Language in Action
Jack Todhunter

Daily Mail makes up with Poles

Stephen Brook
The Guardian, Tuesday August 5, 2008

The Daily Mail has reached a peace deal with Britain's Polish community over its coverage following negotiations brokered by the Press Complaints Commission.

The Federation of Poles in Great Britain lodged a formal complaint with the PCC that the newspaper had defamed Poles working in Britain, accusing the Daily Mail of printing articles that gave rise to "negative emotions and tensions between the new EU immigrants and local communities".

The Mail rejected the accusation, but after negotiations conducted via the PCC it has agreed to remove some articles from its website and alter others.

Associated Newspapers' flagship daily will also run a letter from the federation and a longer version of the letter as a blog online tomorrow. "The complaint is to be resolved," a PCC spokesman said. "The newspaper wishes to make clear that it wasn't in any way anti-Polish."

The Mail declined to comment before today's publication of the letter and blog by the FPGB.

"We are pleased that the Daily Mail could see that some of the wording they had in their headlines was harmful and they have taken far more care," said Wiktor Moszczynski, an FPGB spokesman.

The federation's complaints about 50 Daily Mail headlines had been dismissed by the newspaper.

"The Federation of Poles in Great Britain has been concerned about newspaper coverage which has sought to emphasise negative aspects of the Polish presence in the UK," wrote Moszczynski.

"In our view, the worst examples linked Poles with words and phrases like 'feckless', 'chancers', 'race riots', 'swamp the NHS', 'fears for schools', 'cut-price treatment', 'push British graduates to back of the jobs queue', 'killers, drug smugglers and rapist'. We consider that this has made Poles living in the UK feel vulnerable and persecuted," Moszczynski added.

"We maintain that Poles have felt humiliated by the coverage and are vulnerable to numerous acts of overt hostility and even violence which they have experienced from a vociferous minority of UK citizens," Moszczynski wrote.

"There have been hundreds of cases of hate crime against Poles in this country recorded in the last two years, some leading to death or permanent injury, and we would not want these incidents to be encouraged by potentially inflammatory newspaper stories or headlines."

A Mail source said cultural barriers, particularly the British tradition of an aggressively free press, had led to the disagreement with the FPGB.

The paper had often criticised government immigration policy and used Poles as an example, which Poles had taken as a direct criticism, the insider added.

"We came to a better understanding of each other's position," the source said.

"We were never anti Polish – they just interpreted some of our headlines as that because they were written in our usual robust way."

Some headlines complained about:

November 2006: Britain Is Country of Choice for Many 'Feckless' Poles

November 2006: Polish Borat Claims Groping Women Is Normal in Eastern Europe

June 2007: Polish Homosexuals Facing Persecution in Exodus to UK

June 2007: Polish Immigrants Take £1bn out of the UK Economy

October 2007: Immigrants Here for Good: Half of Poles Plan to Stay in UK

November 2007: Fears for NHS & Schools as 1,000 Polish Children Are Born Every Month

Look at the following article. Is it biased?

Use your analytical skills to debate the rhetoric used. Use two types of highlighting pen, one to indicate negative lexis, the other to indicate positive lexis.

Click on the hyperlinks to learn more about Rhetorical Analysis and Rhetorical Devices.

The new Britons

By FIONA BARTON, Daily Mail
Last updated at 10:28 18 May 2006


Some of the Polish plumbers tracked down by the Mail in West London.

Since joining the EU, Poles have come here in their hundreds of thousands. Critics say they deprive Britons of jobs and houses. Economists say they are adding £300million to the economy and keeping interest rates down. Starting today, in this major investigative series, the Mail sets out to discover the truth ...

The shelves of the Polskie Delikatesy are crammed with jars of red cabbage, pickled cucumbers, smoky kabanos sausages, dark Polski chleb (bread) and racy, indecipherable magazines. I ask a question and the assistant, a young woman with long black hair, looks at me blankly, shrugs and shakes her head.

I turn to two other customers, a pair of stocky men in work clothes, but they are equally puzzled. So, unable to make myself understood, I retreat.

I feel like a foreigner, but this is not Warsaw, Kracow or Gdansk. I am in Southampton, an English city where one in ten of the 220,000 population is now believed to be Polish.

No one knows exactly how many Poles live in the city, but estimates start with "at least 10,000" and rise to 30,000.

What is indisputable is that Southampton is experiencing the biggest influx of foreigners in its history. It's the most visible manifestation so far of the largest wave of immigration for at least 300 years.

Home Office figures show that 205,000 Poles have come here to work since May 2004, when Poland and other former Soviet bloc countries were allowed to join the EU.

Most of the larger EU countries blocked citizens of the new member states from migrating in search of work until 2009 - but not Britain.

The phenomenon of the Polish plumber - the hard-working, ever-available tradesman - has been experienced all over Britain. There can hardly be a street in the country where a kitchen or roof hasn't been fixed by an eastern European.

But while the middle classes have been full of praise, others claim the competition has meant British workers losing out. Last month, unemployment figures climbed to three per cent - the highest since October 2003 - giving fresh ammunition to the critics.

However, economic forecasters the Ernst & Young Item Club claimed last month that the influx had actually kept interest rates down and boosted the Treasury's coffers by £300million.

Largest wave of immigration for 300 years

So what is the truth? Is this dynamic new workforce filling a need in Britain, boosting the economy and teaching the indigenous unskilled population about the ethos of hard work? Are these foreigners being welcomed or shunned?

In a major three-part investigation, the Mail has visited cities across the country, from the suburbs of Southampton to the estates of Manchester.

We've spoken to Polish workers in a Woolworth's warehouse in Rochdale, those at a Tesco distribution company in Middleton, food plant workers in East Anglia, the plumbers of London and the Polish hairdressers now appearing in our towns and cities.

And we've been to Poland, to the city of Rzeszow, to uncover the human cost of this mass exodus of young, ambitious workers forced to earn a living abroad.
For the first time, it's possible to establish the truth behind one of the biggest waves of immigration in modern times.

What emerges is an extraordinary picture of contrasts: hope and greed; hard work and exploitation; ambition and grinding poverty. But one thing is certain - the outcome of this 'open door' policy is nowhere near as clear cut as the Government would have us believe.

In London, the Polish population is now put at 50,000, but Andrzej Tutkaj at the Polish Centre in Hammersmith believes there may be ten times that number living in and around the capital.

Yesterday, David Roberts, director of enforcement and removals at the Home Office, admitted that the Government is no longer bothering to hunt hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and told MPs he did not have the "faintest idea" how many were at large in the UK.

Numbers are likely to increase if Bulgaria and Romania join the EU in January next year - something which EU leaders said yesterday they were determined to push ahead with.

The Government's figures are notoriously unreliable. They admit that two million Poles have travelled to Britain since the borders opened in 2004. The influx - greater than the population of Warsaw - records the number who have travelled to the UK, not the number who have stayed.

And although the Government admits to 204,000 Poles working here, that does not include those who have set up as self-employed or are living in the black economy and are paid in cash.

The ludicrous disparity between government statistics and reality was revealed in autumn last year when the Government said there were just 95 Polish plumbers working in Britain, yet the Daily Mail gathered that number together in West London within 24 hours with one card in a newsagents' window and three phone calls.

Once in London, the immigrants gravitate towards existing Polish communities in the suburbs - at the end of Tube lines, where housing is cheap to rent. It is here, in boroughs such as Ealing, Barnet, Walthamstow and Finsbury Park that the increased numbers are most visible.

In the West London suburb of Hanwell, the corner shops now sell Polish bread and at St Joseph's Catholic School, one in six of the pupils is Polish.

In response to the influx, the council has employed two Polish classroom assistants to help new pupils settle in, but their assimilation of the language and education system is extraordinary.

St Joseph's headmaster Ben Cassidy has nothing but praise for the newcomers: "The children are here to study," he says.

"They have a wonderful work ethic and get great support from their parents. They also go to 'Polish school' on a Saturday to learn about their own culture and to prepare for the Polish examinations they must take when they go home.

"These communities have not come here to bleed the system. They don't claim benefits and when they go home for holidays, they go to the dentist and the doctor in Poland. They believe they are going back in five years' time. They are paying tax and national insurance in order to secure a future. Coming here is a means to an end."

In Barnet, thousands have settled in the borough, prompting a rash of 'Tu kupisz Polskie produkty' (Polish products for sale) signs in the local shops.

Amid London's huge diversity the Polish community, although it has expanded rapidly, is relatively easily absorbed - but in other cities they have become a highly visible new social force.

Southampton is home to the highest density of Poles outside London.

It has Polish hairdressers, plumbers, plasterers, decorators, Polish shops, three Polish players in the city's football team, the Saints, a Polish radio programme, a Polish church, club and pub.

The city has become a focus for this latest immigration because there has been a Polish community here since the end of World War II.

And according to Father Krysztof Kosciolek, the Catholic priest in charge of the local Polish church, Southampton has a reputation in Poland as a place where it is easy to get a job.

And so they have come in their thousands, to the suburbs of Shirley and Portswood, where rents are cheap, to start new lives.

In Shirley High Street there are signs of Polish influence everywhere and the shopkeepers are in quietly celebratory mood.

Under the strip lighting of Lidl, the German supermarket chain, the rare English voices belong to the till operators. Manager Steve Reynolds surveys his domain proudly and says: "The Polish customers are a huge part of our business. Most live in Shirley and they come here to shop. Sales have grown significantly over the last couple of years."

It is the same story at the local newsagents. Owner Shalil Raichura says: "The Polish people are good for me economically because they spend money and they don't worry too much about comparing prices."

'I called friends to say how nice it was here and they came too'.

Further up the High Street, Arun Sharma, 43, who owns six shops and an internet pharmacy in the city, is looking for Polish pharmacists. He admits that the sheer number of new arrivals is "a heck of a lot for one city" but he admires the Polish work ethic and their qualifications.

Mr Sharma, 43, says: "There is a shortage of pharmacists in this country. We have recruited from Spain and Nigeria and are now looking in eastern Europe. Their education system is impressive."

He already employs a Lithuanian woman and a young Czech lad and tells me a story to show the difference between these workers and British staff.

"The young man came in to see me," he says. "He was a graduate, washing cars and he wanted to use his computer skills. I only had four hours a day available and it meant travelling to the other side of Southampton but he took the job immediately and walked to work every day. It is a can-do attitude."

Landlord Roger Bell, who rents out houses to eight Polish immigrants, echoes the sentiment. "It is classic first generation migrant attitude. They work hard, take any job and get on with things. They are high-calibre people and extremely well qualified."

These qualities are the reason Jan Kosniowski's recruitment agency deals exclusively with Polish workers and now has 1,300 on its books.

Mr Kosniowski, one of the original Polish community in Southampton, says: "We supply skilled workers rather than labourers because there is a shortage. A lot of young British people are not interested in trades or apprenticeships. The problem is that the emphasis in this country was on getting young people educated rather than skilled."

It is a sad truth that apprenticeships fell out of favour in Britain in the Seventies and Eighties when the manufacturing industries shed jobs and the construction industry went into decline.

Stephen Gardner at the Learning and Skills Council (responsible for planning education and training for the over 16s in England) says a generation became disenchanted with the idea of learning a trade, then their children were pushed by government targets into taking a university degree.

"There was an automatic acceptance that you would earn more in your lifetime if you had a degree", he says. "Now it is very different because everyone has a degree and it has become devalued."

There are 300,000 young British people learning a trade - from goldsmithing, electronic engineering and IT to plumbing and bricklaying. But they have a long way to go before they catch up with the Polish system.

Jan Kosniowski explains: "Polish tradespeople are invariably highly skilled because to this day, anybody who wants to go into a trade must do three years' training with day release and studies at a technical college in Poland.

"The government pays and companies get these workers free of charge. Unfortunately, once they are trained they are not employed because the companies can get a new bunch of trainees free.

"We have very good feedback from employers in this country - they are surprised at how hard Poles work and they do not argue or question what they are asked to do.

"They do not have hang-ups about doing jobs that are beneath them. Hard work is seen as noble. For the last 100 years, anyone who wanted to survive has had to work hard."

As we talk in the office, three men wander in to ask about work. They are well dressed, in designer trainers and ironed jeans; one is 53 and a widower. He arrived two days ago and wants to work as a baker but his English did not extend to explaining how he travelled from home. Another is 33, his English even worse, but he is ready to do anything.

Jan says: "They are not guaranteed to get a job. More than 50 per cent of the people who come to see me go back to Poland very quickly."

Anna is one of those who stayed. She is 28 and has started her own business, a Polish hairdressing salon in Shirley High Street - an idea that came to her after she had difficulty explaining to a British hairdresser what style she wanted.

She is slim, with highlighted hair, and her long nails are decorated with diamante flowers. "Lots of people come because I understand Polish but I have many English customers as well," she says. "I am here with my husband, who is a driver for Michelin Tyres."

The couple are from Ostrowiec in central Poland and have brought about 30 friends with them. "I was here for three months," Anna says, "and I called my friends to tell them how nice it was, then they came and phoned their friends."

Her father is also in Britain, running a small building company in London, and her brother works as a nightclub bouncer.

"We love it here because everyone is so kind and friendly. No one gets cross even though sometimes Polish people are a bit naughty. They drink a bit."
Pavel and Marta are investing in their future here. They arrived in England five years ago from Wroclaw in north-east Poland. They came on holiday but stayed and found jobs.

"We didn't know any English," Marta laughs, "but we learned. I worked in a factory but now I am working in a hotel and we have bought a flat. We wouldn't have been able to buy our own home after five years in Poland. This is where we will stay."

Builder Adam Nikiciuk arrived in Britain in 2000 with nothing. He got a job on a building site and slept on the floor in a derelict house. Now, six years on, aged just 24, he runs his own building firm in London, works "at least 12 hours a day" and is buying a house.

The optimism of these young entrepreneurs is infectious. There is an energy here that has been recognised by many in this city but there are, naturally, those who resent the intrusion.

Chris Carter has worked in the family hardware shop in Shirley since he was a boy and is nervous about voicing his concerns.

He says: "When I am cycling to work in the morning, it is very unusual to hear anyone speaking English. I think it is getting a bit out of hand but if you dare to say so, you lay yourself open to being accused of being a racist. I like the Polish people but it is all too much."

A woman serving in a cake shop bitterly claims her elderly mum had to wait longer for a council flat because the immigrants got preferential housing.

Others mutter that the newcomers are a drain on the state.

I point out that EU migrants have not been housed by Southampton City Council - they are not entitled to this, nor employment benefits or income support - but the critics are unmoved.

Interestingly, according to Jan Kosniowski, the main friction caused by the immigration is between the old and new Polish immigrants: "The old Polish people think the newcomers are drunks and cause trouble.

"Yes, they do drink and are a bit more visible. You see more of it because there are so many of them. Unfortunately, there tends to be an element of stereotyping. I think you will find that Polish people have one thing on their mind and that is to earn as much money as possible."

The pockets of antipathy are not dampening the enthusiasm of the immigrants, nor their supporters.
Dave Adcock, who acts as an advocate for eastern Europeans in Southampton, says: "As a city, we need to wake up to this wonderful opportunity. People I speak to have said: 'Don't they work hard!'

"I think they have brought life to Southampton. There are a lot of young people and they have brought youth to the city."

'The Poles don't want to be beggars'

Barbara Storey, a fiery matriarch at the heart of the Polish community, believes the community is here to stay.

She admits: "Being a foreigner in a foreign land can be hard but we try to explain how everything works. We had a tax surgery to help people to get straight legally.

"The Inland Revenue sent advisers and they couldn't believe it. They had never seen people so keen to pay their taxes. There is a great sense of self-help. The Poles don't want to be beggars."

She adds: "A week ago, I took a taxi and the driver said: 'Look at this town, look at what the Polish people have done to this town!'

"I thought he was criticising but he told me: 'They have brought new life to Southampton - the shops are selling more, places are painted and clean, they are taking taxis and the schools are full of their children.'"

Clearly, many of the Polish immigrants have used their skills to build new lives in this country. But as we will reveal tomorrow, there is a darker side to this story - one of brutal exploitation, greed and betrayal.