1. IMAGE OF POLAND AND POLISH PEOPLE CREATED BY THE IMMIGRANTS

2. Questionswe asked 1.How long have you lived here? 2. How did you find yourself in Poland? Why did you decide to stay here? 3. What had you thought about Poland before you moved here? 4. What is your opinion about Polish people now? 5. What do you like the most about Poland and Polish people? 6. Do you plan to stay here forever? 7. What don't you like here and how should it change? 8. Do you think Poland is a good place to start a new life? 9. What are the most important differences between Poland your country of origin? 10. What do you think about the general attitude of the Polish people to immigrants? Are we tolerant, hospitable, open, or on the contrary: hostile, reluctant, suspicious? 11. Has Poland changed since you came here? If so- how: for worse or for better?

3. Jonathan  Age: 68  He comes from Leeds in the North of England  He has lived in Poland for 23 years  A train freak  He trains English teachers on the short courses

4. Jonathan 1.How long have you lived here? 23 years 2. How did you find yourself in Poland? Why did you decide to stay here? He visited Poland back in 1991, he got really interested in that country, met nice people that he later corresponded with. Later he got an opportunity to work in Gdańsk. He moved here just for that job (he was training teachers on short courses) and he got just used to it and stayed. 3. What had you thought about Poland before you moved here? He had visited Poland before he moved here, so he knew lot quite a lot about this country, he knew what to expect.

5. Jonathan 4. What is your opinion about Polish people now? He thinks that people in Poland are just the same as everywhere else. There are good and bad people. In general, Polish people are fine. 5. What do you like the most about Poland and Polish people? Polish people are very honest, very friendly and welcoming. About the country- he likes the scenery, the countryside, the coast, mountains, historic cities and villages... 6. Do you plan to stay here forever? He is probably going to stay here forever, because he's married to a Polish woman, but if not, they could move somewhere warmer.

6. Jonathan 7. What don't you like here and how should it change? He travels a lot by trains and he thinks they're too slow and too old-fashioned. He knows that there are taken actions to rebuild and renovate them, but it still needs a lot of work, because it is quiet difficult to use trains here. 8. Do you think Poland is a good place to start a new life? It probably is if somebody wants to move here and start his own business. He thinks that in general Poland is a good place to start a new life, but it may be pretty difficult to do if somebody comes from really foreign place, like China.

7. Jonathan 9. What are the most important differences between Poland your country of origin? The transport infrastructure is not as well developed as it is in Britain. He also can't find anything like English pubs in Poland. He also thinks that Poland is too flat, and it is always either far to the sea or to the mountains. He really likes walking in the hills, but he can't do that where he lives. He can go, for example, to the beach and it is still very nice, but he likes mountains and north of Poland is completely flat. In Britain, on the other hand, it is really easy to get to many places to visit, because they are close to each other. 10. What do you think about the general attitude of the Polish people to immigrants? Are we tolerant, hospitable, open, or on the contrary: hostile, reluctant, suspicious? A lot of people are quite suspicious, because they are not used to that, Poland hasn't had a lot of immigrants, so it is a new thing for them. That situation is better in big cities, it is more normal to see a foreigner there, but in small towns and villages when people see that someone is not from here because he can't speak Polish, has an accent or makes a lot of mistakes they are suspicious. On the other hand, if you look as if you were Polish- people are ok with that, but if you look obviously oriental or African or something then people are very suspicious.

8. Jonathan 11. Has Poland changed since you came here? If so- how: for worse or for better? Poland changed for better. The opportunities for people are much better than they used to be. Poland has become like other western countries. You can see the same shops, businesses, cars, clothes that you do everywhere (globalization).

9. Sasza  Age: 15  He comes from Novovolynsk in the West of Ukraine  He has lived in Poland for 5 years

10. Sasza 1.How long have you lived here? 5 years 2. How did you find yourself in Poland? Why did you decide to stay here?. He moved here with his mother 3. What had you thought about Poland before you moved here? He thought Poland was like a western country, it offered better life than Ukraine. 4. What is your opinion about Polish people now? Ukrainians are much nicer, there are a lot of mean people in Poland and they always complain about everything.

11. Sasza 5. What do you like the most about Poland and Polish people? He likes the fact that we are patriotic and very proud of our history. 6. Do you plan to stay here forever? He doesn't want to stay in Poland forever, he wants to move somewhere else, probably to a rich western country. 7. What don't you like here and how should it change? He doesn't like the fact that Poland is so differentiated with respect to the wealth of its citizens - the eastern regions seem to be much poorer than the western regions. 8. Do you think Poland is a good place to start a new life? No.

12. Sasza 9. What are the most important differences between Poland your country of origin? The most important difference is politics. There are a lot of problems and conflicts in politics and Ukraine, and Poland has much better situation about that. 10. What do you think about the general attitude of the Polish people to immigrants? Are we tolerant, hospitable, open, or on the contrary: hostile, reluctant, suspicious? From what he experienced at first, Polish people, when they can tell that someone is not from Poland, are very curious and later they are a little bit reluctant. That doesn't refer to everybody though, now people don't treat him in any special way, he's the same as everybody else. 11. Has Poland changed since you came here? If so- how: for worse or for better? He was in Poland too short to notice any change

13. Donald  Age: 34  He comes from Cape Town, in South Africa  He has lived in Poland for 4 years  He’s an English teacher

14. Donald 1. How long have you lived here? About 4 years. 2. How did you find yourself in Poland? Why did you decide to stay here? I came to Poland because I married a Polish girl. We lived in South Africa for 8 years and when my father in law died we decided to come to Poland to take care of some family issues. Because both me and my wife are fluent in English we decided to be English teachers. Why did your wife come to Republic of South Africa? My wife left Poland because she didn't like it, the weather, politics etc. She worked on cruise ships then she fell in love with me and when I took her home to visit South Africa, she fell in love with South Africa too.

15. Donald 3. What had you thought about Poland before you moved here? Seriously? I didn't think much about it. I felt a little bit scarred, but I was very excited and interested about Poland 4. What is your opinion about Polish people now? Polish people are very friendly and helpful towards foreigners, really very helpful, when people hear that i am foreign they try to help me as much as they can. Unfortunately Polish people are not as considerate towards each other, they tend to be mean, nasty and jealous of each other, this is a pity because Polish people are really great people. 5. What do you like the most about Poland and Polish people? Polish food is really good and also quite healthy, Poland has got beautiful lakes, forests and mountains. I like the old castles and buildings and the history of the country, it has a very rich history.

16. Donald 6. Do you plan to stay here forever? Of course, I love that place. 7. What don't you like here and how should it change? How did I say, Polish people are great people, but they are also not as good towards each other and that' s annoying. Besides I don't like roads, the politics, customer service and the taxing system. 8. Do you think Poland is a good place to start a new life? For me, Poland was a great place and chance to start a new life with my wife

17. Donald 9. What are the most important differences between Poland your country of origin? First thing I thinking about is temperature. It was much hotter there. 10. What do you think about the general attitude of the Polish people to immigrants? Are we tolerant, hospitable, open, or on the contrary: hostile, reluctant, suspicious? Polish people were very friendly and open to me. I've never had problems with them. 11. Has Poland changed since you came here? If so- how: for worse or for better? I'm sure that Poland changed, for better of course, but it's hard to say what. I'd have to think longer, because there are many things

18. Authors  Bartosz Popiela  Damian Guzek  Jakub Myszka  Karol Piasecki  Sejla Dzefic