Adamski Poles

This small and stylish café has just opened near me. It is run by recent arrivals from Poland and describes itself as a ‘pizzeria and restauracja’, which perfectly conveys its crossover pitch to established UK tastes and those of fellow migrants from Poland. The pizzas range from basic margaritas to what they call ‘Polish pizza’, a blend of cheese and ‘four kinds of Polish meat.’ Then there are the Polish dumplings: little ravioli-like packets with a choice of four different fillings including mushroom and cabbage (excellent). The menu has Polish translations throughout and the woman who runs it tells me that local Poles are especially eager patrons in midweek.

This is the latest evidence of eastern European workers establishing themselves in my part of London. There’s a Polish delicatessen in Dalston with beautiful external ironwork and posters are appearing in corner shop windows advertising Bulgarian food. Rumanian women are building a reputation for being excellent cleaners. And, of course, there are builders everywhere. It all confirms at ground level the findings of two recent reports. An IPPR FactFile about Rumanians and Bulgarians and a Spring Forecast by the Ernst & Young ITEM Club, which looks at Poles and others, both find that incomers from the old soviet bloc states are proving highly competent at filling gaps in the labour market and spreading throughout the country to do so to the benefit of the British economy.

Of course, their success may have some negative implications too. As ever, Sir Andrew Green of Migration Watch UK has been on the radio to elaborate the downside. For him, it means that wages at the lower end of the scale are depressed by the competition and I suppose this cannot be dismissed lightly. Concerns have also been expressed, though not yet publicly, that some east European migrants have yet to learn what constitutes good manners in a multi-ethnic society. We shall see. For now, though, I welcome Adamski as another new tile in the remarkable mosaic that is Hackney society.

Comments

[Quink]

The Polish community is flourishing here too, at the top end of the Clapton roads. Though here, for the most part, existing traders are accommodating the newcomers by stocking Polish food, beer, newspapers etc (I've been trying some of the beer and quite of few of them mess me up very quickly or, oddly, seem to consist of a lot of sugary lemonade with beer mixed into it). But change is afoot, and I've spotted one provisions shop has opened up on the road towards Seven Sisters. The whole assimilation process has been fast and fascinating to watch and, largely, has been tension-free.

What would interest me would be how the new Polish migrants are (or are not) welcomed by long-established Polish communities, such as in Ealing. I wonder if there are more problems in these areas then there are here?

[Dave]

Hello Quink. Nice to hear from you. Forgive my delay in responding. I had a chat with one of the authors of the IPPR report and he said that the new Poles seem very different from the established ones and that it would be fascinating to see how their relationship developed. It's atheme I may return to. Keep in touch.

[Ken]

And where be this fine establishment? I am having a cup of the finest borscht, dreaming of being back in Warsaw!