Dave Gee: Life from Right Field

I've spent the last few days in Luton (just north east of London), catching up with former workmates from when I was living here a few years ago on my OE.

I'm about to head into London to stay with my Uncle and cousin for a night, before I fly over to New York to join the other travellers from Dunedin Operatic.

Spent the weekend over in Ireland (Limerick) catching up with Marcin, an old friend from Stagedoor Manor summer camp days. I last stayed with him in Poland, but he's now joined the hundreds of thousands of young Eastern European people who've moved to Ireland and the UK to work.

Government figures out this week revealed over 447,000 immigrants from Poland and other new EU countries have moved to the UK over the last few years. Another 150,000 Polish people have settled in Ireland, making them the largest ethnic group in the country of 4 million.

Marcin lives and works with a lot of other Polish people, and says the Polish population now makes up over 10% of Limerick's population. His flat had Polish satellite tv, and most of the bars, cafes, and shops we went into were staffed by Polish workers.

Marcin & his flatmate hard at work playing on the PC and watching TV ;-)

Now all that needs to happen is for New Zealand to join the European Union, so that I can move back over here and work! ;-) - A great suggestion from Piotrek (another former Stagedoor Polish mate, who's living in Chicago).

* Scotsman: Poles build home from home on Emerald Isle
* BBC News: 'Nearly 600,000' new EU migrants