Last Monday (19.06.06) the biggest polish independent newspaper “Gazeta Wyborcza” has published my article, in which I had described Polish emigration in Ireland, issues they faced and bad and good sides of that economical emigration.
My conclusions in brief: because our skills, experience and university degrees obtained in Poland are not properly respected here in Ireland, it is better for young people to leave Poland as soon as they finish high schools. It is better to spent 2 years earning money for studying here in Ireland and then 3 or 4 years in college, than wasting 5 years of studies in Poland (every year a hundred thousands unemployed masters are finishing our Polish universities). Is it good for Poland? It is not for sure, but… should we be loyal to Poland – a state that don’t care about its own citizens?
In a couple of days I am going to write more about those issues
Here is a scan of this article in Gazeta Wyborcza:
Hi, very interesting to get a Polish perspective on living in Ireland. I’m Irish and lived abroad for 5 years in Belgium when Ireland was much more economically similar to Poland currently. Heard you on TodayFM as well - it amazes me that there are not more comments here.
I agree with you and came to much the same conclusions. The same thing happened here in the 80’s. People did masters and PhD’s to put off unemployment. I would say get a primary degree OR technical / trade qualification and try your luck … but LEARN ENGLISH. I spoke no Flemish in Belgium when I arrived but only got a good job after learning it - even though i speak the world language of English. When I came back I would get a job 1000 times faster than someone who spent the same time doing PhD’s and masters. Another thing I did was to stay away deliberately from Irish bars etc. because I wanted to learn about the country I was in. This is much more valuable than spending time in your own isolated community.
When I left, I thought like you about Ireland but I got homesick eventually and came back …. maybe one day you will be the same, who knows?
And finally on the Polish people who think they are so much better educated and superior, I would say prove it - we were all told how “superior” the Irish system is but when you get into the real world it counts for very little. You are born with intelligence and education does not make you smart. Look at America for an extreme example of this. Most of the world’s richest people didn’t even go to or finish university. But since you’re a smart guy you know all this already