I have been asked by one of the Irish radio stations about my opinion about problem of Polish homeless people, that is discussed at present in Ireland and in Poland
I have heard about quite big amount of homeless Poles in Dublin about 4 months ago, so this is not a new matter.
The problem of homless Poles is strictly linked to unemployment and despair of the people in Poland. Ireland in minds of many Poles is kind of Eldorado, “a promised land” where is plenty of job for everybody and where everything is easy. Of course it is very false assumption and it can lead to very hard situation like being a foreigner, non English speaker, in the streets of Dublin without any place to sleep and without a job.
Lot of Polish people is leaving Poland with that false assumption and without enough money. They don’t speak English, they don’t have a job in Ireland, they don’t book hostel rooms. It is very simple.
For example… if you want to book a bed in a hostel in Dublin you have to do it at least a couple of days before the day. About 3 weeks ago while I was visiting Dublin I met about 5 Polish people on the street, they were asking for any hostel in Dublin. They hadn’t booked a room before they left Poland. It is obvious that they could ended at the street or at the bus or train station. Some of them don’t have enought money to rent a room, and they have no money to live, because of that false assumption I mentioned above.
Sometimes friends appear not a real friends and after arival to Ireland some of Poles realise that there is no promised room and there is no promised job. I know many people who faced that problem.
The others have enought money for a couple of days, week or two, and they can’t find a job, so after that they can’t pay rent and bills, and they end at the street. Some of my friends had been looking for a job for a month without succes and after that they came back to Poland. They were lucky, at least they had place to sleep and they had enough money to buy a plane ticket to Poland, but how many people can’t come back? It is unknown to me but I am sure that the number of them is quite big.
When I arrived to Ireland I went to the safe pass course where I met a lot of Polish people without any job, and even a month later I had been still getting text messages from some of them with request for help in finding any job.
Summary is quite simple. People leavinig Poland unprepared (without job, pleace to sleep) and without enough money to assure life without a job for at least one month , and without return ticket to Poland.
Today I found out that Polish goverment is going to prepare something like special foundation for Polish homeless people, but in my opinion this won’t be a solution. In my opinion Polish goverment should think about how to make the Polish economical situation better.
The other problem is kind of Polish mentality - “we will go through it somehow” that can be transformed to “we don’t speak English, but we will get some job in Ireland or UK somehow” which is very stupid and dangerous.
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