Exploitation, Racism, Economic Hardship and Eastern European migrants (Life at Coventry Jesus Centre)

Sometimes one gets a feel here of the underworld of exploitation, anti-feeling and racism that immigrants from Eastern Europe sometimes face on coming to the UK.

Recently, I listened to an Eastern European young woman sharing her angst after finding work in the UK: she spoke of, “negative attitude towards me, bullying, misunderstanding at work which has left me worried and stressed. People hate you because you are not English. They want you pushed out of the job, out of the country. This experience has been very difficult for me.”

Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia and Estonia all joined the EU in 2004 – giving them unrestricted access to the UK’s labour market. Citizens from Romania and Bulgarian, also members of the EU, now have unlimited access to the UK labour market too (from January 2014). Net migration to the UK from Eastern Europe EU states was almost 400,000 between 2004-2011.

Keeping an ear to the ground, there is a recurrent story: the promise of a job back home by an unscrupulous agent, arriving in the UK and finding it doesn’t exist or, if it does, wages are minimal and falling into the hands of or becoming indebted to exploiters. 

In September 2013 the BBC reported that Eastern European migrants employed in the Fens for leek picking were trapped in a widespread network of exploitation.  A four-month investigation found migrants were being forced to pay fellow countrymen bribes to get a few days' work in the field - and some were left to live on less than £1 a week.

Catalin, Vlad and Mihaela at Bright Flame

A while ago, two Romanian young men, Vlad and Catalin, turned up at Coventry Jesus Centre on a Sunday morning. They had been promised accommodation in the UK but, on arriving, found nothing; they had been conned and were facing the prospect of no income, no home. 

Fortunately, unlike so many, their story has a favourable ending; both were offered a temporary home at ‘Bright Flame,’ a Christian community house in Coventry. Both found work, decided Christian community was ‘for them’ and stayed. Vlad has since married Mihaela and ‘Bright Flame’ are finding them a brilliant addition to the community family.