It has been twenty years since Poland became a member of the EU and the residents were allowed to settle here freely. What do they think of their new country?
In Polski Smak in Groningen the shelves are full of Polish products. Large bottles of ‘salty’ pickles,zuurk (sour soup), twaróg (white cheese), borscht (beetroot soup), ‘slicable’ cottage cheese and of course a wide variety of pierogi (stuffed pastries that resemble ravioli). “We are a fully-fledged Polish supermarket and deli,” says owner Gosia Tuinhof (49) proudly.
She started her business twelve years ago. First in an inconspicuous location on the Korreweg, now in a prominent place in the Nieuwe Ebbingestraat. To her knowledge, her store is the only one of its kind in Groningen. In Leeuwarden, the Eastern European supermarket Kalinka serves the market for Polish products in Friesland; the store has just moved to Jan van Scorelstraat.
Poles come from far and wide to do their shopping at Tuinhof. Romanians, Bulgarians and more and more Ukrainians also know where to find her cause. This also applies to Dutch people who have been on holiday in Poland or elderly people who come especially for lard or parsley root, products that are no longer available in our supermarkets. “Furthermore, students from the neighborhood like to get a hot dog sandwich from me.”
Tuinhof has lived in Groningen since 1998. She is married to a Dutchman, whom she met during their studies in Szczecin. They had been dating for 3.5 years before she decided to come here after their wedding. “I left my whole family there. That was a big step for me.”
Thanks to her shop she meets many Poles. There is a poster on the window of a weekend school for Polish children in Groningen. There they have contact with each other and can brush up on their Polish. Parents who need a chat with compatriots also meet there.
‘No expectations’
Joanna Paszkiewicz (82), who used to work as a journalist in Warsaw, knows everything about adapting to life in the Netherlands. She ended up here in 1987 through a Dutch photographer. She first lived in Aldwâld, then in Pieterzijl and since 1999 in Groningen. As a volunteer she publishes articles in the local newspaper The Lewenborg and the Polish-Dutch magazine Biuletyn .
When she came here, she had no expectations. She soon noticed that the Dutch are generally ‘super-individualistic’ compared to Poles. At the same time they have a lot of ‘self-control’ and are somewhat ‘aloof’.
Not so long ago she saw a ‘fascinating painting’ of four sea captains in a museum in Hoorn. “The essence of what the Dutch are like in my eyes lies in their appearance. They can handle the whole world. The Dutch behave confidently and superiorly, while Poles feel inferior in a complex way. The Netherlands is a very successful country for Poland.”
The Dutch are focused on the future, while Poles are mainly concerned with the past: the two world wars and the Warsaw Pact. At the same time they are nostalgic about their own culture. “The Dutch are much less so. They even have little interest in their language; I think they like speaking English just as much. They also travel abroad a lot. For most, they want the best for themselves.”
Toy of foreign powers
The practical and businesslike attitude of the Dutch is sometimes disappointing to pious Poles. Paszkiewicz: “In public there is no form of spiritual religiosity.”
On the other hand, the Netherlands offers stability. Poland lacks that. Throughout history, the country has always been a plaything for foreign powers. The external borders were never fixed for long. The Russian threat is now palpable again. Paszkiewicz makes a connection with the position of Poland in the Netherlands. “The situation of migrant workers is also unstable. They don’t know what the future holds, especially now that their presence is being questioned.”
To illustrate, she points to an article The Telegraph which is on the table about residents who are rebelling here and there in the country against the construction of campuses for migrant workers in their neighborhood, popularly called ‘Polish hotels’. In it they complain about the nuisance they cause. Paszkiewicz: “Not all Poles cause that, but some do. On the other hand, many of them feel exploited. I also think that is the case.”
Negative image
She knows that the Polish embassy in The Hague is bothered by the negative image of Poland. The Polish tourist board is trying to correct that image by highlighting art and culture from Poland in brochures, embodied by celebrities such as the astronomer Copernicus, the composer Chopin, the filmmaker Polanski and the poet Szymborska.
Most Poles in the Netherlands have difficulty integrating into society. “Even if they want to, it still won’t work. The Dutch keep their distance from Poland. She only accept people when they are completely like them. That is almost impossible for Poland. They always remain attached to their country of birth, even if only with the language and cuisine.”
The latter also applies to Gosia Tuinhof from Polski Smak. Her three sons, the eldest of whom have left home, were all born in Groningen. “Still, I try to honor Polish traditions at home. They also speak Polish. That is very convenient because we go to Poland a few times a year to visit family.”
She is not homesick. “I am busy with my family and work. I don’t have much time to be homesick.”
‘Here you have to make agreements for everything’
What image does she have of the Netherlands? “The Netherlands is very different from Poland. Here you have to make agreements for everything. If you’re going to have coffee with someone, you should plan it a few weeks in advance. In Poland the door is always open. People are less hospitable here. Everyone lives in their own circle.”
The weather is also different. The Netherlands has a maritime climate, Poland a continental climate. It is often wet, gray and windy here. Tuinhof: “I had to get used to that. Due to climate change, things have become more similar over the past twenty years.”
Some Poles, like herself, are here for love. Others to study. But most Poles come here for the money, she says. That was the case in the past and still is today. “Migrant workers do work that Dutch people turn their noses up at. The Netherlands can be happy with the Poles.”
Kajitan (31) is just entering her shop. He comes from a place near Wroclaw and has lived in Groningen for a year and a half. A friend of his said that there are many opportunities to work here. “At home I was standing still and bored. I didn’t just come for the money. More important to me was that I longed for a new life in a different place.”
He didn’t have to look long for a rental house. He says he was lucky. He currently works as a chef in the restaurants Lambiek and Het Concerthuis in Groningen. He taught himself the trade. He likes it here. “In the time I have lived here I have never had any problems with authorities or people. I have never felt discriminated against. Of course I know that Wilders won the elections, but nothing has changed in the country since then. For now, I plan to stay here forever.”
‘I don’t think we can do without them’
However, this may become more difficult in the future. Not only the PVV, other political parties also want to limit the number of migrants entering. Director Klaas Knot of De Nederlandsche Bank also makes a similar sound. Message: work that produces relatively little added value, such as in greenhouses and in the distribution sector, is better off being disposed of.
For Koos de Vries (66), who runs a cucumber nursery in Erica, that would be a nightmare. “How else am I supposed to find staff? Dutch people no longer want to work with their hands. Besides, how are they going to stop migrant workers? There is free movement of people in the EU. That applies to everyone.”
For Paul Elhorst, professor of regional economics at the University of Groningen, this is also clear and obvious. “I don’t think we can do without them. We desperately need them, for example for the construction of homes. What is worrying is that some employers exploit them and arrange poor housing for them.”
He thinks it is a ‘complex issue’. Unbridled labor migration, apart from social acceptance, also has another dark side. “We cannot build houses against too large an influx of migrants. That is why it might be wise to limit the influx. You have to make a good decision and ensure that employees in certain sectors that are important to the economy, such as the high-tech industry, are allowed to continue to come here.”
‘The word migrant worker is discriminatory’
Albert Kolthof, director of Kiwi personnel group in Hoogezand with branch offices in Leeuwarden, Kampen and Hengelo, follows the political discussion closely. Twelve years ago, his temporary employment company employed about a hundred Eastern European migrants, but now there are more than five hundred.
Kiwi’s focus is in the agricultural sector. “We cannot find a Dutch person for weeding. We can no longer even get Dutch holiday workers for work in certain sectors. Some clients work with 98 percent migrant workers. There, only the director or another staff member is Dutch.”
He is extremely annoyed by the discussion about migrant workers. “The word alone is discriminatory. Poles are EU citizens. I am also disgusted by the common distinction between high-quality and low-quality work. They are people just like you and me. Why don’t we open the border wide to workers who contribute to our economy?”
Paszkiewicz says that a few days ago she met a Polish construction worker at her Iraqi hairdresser. A large, muscular man who had worked here for 25 years. “He looked very satisfied and said: ‘This was my last day. I’m going back to Poland. Thanks to the money I earned in the Netherlands, I built a house there’. That is a success story that is still spreading in poorer rural areas in Poland. Apparently some Dutch people have had enough of Poland. But many Poles still don’t have enough of the Netherlands.”
