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Brexit: Polish builders defiant but admit future is 'uncertain' after EU referendum vote

Worried Poles say they are 'shocked, scared and lost' and many may go home

Friday 24 June 2016 11:56 BST

Iwona Masacz has lived in UK for 27 years but voted Leave in referendum

The editor of one of the most popular Polish news sites in Britain knows her readers well. And judging by their reaction to the referendum result throughout the morning, Adriana Chodakowska says the 900,000-strong Polish community in Britain is lost, scared and uncertain.

Her Londynek website has been seeing record traffic and it has been been inundated with comments from readers desperately worried about their future in the UK. She says they have all been asking one main question: “Should I go home?

“They’re lost, they’re shocked.” she told The Independent. “They’re wondering what is ahead for them, what’s next.

“Personally, I didn’t expect this. I’ve lived here 12 years and I never thought this could happen. I always thought the UK was a multicultural country that welcomes immigrants from all over the world, but I’m not sure it feels like this now.”

Her news website is based at the Polish Cultural Association near Hammersmith in west London. It houses a library, small community organisations, an advice centre and a café – and is on a 500-metre stretch of road that also includes Polish delis and building companies.

Adriana Chodakowska, editor of Londynek news website (Ted Jeory)

It is a little corner of Poland in London, and one of many that are now dotted around the UK. The Polish builder and Polish plumber were the original Brexit bogeymen when they “swarmed” to the UK on Poland's accession to the EU in 2003

They were accused of undercutting British workers but over time their work ethic won many around. Many even started their own businesses.

Builder and businessman Wojciech Kotarba is proud of his work for UK (Ted Jeory)

One was Wojciech Kotarba, 36. Early this morning he was sitting in a white van just around the corner from the cultural centre as east European labourers from Poland, Romania and Bulgaria stood waiting to see if their work would be needed for the day.

Wearing a T-shirt showing a bowler hat and the UK’s Union flag, he said he had lived in London for 12 years. He said the labourers were worried but that they worked hard and were invaluable to the UK economy.

“We’ve made profits for this country,” he said. “I haven’t taken benefits once. What the British have decided is up to them, but I think they’ve made a mistake. I’m proud of our contribution and I know some people will definitely return to Poland because they’re concerned about visas.

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

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1/66 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

More expensive foreign holidays

The first practical effect of a vote to Leave is that the pound will be worth less abroad, meaning foreign holidays will cost us more

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

No immediate change in immigration status

The Prime Minister will have to address other immediate concerns. He is likely to reassure nationals of other EU countries living in the UK that their status is unchanged. That is what the Leave campaign has said, so, even after the Brexit negotiations are complete, those who are already in the UK would be allowed to stay

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Higher inflation

A lower pound means that imports would become more expensive. This is likely to mean the return of inflation – a phenomenon with which many of us are unfamiliar because prices have been stable for so long, rising at no more than about 2 per cent a year. The effect may probably not be particularly noticeable in the first few months. At first price rises would be confined to imported goods – food and clothes being the most obvious – but inflation has a tendency to spread and to gain its own momentum

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Interest rates might rise

The trouble with inflation is that the Bank of England has a legal obligation to keep it as close to 2 per cent a year as possible. If a fall in the pound threatens to push prices up faster than this, the Bank will raise interest rates. This acts against inflation in three ways. First, it makes the pound more attractive, because deposits in pounds will earn higher interest. Second, it reduces demand by putting up the cost of borrowing, and especially by taking larger mortgage payments out of the economy. Third, it makes it more expensive for businesses to borrow to expand output

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Did somebody say recession?

Mr Carney, the Treasury and a range of international economists have warned about this. Many Leave voters appear not to have believed them, or to think that they are exaggerating small, long-term effects. But there is no doubt that the Leave vote is a negative shock to the economy. This is because it changes expectations about the economy’s future performance. Even though Britain is not actually be leaving the EU for at least two years, companies and investors will start to move money out of Britain, or to scale back plans for expansion, because they are less confident about what would happen after 2018

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

And we wouldn’t even get our money back

All this will be happening while the Prime Minister, whoever he or she is, is negotiating the terms of our future access to the EU single market. In the meantime, our trade with the EU would be unaffected, except that companies elsewhere in the EU may be less interested in buying from us or selling to us, expecting tariff barriers to go up in two years’ time. Whoever the Chancellor is, he or she may feel the need to bring in a new Budget

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“But the immigrants will still come, that’s for sure. Just look at Calais.

“You know what, I never thought the British really felt European. They always talk about ‘going on holiday to Europe’. I think Britain is perhaps just a suburb of Europe.”

Back at the cultural centre’s Café Mayo, Iwona Masacz sips her coffee. She’s lived here 27 years and decided to vote Leave. “What’s happening in Europe is dangerous with all this immigration. Mrs Merkel is playing a dangerous game.”

Even to some Poles, the message of Nigel Farage struck a chord.

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