Britain’s biggest tabloid insinuates that our guide, encourages Poles to come to Britain in order to use the wide range of benefits, not to work.
“The Sun” attacks not only our newspaper, but all the hard-working Poles in Britain who help British economy. How this stereotype of Pole – layabout is untrue shows data. The indisputable fact is that immigrants (not only Polish!) give more money to the budget in taxes than they take from it.
According to recent data there are 2,000,000 citizens from EU countries living in UK. More than 90,000 (barely 4.5 percent !!!) receives benefits from the state, and 317.000 (only 15%) takes a perk to low income. How much they pay in taxes? 52 billion pounds.
Just wonder how British economy would look like without that money … There is also special plebiscite Polish Choice of the Year 2016 for the best Polish entrepreneurs in UK. Social system is widely available for all working in the UK. It is not a crime to receive some help from it. It is not a crime also to inform about it. In other case all the Job Centers which distribute brochures with information about benefits should be closed. All government websites about benefits also should be removed from the net (https://www.gov.uk/browse/benefits). British tabloids do not write about the role of such brochures or websites.
Our guides are the series of texts that help the Poles with some important daily issues in UK. We do not write only about benefits but also about health care, housing problems and other important things. In case of this guide, big part of it is designed for those who are already working. We just write about their rights.
“Poles are highly rated employees in the UK” – says Ilona Korzeniowska, editor in chief of “PE” in the interview with “The Sun”. “They will be employed also in the future because they have great skills and they work hard.”
Ilona Korzeniowska has no doubt that the action of British tabloid is really kicking up the tension before the referendum on Brexit. British tabloids are looking for sensation wherever the word “immigrant “, and especially “Polish immigrant” appears – we could see it clearly now – when the competition about every single vote in referendum takes place.
As the most popular and well-known among both Poles and the Britons, Polish weekly in UK for 13 years we are fighting for the fair treatment of Poles in Great Britain. Making a sensation from the fact that we released a guide with information, which every resident of the UK, who knows English even slightly, could found on government’s website is nothing but using us to the political struggle in case of Brexit.
Why “The Sun” picks on Poles and the “Polish Express”? It is all about the money. Emigrants hunting for benefits is catchy cover subject which could sell newspaper. Never mind that the article in The Sun does not have much in common with the truth and it’s only goal is making sensation. That is how some English media is working. Yesterday the Queen, today Polish Express. There is no way to beat them in this fight. In response, we could write only the truth …
Polish version: Kłamliwy tekst z “The Sun” szkaluje Polaków. Tak wygląda walka o Brexit?
