Polish women discuss life in the UK

The first major conference of Polish women living in the UK took place last weekend.  

Rachel Salmon spoke to some of the women who took part.

“The main goal is to show that Polish women living in the UK are the ambitious ones, the passionate ones. They are hard working and can achieve great success,” said Alexandra Musial, a student from London,  and one of the organisers of the conference, called the United Kingdom of Polish Women.

This event was put together by volunteers, government bodies and community organisations,  and Saturday’s opening session attracted over 200 women.

The conference was run on similar lines to the Women’s Congress, an annual event which has brought women together to discuss gender equality in Poland for the last five years.

Polish people now make up Britain’s second largest migrant community, so the organisers wanted to explore how the diaspora had affected women.

There were workshops on women’s rights, arts, science, health and personal development as well as a Woman of the Year award ceremony, to celebrate the contribution Polish women are making to British life.

All of the women I spoke to enjoyed living in the UK.  They appreciated the multiculturalism and opportunities available, especially in London.

“I can meet lots of different people.  Britain has more opportunities to spread your wings,” Alexandra Musial said.

Kinga Goodwin, a cultural psychologist, and one of the panelists in the discussion about women in science at the conference, agreed.

Goodwin has lived in the UK for eight years with her British husband. She believes that British culture is quite similar to that of Poland, and any prejudices are more to do with class than race.

“People assume that migrants are working class because they tend to do working class jobs.

“People have a patronising attitude, ‘you must be a cleaner’.  It may have been the case several years ago but now it is completely different.

“I have heard about discrimination because of some vague economic reasons rather than nationalism,” she said.

Olivia Kapchia, who runs an estate agency in west London, believes you need to be a very hard worker to survive, especially in the capital.

“But you can develop in any areas you want, personal as well as business, which you could not do outside London,” she said.

The conference also featured a Polish Woman of the Year competition.

One of the finalists, Eva Sadowska, runs Barka UK, the British branch of a charity established by her parents in Poland in the wake of the fall of communism.

Barka UK supports vulnerable people from across Eastern Europe. It has offices in Hackney and the Elephant and Castle. Most of its staff do outreach work with street homeless people.

The charity also runs a national helpline.

Sadowska said fewer Eastern Europeans are coming to this country now, and those who do face huge problems.

“Even people with Masters Degrees are cleaning toilets in bars and hotels. Their potential is being devalued.

“Well educated people who lose their jobs sometimes lose their flats and are finding themselves on the streets.

“This is a very difficult time for migrants,” she said

Sadowska believes that older migrants, who spent most of their time living under communism, can find life in the UK particularly difficult.

“They find it very challenging to deal with the free market economy, not having the state having a monopoly over everything,” she said.

Barka has helped over 3,000 Eastern Europeans to return to their home countries, where they can access a range of services, from vocational training to detoxing.

Some return to Britain, and a number of Barca’s 15 UK-based staff are former clients.

“If you take overall migration into Britain it is only a small minority who fail, but we must do what we can to support them,” said Sadowska.