Eastern Europeans in the United Kingdom

A 2014 King's College London report found that pupils from the pan-ethnic group faced stereotypes associated with their heritage. There were also revealed to be intragroup grade differences between different nationalities.[2] A 2019 UCL Institute of Education report found a significant achievement gap between Eastern European students and those of a white British background.[3]

A 2013 academic report found data suggesting "Eastern Europeans in Scotland value the opportunities for self-employment."[4] In 2015, the majority of the grouping, that were resident in Suffolk, were working-age and often young adults.[5] In 2017, published data showed that many held low-skilled or untrained occupations.[6]

In the aftermath of World War II, appoximately 80,000 Eastern Europeans, who were displaced or homeless, settled in the United Kingdom.[8] CEE (Central and Eastern European) refugees were also recuited as labourers from the European Voluntary Workers scheme, and were brought into the country by Clement Attlee's government to rebuild post-war Britain.[9]

Since the opening up of EU accession in the early 21st-century, many Eastern Europeans have migrated to parts the United Kingdom. This two-decade migration phenomenon has been described as unprecedented in the history of the country.[10] In 2007 Rural Sociology published research which used Eastern Europeans in Britain as one of several examples of exceptional developments in the large-scale use of foreign labour or foreign workers in high-income nation's agricultural markets.[11]

This has created some social challenges in Britain. Russell Deacon has highlighted tension in Welsh-speaking areas of Wales, and how Cymuned, a Welsh pressure group, lobbied the Welsh government to prioritize housing for locals over East Europeans in the early 2000s.[12] In 2014, an anlaysis by John Harris appeared to outline social problems that had been created by large-scale immigrantion from Eastern Europe (and surrounding areas). Issues included reports of mafias operating, intra-ethnic disputes, killings, but also reported developments, including the ongoing revival of town centres due to East Europeans economic activity. [13]

In June 2016, a referendum on the country's membership of the European Union took place. With a result to leave, many Eastern Europeans' relationship with, or perceived status in, the United Kingdom changed permanently. The month after the EU referendum, Under-Secretary of State Karen Bradley spoke in the House of Commons to address the issue of Eastern Europeans receiving xenophobic abuse in the aftermath of the result.[14] In 2018, British media reported growing concern for East European people affected by Brexit.[15] A 2018 study suggested the political process had particularly affected young Eastern Europeans "positioned in between the category of “migrant” and “citizen”.[16] Increasing living standards back home have been suggested in media as an explanatory driving force for the return of Eastern Europeans to their birth nations in 2019.[17]

Due to the frequent and significant waves of migration of Eastern Europeans to the country in the 21st-century, evidence has showed that the United Kingdom's employment culture has been changed by the myriad of recruitment agencies and training networks organised to support and employ the group.[4]

From a Ukrainian family, British author Marina Lewycka's 2005 and 2007 novels A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian and Two Caravans focus on Eastern Europeans agricultural workers in England.[18][19]

Representative of the polarising nature regarding the issue of immigration from the region, in 2010, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's election campaign was reported to be negatively affected when he called a member of his party a "bigoted woman", after the Labour supporter raised the topic of Eastern Europeans arriving in Britain.[20] In 2013, Romanian diplomat Ion Jinga suggested that "inflammatory rhetoric" in politics was increasing the risk of physical attacks on Eastern Europeans resident in the country.[21]

A 2013 Environment and Planning report correlated a "positive and strongly significant relationship between self-employment and integration" for the group.[4] In 2014, University College London's Dr Julia Halej published study which analyzed perceptions created by national media; how Eastern Europeans within the country occupied the social boundary of "whiteness" in Britain, being variously portrayed as "‘valuable’, ‘vulnerable’ and ‘villainous’".[22] A 2014 King's College London report, which examined the insights and challenges into the rapidly increasing various Eastern European ethnic groups in the UK education system, found that "Young people from Eastern Europe are seen as a new ‘Other’, both by the white majority and more established minority ethnic groups."[2]

A 2018 research by Dr Magdalena Nowicka, published in the Journal of Intercultural Studies, detailed data-studies which revealed how some people within the group aspired for, or achieved, increased social status by emphasising their whiteness and "embracing the meritocratic values of the white British class".[6]