It’s hard to reason with knuckle-dragging bigots unfortunately.
I don’t think I ever met a fellow Brit who despised Eastern Europeans. Well, maybe one, but he despised anyone who was not white and not born here.
They were never bad. I work with Poles and Latvians in the early 00s. Great people. Similar values. Some of my best friends 20 years on. Great people. All came for the right reasons.
All that is happened is those 00s opportunities don’t exist. It is miserable out there now. So what we have is people doing the same from further afield, but with the only option of Deliveroo, Uber and JustEat. Or cash in hand nonsense. Or a smaller % crime/fraud.
It’s shit for them and a strain on us. With the cost of living and media shit stirring is it a wonder Reform are gaining ground.
Every eastern European I’ve met has been utterly sound.
As a hard-working Eastern European in the UK, I don’t understand why could anyone ever hate us. We just live and work here without bothering anyone. We come here legally. Most of us speak English. We share similar values. I didn’t even have a culture shock after coming to the UK because we are so similar in many ways.
This is especially true amongst the anti-immigrant crowd, who’ve decided they now like Eastern Europeans but still hate anyone non-white. It’s probably because they heard the stereotype of them all being racist and decided that’s a good thing.
Don’t believe me? Search for the last time Nigel Farage has complained about Eastern Europeans. Apart from maybe Albanians, you won’t find anything recent.
I remember early 2000s were tough, no one was hiring and I joined lots of job agencies for any unskilled labor.
I would get called up and told to get somewhere the next day because they wanted people for 2 days etc. I worked a lot with polish and Hungarians, I resented them because I thought if they weren’t here then I could get a full time job.
Then I spent time talking with the ones who spoke English. They came over to work and send money back home because it was even worse for work in Eastern Europe. A few of them shared beds with people. They worked shifts and when one was sleeping after night shift, another would be working etc.
I realised after talking to them just how exploited they were. Luckily lots of warehouses and sawmills took them on full time and gave them a full wage. (the agencies took money for rent before paying them which was extortionate before you even think about sharing beds). I saw people break down crying when they realised a few friends could rent a house together and send so much more money back home.
I think a lot of hatred is based in having zero understanding like I had
This is how it’s been for hundreds of years.
The English hated the Scottish, now they don’t.
The British hated the French, now they don’t (kind of).
The British hated the Irish, now they don’t.
The British hated the Jews, now they don’t.
The British hated the Germans, now they don’t.
The British hated the Eastern Europeans, now they don’t.
The British hated Black people, now they don’t.
The British hate Muslims, what do we think is going to happen in 20-40 years based on previous results?
This is how it’s always been. People hate a subset of people and then, after a while, realise that they were overreacting.
Poles are the hardest working people I’ve worked with. Romanians worked less hard but showed up at least!
poles were always fine. No one cared about the polish apart from the bnp. i worked on building sites maybe im bias but the poles are awesome and poland is an awesome beautiful country
Some people will always need targets for their hate and to blame them for what ever issues the country is having, once Brexit happened and the eastern europeans were no longer a good enough threat, they have moved on to people crossing the channel in boats. If they were stop tomorrow, another group would just become their target
The gutter press tried to stoke up hatred against the Poles when they joined the EU.
And then the Poles turned up and were not only highly skilled, but they were grafters. And people went “my Polish builder/plumber/electrician turned up on time and did a great job and left the place spotless” and some people realised the tabloids were talking shit again.
For what it’s worth, the Poles had made huge inroads into the German Enigma cyphers which they turned over to us at the start of the war, and in fact many Poles worked at Bletchley Park.
When we were in the EU and racist sentiments were emerging disguised as genuine nationalism, Eastern Europeans were painted as the threat.
Well, we’ve left the EU and now Muslims are the threat. If we banned every Muslim in the UK, the narrative would switch to all South Asian, Nigerians and other East Africans, then Southeast Asians.
If you picked off every foreign and non-European race and nationality, people would honestly switch to hating the Spanish, Portuguese, Greeks and Italians.
Similar to the transition from hating Eastern Europeans to Muslims, America had a similar shift from Italians (particularly Sicilians) and natives to black people.
They were always good. Like Mexicans in America they worked like demons to earn money to have a better life. Their “crime” was to make people realize how lazy the local workforce really was!
I love the jam roles, and Romanians I’ve worked with are great people, always have very funny personalities and are always on job. Got a lot of Ukrainians living around my area now since the war, and to be honest despite their English being quite minimal, they’re respectful, polite and are obviously willing to learn English. Never was too opinionated on Eastern Europeans, had a few bad experiences with em, but a few bad apples etc, 95% of the ones I’ve met are solid.
I mean a huge amount of prostitution, drugs, etc are run by Eastern Europeans in London. Albanians pretty much took over the Cocaine game here. There are thieving gangs run by Romanians that work all over the UK, gypsies who pickpocket on the tube, begging gangs, Bulgarian gangs defrauding the benefits system of hundreds of millions of pounds, etc
Of course there are lots of nice Eastern Europeans who contribute to our country but you are absolutely delusional and sticking your head in the sand if you think they haven’t brought problems as well.
I mean I know this thread is going to be full of self loathing British people talking about how we’re all shit and everyone else is brilliant but that’s not really the reality.
What I will say is a lot of it for me mostly in the late 00’s was that the men in particular were very young and were jerks as young people can be, getting drunk being quite toxic around women but then mellowed over the years, lived in a few areas around Britain and it was always the same but even the younger ones now are in their mid 30’s and settled down and friendly.
Comparison is the thief of joy
But it can also lead us to waking up to the new normal
It was never about them. Ever
You’re welcome to come over. We got a ton of job vacancies in our part of Europe.
Well, we used to abuse cheap Eastern european labour, and now we abuse young indian students. Lure them in with tuition substadies on the requirment they take low skilled labour jobs part time.
I’ve been never hated anyone from Europe and I was born into post war Britain. Now ask me about Farage and Reformers, that’s a different matter.
it really depends on what easterner we’re talking about a lot of the slavs are alright, Bulgarians can be so so, Hungarians are great (most of them), the polish are just great for many reasons.
Albanians tho…
We got so tired of people who work hard, have shared cultural values and assimilate well coming here that we decided to stop them and let in people who don’t respect our values, create isolated hostile communities and often resort to criminality instead. Bravo.
Blame the Murdoch press, always finding some group to scream at.
I live in a small coastal town nobody disliked any polish or Latvians it was the men from Kosovo who hung around in gangs and harassed the local women that’s what people in my area had a problem with
I don’t think Britain hated any Hard working people, Eastern European or not. Don’t get your point
Is this actually a thing? I’ve never met someone who badmouthed Eastern Europeans. Even among Brexit types, there seemed to be a respect for their work ethic.
I’m sure there were some who did, but the number who did and then are now changing their mind must be infinitesimally small.
I was one and will admit it. The seemed very Russian when they came. Too focused at work, too cut throat, never having a laugh, accepting poor wages. They’ve integrated well and even the newcomers too. They laugh and joke and get the pace of British life. Most are settled now too which helps with some issues above
Any British person whose ever worked with an Eastern European loves, appreciates, adores and misses them.
In my lifetime the remarks started with the Indians/Pakistanis, then the Poles, then the Romanians, and now it’s the Middle Easterns.
I’ve never had any issues with any person from one of these groups.
I understand opposition to inter–EU immigration, but I’ve never understood opposition to intra-EU migration considering we share a political system, standards, and broad values.
Eastern Europeans, the windrush blacks and the idi amen Indians have all been a benefit to this country because of similar values and work ethic. There is a class of Pakistan hillbillies that we have also imported which hasn’t worked out because they don’t share the values etc.
Racists always dislike the new immigrants, 50 years ago it was the Irish getting it, then the poles now it’s Muslim immigrants
The bigotry doesn’t change just the target
It’s funny how many other countries in the world could be openly discriminatory, but it’s always the British getting dragged for being racist. My grandparents were invited to the UK after WWII to help rebuild the country, and I’m thankful for how much the British bent over backward for immigrants. But let’s be real— place’s like London doesn’t feel very English any more. Walking down the street and barely hearing English spoken is frustrating, and it’s hard not to notice the drop in community standards.
Low-skilled workers don’t necessarily boost quality of life—more competition means less value for individual workers. The bigger the population, the tougher it gets to maintain stability. That’s why countries like India and China struggle with poverty, while smaller, well-managed places like Switzerland and Sweden thrive. Population and balance matter, and ignoring that is a mistake.
1980s & 1990’s London was much, much better. It’s gone downhill.
No one hated them, they disliked their wages being undercut and the pressures being placed on the NHS, public services and infrastructure and the demands on housing and the fact that the majority were low skilled and taking out more than they were putting in, there was no perceivable benefit to the average British worker and still isn’t. Mass uncontrolled immigration is unacceptable, no need for it at all and shouldn’t be used to prop up a dysfunctional zombie economy.
>Hard working eastern europeans looks not that bad now..
Stay in school kids
I never understood the racists. Even in racist terms, surely having white European Christian immigrants was better than having brown, Asian, Muslim immigrants? So why were the racists so in favour of Brexit? None of it makes sense to me. But then again, maybe racists don’t have much logic.
First of all, you shouldn’t hate at all, as it is rather impractical and it only beclouds reason. Secondly, all of what you do, no matter how justified, it is still just a part of bigger picture out there. Maybe we all are missing the point.
Because they assimilated or went home. Simple.
Who is even talking about eastern europeans?
Can’t we all just agree to blame the Romanians?
Eastern Europeans have pretty much the same values as Brits, why wouldn’t we accept them.
They are willing to join in and abide by British laws. No problem.
I grew up with a lot of Eastern Europeans and a lot of Muslims. I never had a problem with either.
Now that I’m older, I only have a problem with Muslims.
The death of Salwan Momika and how I saw hundreds of British Muslims react to his death (celebrating it!!) has really affected my worldview, and has made me think back to the many moments in my life.
For example, I have a larger Roman nose. I remember my Muslim friends joking about with me when we were all around 12 years old. They would say things like “Jew! Kill him!!” and then pretend to beat me up. At the time, it was hilarious. Now I just wonder where the Hell they learnt to hate Jews at such a young age.
Another example is when, after the Charlie Hebdo shooting, my friend ripped up a memorial and stamped on it, calling it fake.
I also saw a recent meme:
“What’s the difference?
Sweden: 236 bombings since 2019. 78 rapes per 100,000 people
Hungary: 0 bombings. 3.9 rapes per 100,000 people
Poland: 0 bombings. 3 rapes per 100,000 people.”
I do have to wonder why nobody seemed to give a fuck about rape gangs when the Tories were in power. But I see no other choice but to vote Reform in the next election. I HATE Farage for Brexit… but at least he kept his word on that. The Tories and Labour have shown time and time again that they do not care about stopping migration and so I will only be voting for a party that makes it their number one priority.
From my personal experience, as a Pole who worked in the IT industry in the Netherlands prior to moving to the UK, the Netherlands of the late 2000s was far worse than Britain in its unbridled and unashamed prejudice ranging from bullying at work to people expressing casual disdain in social situations, especially outside of the Amsterdam bubble. Nothing of the sort ever happened to me in the UK, and I never looked back – but I appreciate others haven’t had such an experience.
(Perhaps it has since improved in the Netherlands as well.)
They found a new group to hate. Not so long ago Irish people weren’t considered white. We aren’t far from the days where some Arabs and North Africans will be considered white. Polish manual labourers are some of the nicest, hardest working people you’ll meet. In ten years maybe they’ll say the same thing about Syrian migrants.
Given EU citizens contributed, on average, 2000 pounds per year more to the exchequer than the average British, yes they were treated too harshly.
47 comments
Maybe leaving the EU wasn’t such a great idea.
It’s hard to reason with knuckle-dragging bigots unfortunately.
I don’t think I ever met a fellow Brit who despised Eastern Europeans. Well, maybe one, but he despised anyone who was not white and not born here.
They were never bad. I work with Poles and Latvians in the early 00s. Great people. Similar values. Some of my best friends 20 years on. Great people. All came for the right reasons.
All that is happened is those 00s opportunities don’t exist. It is miserable out there now. So what we have is people doing the same from further afield, but with the only option of Deliveroo, Uber and JustEat. Or cash in hand nonsense. Or a smaller % crime/fraud.
It’s shit for them and a strain on us. With the cost of living and media shit stirring is it a wonder Reform are gaining ground.
Every eastern European I’ve met has been utterly sound.
As a hard-working Eastern European in the UK, I don’t understand why could anyone ever hate us. We just live and work here without bothering anyone. We come here legally. Most of us speak English. We share similar values. I didn’t even have a culture shock after coming to the UK because we are so similar in many ways.
This is especially true amongst the anti-immigrant crowd, who’ve decided they now like Eastern Europeans but still hate anyone non-white. It’s probably because they heard the stereotype of them all being racist and decided that’s a good thing.
Don’t believe me? Search for the last time Nigel Farage has complained about Eastern Europeans. Apart from maybe Albanians, you won’t find anything recent.
I remember early 2000s were tough, no one was hiring and I joined lots of job agencies for any unskilled labor.
I would get called up and told to get somewhere the next day because they wanted people for 2 days etc. I worked a lot with polish and Hungarians, I resented them because I thought if they weren’t here then I could get a full time job.
Then I spent time talking with the ones who spoke English. They came over to work and send money back home because it was even worse for work in Eastern Europe. A few of them shared beds with people. They worked shifts and when one was sleeping after night shift, another would be working etc.
I realised after talking to them just how exploited they were. Luckily lots of warehouses and sawmills took them on full time and gave them a full wage. (the agencies took money for rent before paying them which was extortionate before you even think about sharing beds). I saw people break down crying when they realised a few friends could rent a house together and send so much more money back home.
I think a lot of hatred is based in having zero understanding like I had
This is how it’s been for hundreds of years.
The English hated the Scottish, now they don’t.
The British hated the French, now they don’t (kind of).
The British hated the Irish, now they don’t.
The British hated the Jews, now they don’t.
The British hated the Germans, now they don’t.
The British hated the Eastern Europeans, now they don’t.
The British hated Black people, now they don’t.
The British hate Muslims, what do we think is going to happen in 20-40 years based on previous results?
This is how it’s always been. People hate a subset of people and then, after a while, realise that they were overreacting.
Poles are the hardest working people I’ve worked with. Romanians worked less hard but showed up at least!
poles were always fine. No one cared about the polish apart from the bnp. i worked on building sites maybe im bias but the poles are awesome and poland is an awesome beautiful country
Some people will always need targets for their hate and to blame them for what ever issues the country is having, once Brexit happened and the eastern europeans were no longer a good enough threat, they have moved on to people crossing the channel in boats. If they were stop tomorrow, another group would just become their target
The gutter press tried to stoke up hatred against the Poles when they joined the EU.
And then the Poles turned up and were not only highly skilled, but they were grafters. And people went “my Polish builder/plumber/electrician turned up on time and did a great job and left the place spotless” and some people realised the tabloids were talking shit again.
For what it’s worth, the Poles had made huge inroads into the German Enigma cyphers which they turned over to us at the start of the war, and in fact many Poles worked at Bletchley Park.
And also, many of British “lest we forget” war fetishists don’t actually know that the Poles [essentially won the Battle of Britain](https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-polish-pilots-who-flew-in-the-battle-of-britain) for us.
Well, it’s about the media narrative.
When we were in the EU and racist sentiments were emerging disguised as genuine nationalism, Eastern Europeans were painted as the threat.
Well, we’ve left the EU and now Muslims are the threat. If we banned every Muslim in the UK, the narrative would switch to all South Asian, Nigerians and other East Africans, then Southeast Asians.
If you picked off every foreign and non-European race and nationality, people would honestly switch to hating the Spanish, Portuguese, Greeks and Italians.
Similar to the transition from hating Eastern Europeans to Muslims, America had a similar shift from Italians (particularly Sicilians) and natives to black people.
They were always good. Like Mexicans in America they worked like demons to earn money to have a better life. Their “crime” was to make people realize how lazy the local workforce really was!
I love the jam roles, and Romanians I’ve worked with are great people, always have very funny personalities and are always on job. Got a lot of Ukrainians living around my area now since the war, and to be honest despite their English being quite minimal, they’re respectful, polite and are obviously willing to learn English. Never was too opinionated on Eastern Europeans, had a few bad experiences with em, but a few bad apples etc, 95% of the ones I’ve met are solid.
I mean a huge amount of prostitution, drugs, etc are run by Eastern Europeans in London. Albanians pretty much took over the Cocaine game here. There are thieving gangs run by Romanians that work all over the UK, gypsies who pickpocket on the tube, begging gangs, Bulgarian gangs defrauding the benefits system of hundreds of millions of pounds, etc
Of course there are lots of nice Eastern Europeans who contribute to our country but you are absolutely delusional and sticking your head in the sand if you think they haven’t brought problems as well.
I mean I know this thread is going to be full of self loathing British people talking about how we’re all shit and everyone else is brilliant but that’s not really the reality.
What I will say is a lot of it for me mostly in the late 00’s was that the men in particular were very young and were jerks as young people can be, getting drunk being quite toxic around women but then mellowed over the years, lived in a few areas around Britain and it was always the same but even the younger ones now are in their mid 30’s and settled down and friendly.
Comparison is the thief of joy
But it can also lead us to waking up to the new normal
It was never about them. Ever
You’re welcome to come over. We got a ton of job vacancies in our part of Europe.
Well, we used to abuse cheap Eastern european labour, and now we abuse young indian students. Lure them in with tuition substadies on the requirment they take low skilled labour jobs part time.
I’ve been never hated anyone from Europe and I was born into post war Britain. Now ask me about Farage and Reformers, that’s a different matter.
it really depends on what easterner we’re talking about a lot of the slavs are alright, Bulgarians can be so so, Hungarians are great (most of them), the polish are just great for many reasons.
Albanians tho…
We got so tired of people who work hard, have shared cultural values and assimilate well coming here that we decided to stop them and let in people who don’t respect our values, create isolated hostile communities and often resort to criminality instead. Bravo.
Blame the Murdoch press, always finding some group to scream at.
I live in a small coastal town nobody disliked any polish or Latvians it was the men from Kosovo who hung around in gangs and harassed the local women that’s what people in my area had a problem with
I don’t think Britain hated any Hard working people, Eastern European or not. Don’t get your point
Is this actually a thing? I’ve never met someone who badmouthed Eastern Europeans. Even among Brexit types, there seemed to be a respect for their work ethic.
I’m sure there were some who did, but the number who did and then are now changing their mind must be infinitesimally small.
I was one and will admit it. The seemed very Russian when they came. Too focused at work, too cut throat, never having a laugh, accepting poor wages. They’ve integrated well and even the newcomers too. They laugh and joke and get the pace of British life. Most are settled now too which helps with some issues above
Any British person whose ever worked with an Eastern European loves, appreciates, adores and misses them.
In my lifetime the remarks started with the Indians/Pakistanis, then the Poles, then the Romanians, and now it’s the Middle Easterns.
I’ve never had any issues with any person from one of these groups.
I understand opposition to inter–EU immigration, but I’ve never understood opposition to intra-EU migration considering we share a political system, standards, and broad values.
Eastern Europeans, the windrush blacks and the idi amen Indians have all been a benefit to this country because of similar values and work ethic. There is a class of Pakistan hillbillies that we have also imported which hasn’t worked out because they don’t share the values etc.
Racists always dislike the new immigrants, 50 years ago it was the Irish getting it, then the poles now it’s Muslim immigrants
The bigotry doesn’t change just the target
It’s funny how many other countries in the world could be openly discriminatory, but it’s always the British getting dragged for being racist. My grandparents were invited to the UK after WWII to help rebuild the country, and I’m thankful for how much the British bent over backward for immigrants. But let’s be real— place’s like London doesn’t feel very English any more. Walking down the street and barely hearing English spoken is frustrating, and it’s hard not to notice the drop in community standards.
Low-skilled workers don’t necessarily boost quality of life—more competition means less value for individual workers. The bigger the population, the tougher it gets to maintain stability. That’s why countries like India and China struggle with poverty, while smaller, well-managed places like Switzerland and Sweden thrive. Population and balance matter, and ignoring that is a mistake.
1980s & 1990’s London was much, much better. It’s gone downhill.
No one hated them, they disliked their wages being undercut and the pressures being placed on the NHS, public services and infrastructure and the demands on housing and the fact that the majority were low skilled and taking out more than they were putting in, there was no perceivable benefit to the average British worker and still isn’t. Mass uncontrolled immigration is unacceptable, no need for it at all and shouldn’t be used to prop up a dysfunctional zombie economy.
>Hard working eastern europeans looks not that bad now..
Stay in school kids
I never understood the racists. Even in racist terms, surely having white European Christian immigrants was better than having brown, Asian, Muslim immigrants? So why were the racists so in favour of Brexit? None of it makes sense to me. But then again, maybe racists don’t have much logic.
First of all, you shouldn’t hate at all, as it is rather impractical and it only beclouds reason. Secondly, all of what you do, no matter how justified, it is still just a part of bigger picture out there. Maybe we all are missing the point.
Because they assimilated or went home. Simple.
Who is even talking about eastern europeans?
Can’t we all just agree to blame the Romanians?
Eastern Europeans have pretty much the same values as Brits, why wouldn’t we accept them.
They are willing to join in and abide by British laws. No problem.
I grew up with a lot of Eastern Europeans and a lot of Muslims. I never had a problem with either.
Now that I’m older, I only have a problem with Muslims.
The death of Salwan Momika and how I saw hundreds of British Muslims react to his death (celebrating it!!) has really affected my worldview, and has made me think back to the many moments in my life.
For example, I have a larger Roman nose. I remember my Muslim friends joking about with me when we were all around 12 years old. They would say things like “Jew! Kill him!!” and then pretend to beat me up. At the time, it was hilarious. Now I just wonder where the Hell they learnt to hate Jews at such a young age.
Another example is when, after the Charlie Hebdo shooting, my friend ripped up a memorial and stamped on it, calling it fake.
I also saw a recent meme:
“What’s the difference?
Sweden: 236 bombings since 2019. 78 rapes per 100,000 people
Hungary: 0 bombings. 3.9 rapes per 100,000 people
Poland: 0 bombings. 3 rapes per 100,000 people.”
I do have to wonder why nobody seemed to give a fuck about rape gangs when the Tories were in power. But I see no other choice but to vote Reform in the next election. I HATE Farage for Brexit… but at least he kept his word on that. The Tories and Labour have shown time and time again that they do not care about stopping migration and so I will only be voting for a party that makes it their number one priority.
From my personal experience, as a Pole who worked in the IT industry in the Netherlands prior to moving to the UK, the Netherlands of the late 2000s was far worse than Britain in its unbridled and unashamed prejudice ranging from bullying at work to people expressing casual disdain in social situations, especially outside of the Amsterdam bubble. Nothing of the sort ever happened to me in the UK, and I never looked back – but I appreciate others haven’t had such an experience.
(Perhaps it has since improved in the Netherlands as well.)
They found a new group to hate. Not so long ago Irish people weren’t considered white. We aren’t far from the days where some Arabs and North Africans will be considered white. Polish manual labourers are some of the nicest, hardest working people you’ll meet. In ten years maybe they’ll say the same thing about Syrian migrants.
Given EU citizens contributed, on average, 2000 pounds per year more to the exchequer than the average British, yes they were treated too harshly.
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