A Preference for Poles

At the Social Affairs Unit website, Dalrymple explains his support for the ubiquity of young Eastern European labor in the UK:
…if I were running a small business in a service industry, and knew only of two young applicants for a job that one was British and that the other was Polish, I would prefer the Pole. There is a better chance that he or she will turn out personable and obliging.
Of course, the main blame for this painful situation must lie not so much with the younger generation of Britons as with my own generation. Children do not, after all, spoil themselves.
H/t Clare.

19 thoughts on “A Preference for Poles

  1. Marie

    I feel the same way about doctors, particularly psychiatrists. If I had the choice I’d choose the Polish physician over the British physician every time.

    Reply
  2. Mike

    I share Dr Dalrymple’s disdain for the behaviour of large numbers of Britain’s youth, but I don’t share his enthusiasm for the merits of Polish workers in the UK. My own experience with Polish workers is quite different from Dr Dalrymple’s, although I concede that it is probable that Dr Dalrymple’s experience is more widespread than mine and that his views should therefore be accorded more weight than my own.

    As far as I can tell, the behaviour of young East Europeans is indistinguishable from young Britons. In city centres at night they behave in just as boorish a manner and vomit just as copiously in the streets. The East Europeans working in shops seem just as surly to me as the average British youth. There’s an assumption that all Polish people are fantastic workers, but my own (admittedly limited) experience is quite different. The worst employee I ever worked with was Polish, and he lasted (mercifully) only 2 weeks.

    Moreover, I would contend that the attitude of East Europeans is worse than Britons in at least one respect: my (non-white) girlfriend has very rarely suffered racist abuse from British people, but has been taunted on numerous occasions by young Poles. That is not to say that there are no racists in Britain, of course, and neither is it true to say that the majority of Poles are racist; but if my girlfriend’s experience is anything to go by, British people’s attitudes are more enlightened.

    Even if what Dr Dalrymple says is true, I’m not sure how much this tells us about the relative merits of Polish society and our own. The young Poles who work over here are not likely to be representative of the general population. Those who make the effort to travel to a foreign land in search of work are perhaps more likely to possess a greater work ethic than those who choose to stay in Poland. If the tables were turned, and British people were leaving the country to search for work in Poland (and there would be such people; not all young Britons are lazy and feckless), no doubt people in Poland would be remarking favourably on the British youngsters’ attitude to work. It might be true that young Poles have greater depth of character than their British counterparts, but this isn’t obviously so, and the behaviour of those young Poles who seek work in the UK doesn’t provide sufficient evidence to draw such a conclusion.

    Reply
  3. Jay C

    There was a psychiatrist who I believe was Polish, Stefan Janiecowitz, who prescribed for drug addicts in North West of England until a few years ago.
    He was said to be far more sympathetic and sensitive than the British doctors in the area since Dr. John Marks (who some of us knew as Dr Diconal) stopped practicing in the mid 1990s.

    Reply

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