Read it in Polish:

"Jest rewolucyjna dla

brytyjskiego czytelnika,

który być może nie

zastanawiał się nad

tym, że kelnerka

podająca jej/jemu

codziennie kawę/piwo

ma tytuł magistra

psychologii i trzyletnie

doświadczenie w

zawodzie."

Cooltura

"There is something

very real and

immediate about

Marta’s new experience

of London"

Reader

"I find myself looking at

girls I see out and

about, wondering

whether their

experiences have been

like Marta's”.

Reader

Poles in Britain

1 million EU migrant workers have arrived in the UK since 2004 but at least half of them have left.

The current population of post-EU enlargement migrants in the UK is 665,000, an increase of around 550,000 since 2004.

Poles, by far the biggest nationality within this group, are now the single largest foreign national group resident in the UK, up from 13th in 2004.

Three quarters of all EU migrants in the UK in 2007 were 16-39 years old.

Migrants work an average of four hours longer per week than UK-born workers.

Before 2004, Polish beers were not widely available in the UK. Today 44 million pints of Lech and Tyskie are sold each year.

What is it really like to be one of the million Poles who moved to the UK?

Find out by reading

Poles Apart.

Floodgates or Turnstiles, the The IPPR report from April 2008 concludes the following about EU migrants:

Educational attainment has no significant impact on migrants' earnings.

In fact, workers who have higher education qualifications are more likely to end up working in menial professions such as cleaning, whereas those with vocational skills are able to find work in skilled trades.

70% of migrant workers are not making use of their skills in their current jobs, hence a significant pool of untapped experience and skill going to waste.

  Poles Apart 

Download first 5 chapters FREE!   Paperback 1 October 2008 ISBN-10: 1848760051 ISBN-13: 978-1848760059

“You’re lucky, being a girl. You can always get au pair work. Or a job in a Polish bakery – apparently they’re springing up all over London.”   Marta grits her teeth and nods. She is used to this now: the assumption that she has come to England to abandon her career and make a fortune changing nappies and cleaning floors. It couldn’t be further from the truth.   Poles Apart tells the story of an ambitious young graduate from the outskirts of Warsaw who moves to London in search of fresh challenges and the opportunity to make a name for herself.   But it’s harder than she had anticipated. Her qualifications are unpronounceable – let alone recognisable – and the workplace isn’t the only area riddled with prejudice. Marta’s new set of ‘friends’ are quick to turn their backs on the newcomer, as are the men in her life – of which there are many.   Based on a true story, Poles Apart is an insightful, funny, cynical look at London life through the eyes of a young migrant.     Synopsis Marta is a smart, ambitious young Pole who, when her country joins the EU, moves to England in search of adventure and career fulfilment. Her family is average by Polish standards: mama teaches at the university, tata is an electrician. An old acquaintance of her mother has kindly offered for Marta to stay with her daughter, Tash, in their Kensington house. Marta knows little about London life but she is quickly thrown into a world of canapé parties, drinking games and intellectual snobbery. She has nothing in common with Tash and her Cambridge clique… Until, that is, she inadvertently gets involved with her hostess’ boyfriend. It’s not just Marta’s home life that comes as a shock. The workplace is equally alien and, she finds to her dismay, equally exclusive. Despite her impressive university degree and her professional experience, interviewer after interviewer draws a blank when she pulls out her CV. Nobody is willing to take her on. Eventually Marta lowers her expectations and accepts the only job she is offered: handing out leaflets. It is not the life she envisaged. One good thing does come of this lowly ‘paperwork’ role: the loveable, cheeky co-worker and fellow Pole, Dominik. Dom, with his blue eyes and ruffled, sandy hair is just about the only thing keeping Marta sane as she flits schizophrenically between doling out fliers and mixing with Oxbridge toffs. Too bright to be doing such menial work, Marta employs some of her degree knowledge and employs a more targeted marketing technique as she treads the streets – to disastrous effect. She soon finds herself without a job, and – thanks to a dramatic turn of events – without a home and without a friend. The only person to respond to Marta’s plea for help is a girl she barely knows. Holly is on the fringes of the Cambridge clique but she is nothing like Tash. She takes Marta under her wing and introduces her to a very different side of London life. Sleeping on the sofabed in a shared house in Kilburn, Marta meets Tina, the flirtatious city trader, and Rich, the quiet trainee teacher who is so obviously in love with Holly. With the help of her new friends Marta finds herself an office job – only temporary, but it’s a start – and her boyfriend couldn’t be more perfect. Things are starting to come together. All of a sudden, things come apart again: her man turns out to be a two-timing fraud, her ex-house mate Tash re-enters her life and her colleagues are clearly out to make life as difficult as possible for ‘the Polish girl’. It takes a family disaster and a trip back to Łomianki for Marta to discover what really matters in her life – and more importantly, who matters. Poles Apart is a book for anyone who has encountered prejudice or preconceptions.   See what the BookArmy community thinks of Poles Apart:

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Polly's thoughts

The term Pole has become synonymous with the phrase 'cheap manual labourer'. Why? Because we Brits are not willing to welcome our Eastern European neighbours into our professional workplace. We don't recognise their qualifications, and we don't make any effort to try. The result: brain surgeons driving forklift trucks, lawyers changing nappies.

Marta Kowalczyk

A Pole I know has a finance degree from a red-brick equivalent and several years' experience at a Polish accountancy. Over here he was forced to do unpaid internships to penetrate the system whilst picking up casual labour for a living.

Whilst working for a consultancy in 2006, I was instructed to 'keep the Polish intern busy'.

'We're not paying her,' said my boss. The implication was clear: she won't be of much use in our workplace.

My boss was wrong. Marta was a bright, well qualified young graduate.

Over the years I have kept in touch with Marta. Through a series of unpaid placements whilst working nights in bars, she has built up her CV and slowly, she has climbed the slippery British career ladder.

The hurdles faced by Poles go unnoticed by most of us, which is why I decided to write Poles Apart.