Tens of thousands are emigrating, escaping an 18 per cent unemployment rate. They are running away from a somewhat paranoid and insecure culture created by years of domination by a monolithic power, and running towards personal freedom, profit and self-improvement, writes Kate Holmquist.
Well-educated, healthy and adventurous, these young people are hungry enough to leave families behind and work at any job in their determination to gain a foothold on the golden ladder to success. Nine out of 10 come equipped with little more than pocket money and the address of a friend who will let them sleep on the floor of a flat or house already packed to the gills with other migrants.
In other words, the estimated 50,000 Poles who have arrived in the State since their country acceded to the EU one year ago next month are uncannily like the young Irish emigrants of the 1950s and 1980s.
In the Republic, Poles make up by far the largest group of the 10 accession-states' immigrants. At least 100 Poles a day, on average, are entering the State's job market. In the 10 months from May 1st, 2004 to the end of February 2005, 32,648 Poles were granted Personal Public Service (PPS) numbers. But the Polish Information and Cultural Centre estimates a total of 50,000 have come here when the thousands being exploited on the black economy are taken into account. An estimated 15 per cent return home without settling.
They're working everywhere, from Limerick to Letterkenny, working in architecture, catering, cleaning, construction, industry, IT, meat processing, medical care and security. The new Dundrum Town Centre in Dublin employs 70 Poles and so many are living in Newbridge, Co Kildare, that the town has been dubbed "Little Warsaw".
With names that are difficult for Irish people to pronounce, the young Poles quickly modify them to more user-friendly versions; they get Polish TV on digital satellite channels, go to Polish-language Masses in Newbridge and Dublin and they love Irish pubs and Irish people. All they miss is home cooking - especially bread, pastries and pierogi (dumplings).
While about 10 per cent of Poles are headhunted in Poland and then flown to the Republic by employers, the majority arrive by bus and take their chances, often working below-skill in blue-collar jobs that bring in three times more cash than white-collar jobs would in Poland. Poles with university degrees are willing to pull pints and lug bricks while sending money home to Poland to support families, pay off debts or invest in property.
At the top of the scale, skilled Poles are snapped up by Irish firms in need of their expertise. Architects Traynor O'Toole Partnership, which is building Beacon Court in Sandyford, Dublin 18, has brought in 14 Polish architects in the past year. The firm's ad for architects in an Irish newspaper got one response; the ad in a Warsaw paper drew 200.
"They are very cultured people, well educated with a strong architectural education and ethos," says Paddy O'Toole, partner in Traynor O'Toole Partnership.
ZENON REMI, ONE of the Polish architects recently hired by Traynor O'Toole Partnership, came to Ireland not for the money, but to forge his own identity outside the shadow of his well-known family, who has four generations of architects. "There are more possibilities here. The development that is happening in Dublin now is amazing - like it was years ago in Berlin and I am delighted to be a part of that. Traynor O'Toole have given us beautiful conditions in which to work - wonderful offices, wonderful people. We are very lucky to have this opportunity."
Remi will be joined in Dublin this summer by his wife, who is finishing a PhD in economics, and their two young children who he hopes will start school here in September.
The adaptability and flexibility of the Poles has led Telling Ireland in Celbridge, Co Kildare, to employ 40 of them in specialised exterior construction systems.
"They are not slave labour. They're given all that is needed to keep them happy while they are in Ireland," says Maciek Umiecki, the Polish liaison between Telling and the Polish subcontractor who provides the workers. Remuneration packages include return travel from Poland, accommodation, transport to and from work here, and safety training.
Employers and union officials alike describe Polish workers as "loyal, extremely reliable and hard working". They are reputed never to miss a day's work due to a night's drinking and they treat their employers with respect, employers say.
Ger Kennedy, SIPTU branch secretary in Limerick, says he knows of at least one company that was saved by an influx of Poles with their consistent work ethic.
Some companies are even replacing Irish and Nigerian workforces with Poles, says Ken Belshaw, director of Grafton Recruitment, which has 11 offices in eastern Europe and recruits Polish workers in their own country, as well as in Dublin. "Irish employers recognise the Poles as people who don't mind hard work," Belshaw says.
Every day, between 70 and 100 newly arrived Poles turn up at Grafton Recruitment on Wellington Quay in Dublin, packed lunches in hand, to try their luck.
Clients are specifically requesting workers from eastern Europe - Hungarians, Latvians and Lithuanians as well as Poles. Grafton encourages employers to fly out to eastern Europe and "see the product". "We're suspicious of employers, seeking large numbers of people, who are not willing to visit the country," Belshaw says.
GRAFTON'S DUBLIN OFFICE employs four Polish recruitment consultants to deal with the demand for Polish workers. One of them, Agnieszka Walter, a consultant with Blueprint, Grafton's legal, financial and IT branch, grew up under communism, going to school in a chauffeur-driven limousine. With the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1981, her family's lifestyle changed dramatically, her father lost his job as head of a publicly owned company and was forced into self-employment. Walter looked forward: getting a university degree in the US, before coming to Dublin.
Walter, who speaks three languages, now has her "ideal job" - which includes monthly trips home - and an Irish boyfriend, who is a teacher. She's typical of the upper levels of the migrant workforce - young, well educated, well travelled, sophisticated and claiming Dublin as their own.
The dark side of the story, however, are the thousands of Poles being exploited by unscrupulous employers offering as little as €3.50 an hour and refusing to co-operate in filling out forms for PPS numbers. Without a PPS number, Poles have no proof that they were working - so if they are fired for complaining, they have no recourse.
"Exploitation is massive," says Anton McCabe of SIPTU. "Some construction companies are paying accession-state workers as little as €4 an hour for the same work for which Irish union members command €15 an hour. A few horticulture and vegetable processing companies are exploiting a loophole in the minimum wage legislation to pay Polish workers only 80 per cent of what they are due because, the companies claim, they are 'training'.
"These employers seem to think that a lot of training is required to tell the difference between a big, a small and a medium spud," McCabe says.
Many Poles are being offered the minimum wage, but this rate was intended as a protection for apprentices and students, not as an adult wage, McCabe argues. "We should have put protection in place for immigrant workers alongside our open-door policy," he says.
A "them and us" attitude of animosity and racism is developing among some Irish workers, who resent competition from migrant workers willing to accept lower wages, McCabe warns. In addition, workers struggling to pay a mortgage may wake up to find that the three-bedroom house next door has been occupied by up to 14 Polish workers. There are 200 such Polish households in Navan alone, McCabe adds.
"There are nasty Irish employers who have taken advantage of vulnerable Poles with poor English who don't understand their employment rights," says Malgorata Kozik, consul at the Polish embassy. She has dealt withcases of Poles working more than 14 hours a day for the minimum wage, then being refused payment for overtime. One Irish firm was paying its workers €1,000 for working 250 hours a month - a rate of €4 an hour.
After being inundated by Poles who were being exploited, the Polish embassy in Dublin helped to set up the Polish Information and Cultural Centre in Manor Street last October, with sponsorship from Western Union.
The centre's managing director Magdalena Kierdelewicz (25), arrived in Dublin last October with a degree in sociology and international business. Her first job was in a pub, where she worked from 11pm to 4am five nights a week. The pub manager treated her badly, refused to let her go home for Christmas and shouted obscenities at her when she decided to quit.
Such abuse is a risk especially for Poles who arrive "cold" in the country, but even those who emigrate with Irish jobs lined up can have problems. "We see people coming to be a bar manager, then being given cleaning work. It's fairly common. But often people don't complain because they are reluctant to risk what they have," Kierdelewicz says.
The Polish embassy has been working with the unions which have been trying to halt the abuses by informing Polish workers of their rights. Last week, a Polish construction worker was elected as a SIPTU shop steward.
Eric Fleming of SIPTU says a "fear factor" keeps many Poles from reporting employers, on whom they may be dependent for lodging as well as a shuttle service to and from Poland. "Most Irish employers will try to screw them if they can get away with it. Even the good employers won't pay them to scale. They think they're doing them a favour because they're paying them more than they would [ get] at home."
He warns that if Polish workers continue to accept lower rates of pay "Irish workers could become too expensive to employ at home". Kierdelewicz says the Poles are quick learners, though, and have no intention of remaining in bad jobs. Most want to improve their English while climbing the employment ladder.
In their leisure time, Poles are fitting in well to Irish society. One restaurant, the Beanery Cafe on Burgh Quay in Dublin, turns into a Polish restaurant on weekend nights. In the past year, hundreds have dropped in on May Duggan, secretary at St Michan's church, Halston Street, Dublin, which holds a Polish Mass on Sunday afternoons. "They're very nice, a bit anxious, strong, well-fed and not into drinking or drugs," says Duggan, who has lived all her life in the area. "They're well brought up, well-mannered and are not looking for hand-outs."
While many Poles have difficulties at first, the majority do eventually find happy circumstances in which to live and work, Kierdelewicz says. "I've been to Germany and the US and by comparison the Irish people are really, really friendly. I can see more and more Poles deciding to stay in Ireland permanently, especially as they begin to find Irish partners."