by Michael Dembinski, BPCC head of policy

The UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published probably the most comprehensive report to date on the effects of migrant workers from Central and Eastern Europe on the British economy.

The report, The UK's New Europeans, summarizes the first five years of migration from the so-called 'A8′ countries (the eight post-communist countries that joined the EU on May 1, 2004). Of the 1.5 million that came to the UK since that date, over one million were from Poland. Half of the total immigrants have already gone home.

The report describes these workers as being generally better qualified than the native British population, but working typically in lower-paid, low-skilled work. By soaking up UK employers' unmet demand for labor, the well-motivated new EU workforce contributed positively to the British economy, though creating new social tensions.

Reviewing many previous studies about new EU migration, the new report is a well-considered and balanced synthesis that rings true with what the BPCC has been seeing over the years. The role of recruitment agencies in finding new EU workers for Britain's rural food processing industries is said to be instrumental in spreading the latest wave of migrants well beyond the big cities.

A 2006 study cited in the report talks of migrants being either 'storks' (flying backwards and forwards), ‘hamsters' (saving money before returning home), 'stayers' (determined to rise up the career ladder in the UK) and 'searchers' (keeping options open at all times). These labels are very useful for British employers when considering their Polish employees.

The current recession is hitting A8 migrants less hard than native Brits or migrants from outside the EU, with only 5 percent of them being currently jobless, compared to 7.8 percent of Brits and over 12 percent for non-EU migrants. Employers are hanging on to the human resources that offer them best value for money. Although A8 migrants start on lower rungs on the pay ladder than other workers in the UK, their earnings grow faster (by 5 percent a year) than native Brits (1 percent).

The report misses two highly important issues. The first is the effect of currency fluctuation; working in the UK is an entirely different proposition when a pound buys you seven złoty at home than when it's a mere four złoty. Surveys conducted among Polish migrant workers in the UK have shown that as a group they are very sensitive to currency movements. The second is that between early 2004 and mid 2008, unemployment in Poland fell faster than in any advanced economy, ever (from 21 percent to 7 percent, according to Eurostat).

When he addressed the BPCC for the last time as HM Ambassador to Poland in 2003, Sir Michael Pakenham talked at length about "the ‘C' word." At that time, corruption was one of the issues troubling our members more than any other.

Back in 1996, when Transparency International included Poland in its annual Corruption Perception Index for the first time, I was proud to note that not only was Poland the least corrupt of all post-communist countries, but it was also less corrupt than three EU-15 members - Italy, Portugal and Greece.

Yet after that date, things started going dreadfully wrong. Year by year, Poland started slumping lower and lower down the global ranking, regardless of whether the government was post-Communist or had Solidarity roots.

Things reached a nadir in the 2005 index (which reflected the previous 12 months). Under the watch of the SLD government of Leszek Miller, levels of corruption in Poland were perceived to have surpassed those found in Jamaica, Bulgaria, Belize or Burkina Faso. In 70th position in the world (out of 158 countries surveyed), corruption had become the defining issue of Poland's 2005 general elections.

The Kaczyński twins, who came to power as president and premier, did what they set out to do - they turned the situation around. Creating new institutions to combat corruption, and aided by a free press keen to winkle out new scandals, the Law and Justice-led coalition succeeded in breaking the trend and halting the nine-year slide into the mire of corruption.

This positive trend has continued. The current Civic Platform-led coalition government has maintained the momentum - despite the recent scandal concerning fruit machines (which occurred too late to influence this year's index, which was published recently).

Poland has, in the space of four years, leapt from 70th (out of 158 countries surveyed) to 49th (out of 180). The score, on a ten-point table is 5.0 (where New Zealand, the world's least corrupt country scores 9.4, and Somalia, the most corrupt, scores 1.1). Back in 2005, Poland's score was 3.4.
There's still a way to go, no room for complacency.

Correlating this ranking to global indices of poverty show a clear link - the more corrupt a country, the poorer it is. Comparing Poland with its neighbour Ukraine (146th in the world, 2.2 score), this link becomes clear. There is also a link between bureaucracy and corruption. The world's cleanest countries are (and not by coincidence) the ones topping the World Bank's Doing Business ranking.

New Zealand, Denmark and Singapore, the least corrupt three, are respectively second, sixth and first in the world when it comes to ease of doing business. Whereas Ukraine comes 142nd.

The fight against corruption must go hand in hand with increases in social trust. It's not enough to create a climate of fear, where bureaucrats become petrified into inaction, too scared to take decisions in case they are accused of corruption. This atmosphere is still seen as a major obstacle to the rolling out of public private partnerships in Poland. Local authorities are worried about the consequences of doing business with the private sector.

Education is the only answer.

Hats off, therefore, to CMS Cameron McKenna. The law firm has organised training sessions for Poland's anti-corruption and audit agencies, explaining to them the new law on PPP, and what's legal - and what to watch out for. The spreading of best practice is the only way to ensure that corruption is tackled while social trust continues to rise.

The "C" word is not one the current British ambassador to Poland, Ric Todd, has ever had to use while addressing the Chamber.

Michael Dembinski, BPCC head of policy

By Suzy Adcock, BPCC COO

Being back in the UK has brought many different views on how the BPCC can do more here. One of the most striking things has been how Poland is represented in the UK media. The past couple of weeks there has been a great deal of attention paid to Polish politics, specifically in the EU parliament.

The rights and wrongs and the whole story has been covered better than I could hope to by Charles Crawford and others, including the man it concerns, Michal Kaminski. The thing that is noticeable from my perspective is the easy assumptions that are made often without any understanding of Poland, its history and the way the country is developing.

Talking to members, specifically Poles who have settled in the UK and built businesses in all sorts of sectors, there seems to be a massive disconnect between those people and the popular misconceptions about plumbers and brickies.

We are keen to redress this and are working on a number of projects that will hopefully start to change this perception issue. In particular our marketing manager, Caroline Cook, is working on a PR campaign with a couple of supporting events later in the year.

If you have a story that you think may suit this approach let us know. As a bilateral Chamber the BPCC is here to support Poles in the UK as much as Brits and British business in Poland. And if you're a media organisation looking for a new Polish story we have some real experts – let's move the agenda on together.