Polish migration to the UK – who helps the parents?
When it comes to migration, parents who move to the UK feel the separation just as much as their children who are left behind in Poland. Some find adjusting to the new reality so hard that they struggle to cope on their own.
In 2013, Poland’s Ministry of Education found that 29,802 parents migrated abroad, thousands of whom moved to live in the UK and make up the current Polish population of 726,000 people. Yet in Britain, there is only a few ways in which foreign nationals from Poland can seek help and support for problems related to their move here, including Citizens Advice Bureaus and advice on forums.
When it comes to helping the Polish community, two organisations are especially inundated with requests. One is Help for Poles in the UK Foundation – the first and so far the only charity which helps people from Poland settle into new life and reality. Made up of only volunteers, they work to relieve hardship, sickness, poverty and distress amongst Poles and their families who reside in the UK, and to improve their mental, physical and economic well-being. The other is the local parishes, where people turn for advice when there is nowhere else left to go.
Below, Ella Vine, Founder and General Manager of Help for Poles, and Fr. Andrzej Zuziak, Assistant Priest at Sacred Heart Church in Bournemouth, talk about the situation of parents living in the UK and the type of support they provide.
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