British Vision Issue 34 英国移民劳工的真实现状

Welcome to the worlds of the migrant worker. 30 hours or so from Cracow in southern Poland to Victoria bus station. Most here have followed what they hope is the money trail to the UK, expectations are low, but then again, anything here is better than home.

"There's no compare. Um, maybe, um, I'm, I haven't done my degree yet. But it's still much easier to find a job here."

"With my profession, I could earn in Poland about 100 pounds per month. So here I can earn about 100 -200 per week, so far. That is why I'm staying here is...

The trouble is, while 100 pounds a week might seem a lot in Poland, no one seems to have told them that it's not enough to make ends meet in London.

This story is by no means a one-off. Too embarrassed to show his face on television, this man was prepared to show us what he has been reduced to. (So this is where you live in, yep) The man who lives here gave up his own company in Poland to try his luck in the UK.

"You can hear the ceiling creaking, can't you? (Yeah) And you can hear the water. (That's the water I think.) It really feels like it might collapse 1."

Somehow it's all fell apart for him. He spends several months on the streets, and now he moves from squats to condemned 3 squats 2, simply surviving. So exhausted 4, he can hardly get the energy to look for work. There's no water in here, or electricity, it's about as low as you can think.

The man who lives here, has qualifications from Poland in finance 5 and banking 6, speaks very good English, and he ended up in conditions like this, so you can imagine how difficult this is for many Pols coming over here trying to find a work who don't have those sorts of qualifications, and who don't speak the language.

Of course if you've got a car, you've also got somewhere to sleep, there isn't danger of being torn down around you. And that's what some others do. What is startling 7 about this is that even though it must feel like a broken dream, some simply will not give up trying.

"I know it's ur~a lot of jobs. And~and I~ur~you know~I have a good chance for job, because I'm a first-class lorry driver. When I called to my family, I never said for my situation. I'm homeless, I sleep in my car."

The pattern of many people's day takes on a depressing routine, hang around on street corners early in the morning and wait for someone, anyone probably to offer some work. If you don't get it, then simply take to the park and get drunk. So it's probably a good job that they have the kindness of strangers to fall back on. At this center they offer advice on food, housing, medical support, and they simply offer comfort.

"The~the saddest thing that we've seen is that the clients are arriving in a country with high expectations, with fantastic work ethic~um~you know, genuinely want to do well, want to succeed, want to, er, want to be a part of the community, want to earn some money to help their, to help their families back home, and they're ill-equipped to do that.

Much has been said and made about Polish plumbers 8 and others taking over jobs in cities like London. But Pols make up some three-quarters of the clients in this soup kitchen as well. This is the direct effect of the world at the 21st century. A world of the mass movements of people across borders, bringing victims as well as survivors 9, Lawrence Lee Sky News.
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one-off
[Chiefly British] Something that is not repeated or reproduced 10.
一次性事物不能重复或不可以再生的事物
lorry
[Chiefly British] A motor truck.
机动卡车