Migrants....

There are apparently 30,000 Polish migrants living and working in the North of Ireland.

And, at a guess, I would say there are a hell of a lot of them working in the hospitality industry, maybe as many as half of them.

And I say Huzzah for them!

And huzzah for the new waiter who starts today.

She's American
AWESOME!
(As she may or may not say)

We recently doubled our Polish staffing levels to two by hiring a new chef. He's a nice guy if a bit terminatorish on it. Seriously, he really is a brick shit house of a man. He's been living here for a few years and this has had the effect of really messing his accent up. Whilst he still has his Eastern Bloc Terminator voice, "I'll be back...with the chips" type of thing it has taken on a few of the local twangs as well. So now he sounds like a Terminator who drinks cheap beer from a blue bag outside the corner shop. More Seamus Schwarzenegger than Arnold.

But his arrival has done more than afford me a moments amusement. Our other Polish guy, Dragon the kitchen porter, has found a new lease of life recently. Gone is the deep thinking and quiet methodical work that has set him apart from anyone else in the kitchen. No more with the scary ass silences and 100% work ethic. Oh no! Now he's Mr Chatty and the life and soul of the party. Now I'm not sure whether it is to do with the arrival of the new chef or maybe just because he has become acclimatized to the local way of doing things but his work rate has dropped down to something a bit more like were the rest of us are at. Thank Christ he was making us look bad. Now he can be found getting tore into steak sandwiches and cups of tea just like the rest of the kitchen staff instead of deep cleaning one of the many fridges. And if you need someone to smoke with, Dragon's yer man.

You see this is what we do in this country. We take a hard working immigrant and we make them one of us, in every sense.

Watching the two of them from the door of the kitchen reminded me of two Furbies who have been left sitting beside each other. They sound much the same too. They aren't supposed to speak in Polish when they are at work but they do it all the same to wind the rest of the kitchen up. Talk about paranoid. But just as they are teaching the other chefs and KP's how to speak Polish our lot are teaching them how to swear in "English", or a version of it.

The new chef asked if he could go home early tonight as he wanted to phone his mother before she went to bed.

Awwwwwwwwwwhhhhhh!!

He took quite a bit of stick from the other chaps about that but I really thought it was sweet. It cant be easy for these people being away from their families and friends. I say fair play to them for taking the risk and coming here to do the shitty little jobs we don't want to. I say they should be applauded and supported and not ridiculed or shunned, as so many do. And aren't they only doing what many men and women from Ireland did years ago, head west and all that?

And who's to say we wont have to do it again?