Just stumbled upon an interesting article on the prevalent attitude of Norwegians towards Polish immigrants. One of the most disturbing things I learned is that many Norwegians use the term ‘polakk’ as a slur. What is your opinion on the concerns of the author? Are these well-grounded or sound like false alarm?
Full article is available only in Polish here but Google Translate/DeepL should do the trick:
[https://krytykapolityczna.pl/kultura/czytaj-dalej/ewa-sapiezynska-w-norwegii-polakk-to-obelga/?utm\_medium=Social&utm\_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3\_l8YCphS\_21w6BezfQTj8XM6S–VB1O2mwHBx63kl8o1Poj5GUa3oftE#Echobox=1682752926](https://krytykapolityczna.pl/kultura/czytaj-dalej/ewa-sapiezynska-w-norwegii-polakk-to-obelga/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3_l8YCphS_21w6BezfQTj8XM6S–VB1O2mwHBx63kl8o1Poj5GUa3oftE#Echobox=1682752926)
The word polakk (Pole) encompasses much more than the fact of being from Poland. “Poles” are often referred to in Norway as all workers from Eastern Europe, foreigners who take lower-paid jobs, or those who “steal our jobs.” In Norwegian, there are terms like polakkjobber (Polish professions, i.e. bricklayer, carpenter, etc.) or polske arbeidstimer (Polish working hours, i.e. long days). On buses and streetcars I sometimes hear people pronounce polakk with contempt. Also in the media and in public debate, the word often has a negative connotation. It makes me uncomfortable every time I hear polakk (sounding almost the same in my language, after all), but used in the sense of “underclass,” “exploited,” “inferior,” “unwanted.”
How did this happen? In 2005, a year after Poland joined the European Union, there were 8,000 Poles registered in Norway. A year later there were almost 11,000 of us, and in 2007 there were more than 17,000. In 2008 the 30,000 Poles living in Norway became the largest minority, beating out Pakistanis and Swedes. A 2007 study shows that Polish migrants ended up primarily in either the construction or cleaning industries, characterized by uncertainty and temporariness, and their opportunities for advancement or finding other employment were slim. The media outdid themselves in explaining to the Norwegian public where all these Poles suddenly came from and what their place in the labor market was, thus actively contributing to this rather than other attitudes toward this group.
One spring morning in 2006, two years after the enlargement of the EU structures, I read in one of the most prestigious newspapers, “Aftenposten,” that “Poles are stifling wage growth.”
Provoked, I wrote a comment at the time:
“Since the enlargement of the European Union, it is indeed the case that the largest group of labor migrants to Norway has come from Poland. There is also no doubt that the Norwegian private sector profits enormously from access to a non-unionized workforce with no exorbitant salary expectations. What is wrong, then, with the April 7 title from Aftenposten, “Poles stifle wage growth”?
Referring to all lower-paid foreigners as “polakker” not only tendentiously simplifies reality, but also bears the hallmarks of racism. “Aftenposten” makes representatives of an entire nation synonymous with workers who stand on the lowest rung of the Norwegian social ladder, and at the same time blames them for “throttling” wage growth. The tabloid vocabulary used in the article makes a particular nationality begin to be negatively associated. I’m guessing that “Aftenposten” didn’t want to contribute to the development of a situation in which I, as a Polish woman, hesitate to say where I’m from, but that’s unfortunately the case – Polishness is well on its way to becoming a slur in certain contexts.”
Twelve years later, the Fafo research foundation organized a seminar titled “Is Polakk a slur?”, which was met with many negative reactions. Many people thought the title was stigmatizing, but the question is as valid as ever. The seminar’s speaker, Linda Marie Dyrlid of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim (NTNU), presented an analysis of the image of Poles in the Norwegian media between 2008 and 2011. Three media frames dominated: Poles as “victims,” “the hardworking one” and “outsiders.” “The basis of all three constructs is the assumption that ethnicity or nationality makes a decisive difference in terms of both characteristics and rights,” Dyrlid concluded
But neither she nor any of the seminar guests answered the question posed in the title.
Instead, I found the answer in a list of the most popular insults used in Norwegian schools. Based on responses from fifty middle and high schools collected by the Norwegian news agency NTB in 2019, “homo” and “slut” topped the list. “Polakk” was ranked slightly lower, in the company of “Jew,” “nigger,” “chiapat” and “potato.”
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EDIT: minor spelling corrections
20 comments
Wasn’t even aware Polakk was a slur..
What other word would one use to identify that someone is polish?
Thought it was the equivalent of saying “Nordmann” when referring to Norwegians.
What is the term/word in the Polish language to describe someone from Poland?
We (norwegians) use the word “polakk” (single) or “polakker” (plural) about polish people, we have no other word for people from Poland. Its like we use “svensker” (swedes), “dansker” (danes), “tyskere” (germans) and “litauere” (lithuanians). I have not been aware that polish people take this as an insult until I saw it here on reditt. I’ve played volleyball with polish teammmates in the 80-ies and the 90-ies, I’ve worked with polish engineering colleagues in the 2000’s and has now had a polish couple with kids as neighbours for the last 8 years. I’ve never heard any of them mention this as a problem. Maybe it is something they dont want to talk about.
I thought Polakk only is a slur in America. Here it just means polish person really.
I work and are friends with a lot of polish people, and I’ve never heard them ever saying Polakk is a negative thing. And I’ve never heard Polakk being used for other eastern Europeans either.
What kids use as slurs these days I have no idea about. What’s a chiapat??
But I’ve never heard polakk being used as a slur amongst the adults I’ve been around. But if it’s on the list of popular slurs, then it’s probably true and I’m just not up to date on all the bad words floating around.
At one point it was a slur, now i think most people just use it to mean someone from Poland. I think the main issue is simply the language barrier, very few eastern europeans speak either english or norwegian(at least in construction and mechanical jobs). Thus any communication is bound to be frustrating.
Another issue which i dont know is actually true used to be a belief that a pole could get a “mail order” trade school certificate.
Personally i consider Poles to be fine and hardworking, language barrier is also improving.
You are humans like everyone else.
Ukraine war has also markedly improved my respect for most of eastern europe, including Poland. I hope this ends up with a stronger east who is mutually respected and included as europeans.
I like usually like poles but this post sucks. This is so perfectly designed to sow division that it could just as well be a Russian troll factory post ffs. I like poles because of my interactions with them, and only speak positive about poles but I also call poles for polakk in Norwegian. Should I call poles something else now? I personally think “Polsk” sounds better than “Polakk”, do poles like it better if I use that maybe? I also like potatoes and the other things referred to on the list of words accompanying “polakk”(edit: except I have no idea what “chiapat” is). I’m kind of tired of changing out words and being mad about the old ones, but it’s up to you. Why don’t you take a “jew” (like how we would express “do like them” and just stick with it. Maybe not polakk (since it kind of sounds like an anatomical condition or something, I don’t want to be diplomatic) but at least the next one.
The word Polakk in itself has little to no negative associations these days. It is true that back in the 80s or 90s when the poles started coming here for work it was used partly to describe polish tradesmen that worked in manual labor for little pay but IMHO this is not really the case anymore – the poles have been here long enough to be well integrated into society for the most part. I’ll copy in the answer that I gave to another Polish person in r/Oslo a few days ago:
“Norwegian here – the general consensus is that the poles in Norway are well integrated, hardworking people. You are the second biggest immigrant group after the swedes and it shows. Poles are well liked. There is a large polish community in Oslo, there is even a large polish church in the middle of the city.The one thing that poles bring that is not popular is racism and anti-LGBTQ sentiments. Polish people in general are much more racist and anti-gay than Norwegians and you need to be aware that this is frowned upon. Poland (not the polish) is seen as a very backwards country when it comes to gay rights (and racism), almost at the level of Hungary. Not saying that you are any of these, but that is the image that your goverment is projecting at the moment.”
Polakk is not a slur in Norwegian. If you wantef to use it as a slur, you’d add “jævla” as a prefix. Without this or some other similar, negative, prefix it just means “p person from Poland”. Just like brite, italiener, tysker, russer, greker and so on.
I’m in my forties with no kids, so I can’t keep up with what kids are up to.
I have worked in construction for many years, and i have experienced most of what you describe here.
I can’t talk for the younger cohort, but i have not heard about “polakk” used specifically as a slur. But terms like “polakk arbeid” are widely used for things like hard, dirty, mundane work.
It is also sometimes used for if you need to hire some cheap people temporarily to do some work, it is normal to say you need “some Polakker to get it done”. But i would hardly consider that derogatory.
As for the pressure on salaries in certain professions, is not completely without merit. There are not only Poles that move to Norway, but many that live in Poland in the weekends, and travel to Norway on the week days, so i don’t know how they fit in the statistics. But they dominate construction sites to the degree that most will shut down at lunch on Fridays, since the poles need time to drive home to Poland, and spend Friday evening there. And with this amount of people, who have the possibility to work for less due to less expenses at home, there will be some downwards pressure on salaries.
Most of the derogatory attitudes i have seen towards Poles, comes from upper class people, or construction company leadership, some of who will talk about them in very derogatory ways.
But for us who work side by side with them, i see most admiration for their work ethic, and see them as all round good dudes.
The bottom line is, you’ll find people like this everywhere. I’d say it’s characteristic of people of a certain age and social standing. They’re the same sort of oddballs who insist on using terms like “neger” about black people or “japse” about Japanese/East Asians because they “don’t mean anything by it”. Because it was common at some point, they feel entitled to do as they’ve always done. And Polish people were the first to come in huge numbers when borders opened.
The main point is that it’s not a common thing anymore. It spread quickly when a relatively big number of Poles started appearing in the country at the time you mentioned. I had never met a single foreigner in Norway until suddenly in middle school, we had three Polish girls in our class. I was young enough then to get some positive exposure. On the news, however, I vividly remember all the bad press about newly arrived immigrants. My dad’s trailer was stolen 4 times, only to resurface in Poland or on its way to Poland (hitched to a Polish vehicle) every single time. My point being, a lot of us had very little exposure to anything foreign, and what little there was, was decidedly negative at the time.
As for kids…. Yeah, I don’t know. I’ve caught my nephew saying “homo” to his friends because it’s “cool.” Meanwhile I’m gay myself and in a relationship and my nephew has only ever showed love toward me and my partner. The older I get, the more I turn into one of those old people who just don’t get kids. Hah…
It’s misfortunelately partly still a slur for a (construction) worker that are willing to do a job for less pay and maybe not always legal work.
We also seen our share of criminals mocking the punishment in Norway compared to Poland. An unusual rate of east-europeans (often mislabelled as «Polakker» regarless of nationality) are in Norwegian prisons.
But most Norwegians acknowledge Polish immigrants as honest and hard working. They do differ from Norwegians by often being religious, honest and not picky on labour. Hence why Polish workers that can communicate well are highly regarded by recruiters
I have during my 50ish years, never learned another word to describe people from Poland.
Svensker – folk fra Sverige
Dansker – folk fra Danmark
Polakker – folk fra Polen.
I don’t think there is another word in norwegian for people from Poland. It’s not meant as a slur.
As someone else said, this post looks very like.. meant to create a divide. I’m not gonna tell you what offends you or not though and if there is a word for it, i’ll adapt.
I’ve had polish colleagues referring to other polish colleagues as polakk/polakker as well, but as someone else said, maybe they do it out of convenience for us and don’t really like it. I don’t know.
This us like the fourth post ive seen wondering about our use of the word polakk in like a couple months
Yes and no, yes we use the word polakk however it is not the slur that is used in english, it is like others have pointed out simply the Norwegian name for someone from Polen
I think that being called a white man is negative .. and i actually think being called a human is violating me, the word human is very negative .. almost as much as being called a white man.
I think we need a new word for white man, so we can start filling that word with negativity
I remember well that there was a lot of derogatory talk about polish people in the mid 2000s and several years after in Norway. Especially among more working class people and in the trades.
During the mid 2010s and beyond I just don’t encounter it as much. Is it gone? No, some Norwegians still have a need to cling to some sense of superiority. But most have to much contact with Poles, Lithuanians, and other people from Eastern Europe to harbour that kind of sentiment.
Naah, you need to put “jævla” in front. Same as with any other nationality, if you want to make something negative out of it. Other than that, “polakk” just mean polish person.
Polakkarbeid is the never version of Negerarbeid, which is just low paid, hard work that you don’t want to do. Preferably paid in cash, no taxes, so illegal as well.
This was of course because this was the type of jobs the first Polish immigrants to Norway got back in they day.
Unlike some other immigrant groups, it Poles have improved their reputation over time. Back in the 1980s Poland and Sovjet Union was pretty much the same thing, seen from Norway.
Kids in my elementary school would frequently make fun of Polish people by referring to stereotypes such as drinking vodka and being carpenters in Norway, and they would indeed use “polakk” as a slur against Polish classmates.
They would also harass Eastern European construction workers whenever renovation was being done on the school by shouting “POLAKKER! POLAKKER!” with weird accents at them.
This was, as said, in elementary school, and I have not experienced anything like this later in life. My Polish family and I both use the Norwegian word “polakk” to refer to Polish people, and I think the word is unproblematic, although I do think the word can sound like it bears some negative connotations or prejudice in certain contexts.
Honestly most of what i hear about polish people is positive. Super hard working and conscientious, often a bit unfashionable politically but always down to earth and straight up whenever you talk to them about something. Also hear a lot of people admire them for their aversion to being welfare-recipients. There’s the «har har, cheap labour»-jokes, but I’ve never heard anyone shit on their skills.