feel like one hundred percent Pole leaving abroad? I think, opinions are divided. Some of emigrants settle in very quickly and they feel very good in new environment. They feel like a fish in water and are satisfied with their lives. Unfortunately there are also people for who, it is very hard to get used to the new situation. Sometimes they feel alone, because of the language barrier. Everyday situations can became quite a big problem, e.g. visit at the pharmacy. This contributes to the low amount of friends from other nationalities. We keep in touch only with Polish people. Very often, when somebody leaves country, after few months, invites members of his/ her family or friends and offer a job at the same company if there is such an opportunity. Emigrants with great language abilities and good qualifications get work in big offices, restaurants or shop, where they meet many people from other countries. This helps to socialize the relationships, friendships between with other nationalities.

Is it hard to say, whether foreigners what to know anything about our culture. I think that there are many people who are fascinated by our customs and traditions, especially connected with food. There are many typical polish dishes, which taste for our friends abroad. In my opinion, culture is one of the most important things, which connects people together, but not only with foreigners, but between Poles too, especially during such holidays, like Christmas or Easter.

All of us has the desire to travel around the world. We settle in various places around the world, but we cannot forget about our roots. We can feel very good everywhere, but sometimes we miss our friends and family. To sum up, I think there no better place like home.

  Magda 14 

I.

Most of Polish immigrants in the UK feel at home when they have their family there. It is because home is not just a place but people who we are with. Some immigrants get homesick. They miss their friends, their family or a place where they grew up and they feel lonely. When they start new life, get married and have children, they make the place where they live their new home. If immigrants decide to stay in a different country only for several months just to earn money, they do not try hard and do not feel at home. If people plan to stay there for few years, they do their best to feel good and thanks to that they feel at home. Usually immigrants decide whether they want to feel at home or not. Sometimes it may be hard when climate, food and lifestyles are very different, but in case of Polish people in the UK it is possible to feel at home.

When Polish people don’t know the language of a country they migrate to, they have friends only among Poles. When they know the language, they do not only have Polish friends, but also foreign ones, because they can communicate with each other. Poles always have Polish friends when they move abroad while number of international friends depends on language skills of the immigrants.

Majority of people do not care about other cultures and are not really interested in Polish customs and traditions. Sometimes people may be curious and try to get to know more about the immigrants who live in their country. As many Polish immigrants do not speak English very well, they do not socialise with other people who do not have a chance to learn more about Polish culture.

Language barrier, similar traditions and same culture are what keeps the Poles together. Other immigrants also feel very comfortable with people of same nationality for example Chinese people living in Chinatown.

II.

Thanks to my Chechenyan friend I know about the situation in his country at the moment and why his family had to move to Poland. My Colombian teacher Dayan taught me Latin American Spanish and presented Colombian customs and traditional dishes for example Bandeja paisa and customs.

Gabrysia, 14

Immigrants in Europe: the current problems

   Recently, we can hear a lot about African immigrants to Europe.

We watched the film about them, read some articles in Polish magazines and searched on the internet. The most popular ways they were coming to Europe were: first, Canary Islands,than, Strait of Gibraltar and recently- Lampedusa Island. Not all European countries are willing to accept them. Almost 70000 immigrants were recieved by only few countries:. France, the UK, Belgium, Germany and Sweden. We also learned that outside Europe(for example in Saudi Arabia) the entry law is much more strict than in Europe.

  

   When the Mediterranean is calmer, vessels carrying migrants from Africa and the Middle East land on Italy's southern shores almost every day. The UN said that in recent months most migrants were escaping the conflicts in Syria and the Horn of Africa, rather than coming from sub-Saharan Africa.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said that more than 1,500 people drowned or went missing while attempting to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe in 2011.

The UN also said that almost 500 people were reported dead or missing at sea during 2012 in attempts to reach Europe and the number of those arriving by sea to Italy this year (2013) until 30 September stood at 30,100,According to Eurostat, the EU statistics agency, Germany had more than 77,000 asylum seekers last year while Italy had under 16,000.

After the debate in Britain about asylum seekers and immigrants as "benefit scroungers", some politicians said that most of those trying to cross the Mediterranean were "economic" migrants rather than political refugees and that they were seeking better social security than they would receive at home.

The main point of the meeting in Luxembourg was to stop the flow rather than liberalising entry rules, by discussing further aid to, for example, Lebanon or Turkey, which are struggling under the burden of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria.

After Polish magazines and:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/08/eu-immigration-policy-lampedusa-tragedy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24380247

Magda 14, Kornelia 14, Gabiela 14, Wiktoria 14, Marcin 14

Project work concerning immigrants

The students of Publiczne Gimnazjum Nr7 in Bialystok started their work from the following tasks:

I. The Poles abroad

Almost all of us have someone from the family who lives and works abroad. These people are immigrants there.

Get know some factcs about their lives there:

-Do they feel at home?

-Do they have friends only among other Poles or also among foreigners?

-Do the foreigners want to know anything about our culture?

-What keeps the Poles together?

-Did you learn anything from a person considered as immigrant (about his country and culture), if so  what was it?

II. The immmigrants in Białystok/at school (findings from the internet, own experience)

III. The immmigrants in Poland/in Europe

14 our students have already answered questions I. and II.