Researchers from the Universities of Middlesex, Glasgow, and Sheffield recently conducted a survey revealing that about one-third of Polish essential workers in the UK plan to return to their homeland.

The survey was conducted in early November. 1,105 Polish essential workers took part in it. They included workers from various fields such as health and social care, transport, education and childcare, industries, and utilities and goods manufacturing among others. 

The results showed that over one in four (28%) said to have experienced some discrimination. “As Covid kicked in […] many Polish migrants experienced negative effects from their status as both key workers and Eastern Europeans”, – Dr Katarzyna Narkowicz from the University of Middlesex pointed out, as quoted by WPolityce. 

Given that most of the surveyed people work in low-skilled jobs, their professional position is less stable, which appears to be an important element in their potential decision to return to Poland. 

A third of Polish essential workers plan to leave or are undecided about staying in the U.K. because of factors such as discrimination at work and feeling unwelcome following #Brexit and the #COVID-19 epidemic.https://t.co/NEWEbEn1Zs

— TVP World (@TVPWorld_com) November 14, 2022

Over half of the respondents (55%) stated that their mental well-being deteriorated either significantly (31%) or somewhat (24%) during the pandemic, while just over 40% of them pointed out that they have become financially worse off.

Before Brexit, there were about one million Poles living in Britain. Their number is now estimated to be closer to 700,000.

Image: Unsplash

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen