LONDON: Jan Mokrzycki sits in his office in west London, reaches for a cigarette and reflects on 17 hectic months. Ever since his native Poland joined the European Union on May 1 last year, Mokrzycki, president of the Federation of Poles in Great Britain, has been deluged with problems.

Other people’s problems.

Poles come to him complaining about their treatment at the hands of unscrupulous employers. They call him to denounce the avarice of London recruitment agencies. They ask him to help in their legal battles with the British government.

“We’ve been very much busier since last year,” Mokrzycki says wearily. “We’re dealing with a mixture of Polish bureaucracy and British bureaucracy and these difficulties pile up until they become a mountain.”

Tens of thousands of eastern Europeans have used their countries’ accession to the EU as an opportunity to leave home and head West in search of better jobs and wages.

And because most of the 15 ‘old’ EU states have imposed restrictions on their labour markets, many have opted to come to Britain, Ireland and Sweden — the only three of the 15 to have opened their markets fully.

Buses roll into London each month carrying keen young workers from the former communist bloc, and it sometimes feels like most pubs, cafes and hotels in the British capital are staffed by Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians and Slovenians.

What is clear is that many more eastern Europeans have come to Britain and Ireland rather than to France, Germany and the other ‘old’ EU states which have refused to open their markets.

Ireland, with its vibrant, flexible economy and small native workforce, has taken in 40,000 Poles, 18,000 Lithuanians and 9,000 Latvians in the past 12 months, according to the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS), a civil rights watchdog.

Magdalena Kierdelewicz, director of the Polish Information and Cultural Centre in Dublin, said many Poles who came to make a quick buck on construction sites had now opted to stay in Ireland and were moving their families over.

“A few months ago when you went on the plane from Poland to Ireland you saw only men but now it’s full of women and children (of school age),” she said, estimating that there are now 80,000 Poles in a country of 4.1 million.

The benefits and drawbacks of immigration within the EU are, like the statistics, a matter of dispute.

The British government says eastern European immigrants contribute to the economy ‘while making very few demands on our welfare system or public services’.

ECAS also says immigration has benefited Britain, Ireland and Sweden, providing them with workers to do the jobs locals no longer want to do.

“The feedback we get from employers is that Poles have a strong work ethic, which is nice to hear,” Mokrzycki said.

However, the pitfalls for workers are many.

“During our research we found some shocking examples of workers being exploited,” said Julianna Traser, author of an ECAS study on migration within the EU. “In many cases, wages are low and workers have no written contracts.”

While Britain and Ireland have opened their labour markets, they have refused to open their benefits systems fully, meaning eastern Europeans have less of a safety net than their counterparts from the 15 ‘old’ EU members.—Reuters