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Brighton is a magnet for overseas workers. So what's the
big attraction? asks Sarah Lewis
Contrary to popular belief, back before the Prince Regent
came here to get his jollies Brighton wasn't a small fishing
village. In fact, it was a thriving hub of smugglers and
pirates and merchants and was a place for people from
all over the world to meet and trade.
Today, apart from the fashion for eye patches and peg
legs, not much as changed. Brighton has always seen a
massive inflow of people from far-flung places, and the
city's much-prided style and atmosphere is based largely
on its cultural diversity. It is pretty hard to meet a
real Brightonian in Brighton.
There are no exact figures for the number of EU non-British
nationals living and working in Brighton & Hove. "There
is just no way to record who comes in and out," says
David Golding of Brighton & Hove Council. "We
can't stand at Brighton station with a clipboard asking
everyone who comes though the turnstiles and, unless they
were resident here during the census, then we can't record
it. I've heard figures that roughly 30,000-40,000 EU nationals
pass through Brighton every year."
It is hard to miss the sizeable overseas community, all
of whom add to the colour and life of the city. Sharon
Gordon, owner of The Sanctuary Café, says: "There
are 10-15 people working here, about half are from the
EU. They don't stay long; they are just passing through.
I've noticed more Eastern Europeans recently. I remember
a few years ago when I'd never spoken to a Russian or
Polish person. But there is also a South African, a Nigerian
and a Japanese girl working here. The chef is Italian,
I'm Jewish, my family is originally from Russia - it goes
on."
Brighton & Hove is very much a seasonal city, battening
down in the winter and coming alive in the spring and
summer months, buzzing with tourism and holidaying students.
Naturally, this leaves hundreds of summer jobs up for
grabs. Sharon Gudgeon, an international recruitment programmer,
says: "Someone in Britain is not going to give up
a full-time job for a seasonal one and, in terms of part-time,
people prefer to have four to five hours a week, every
week, at a supermarket, rather than just work for a season."
The figures from the Government's recently published Accession
Monitoring Report suggest that the vast majority of workers
are young with no dependants and take temporary jobs for
a brief period before returning home. So, if there are
jobs going that no one from Britain will do, it all seems
to fit together very nicely.
Back in The Sanctuary, Sharon says: "In the service
trade, my experience is that English people find it very
difficult to serve. They think it's degrading, but for
other people it's their profession. They have a different
work ethic - they are much, much harder working. I don't
really think there are any disadvantages, except there
are sometimes problems with language."
In agreement is Mark Stoller, manager of the Dorset: "We
employ a few people from the EU. I think about seven out
of 30 staff. They are more reliable than the English,
and they do jobs the English just won't do. I think they
are just brought up better. While all us lot are running
around on Pepsi and McDonald's, they have a much healthier
quality of life. Mind you, they smoke and drink like troopers!"
So why is England such a popular destination - after all,
how can our small rainy island compare to the beauty of
Spain or Italy? Part of the reason is England has the
most lax employment laws in the EU. Unlike France, say,
employers in the UK can take people on without having
to pay sick leave, give paid holiday or commit to fixed
working hours. There are large categories of jobs, particularly
in the casual sector, where there is no unionisation and
a high turnover of staff is expected. By contrast, once
someone is given a job in France, all employees' rights
kick into action - even if a person is employed for only
a few hours a week.
Pawel Wiacek moved from Poland a year ago to be with his
English wife: "You can earn a lot more money here,
but when you compare the living costs it doesn't seem
that much more," he says. "It is much easier
to find a job here though. There is about 15-20 per cent
unemployment in Poland, and you need to have at least
an MA to get a job. It is hard here if you don't speak
English, though. I have a friend who has an MA from the
best university in Poland, and he is painting and decorating
- but he is earning money."
It seems that in much the same way no one from Brighton
is really from Brighton and we all ended up here because
of a course we wanted to take, because of a recommendation
from a friend, because of girlfriends or boyfriends or
because we stuck a pin in a map, boldly stuffed everything
into a backpack and upped and left the parental home,
or because we came down for a weekend, got drunk until
we lay in the gutter shouting at the seagulls and thought
it was so much fun we never left - so the EU non-British
nationals ended up in Brighton.
From: Italy
Works: Leone d'Oro
I wanted to learn English. A lot of my friends have been
to Brighton and they say it is very good and nice because
it's a small city. Everyone speaks of Brighton as being
a very good place. I think it is important to speak English
to a lot of different people. I can speak it in Italy, but
not to English people. There are lots of people in London,
but people here talk to you more.
I've only been here since April, and I will go home this
month because of my work. I work as a photographer back
home. I'll come back in September to study more because
I don't think two months is enough, and I'll do another
term at school.
My social life is mostly at work. I work with a lot of Italian
people in the restaurant and I meet a lot of clients at
work, and we chat and have fun. The young people here are
very friendly. I often see a lot of the same people. It's
different to Rome, which is a big city, and you don't see
the same people on the streets.
I found it very easy to find work here. I got a job after
just a week. I was lucky, though, I work in an Italian restaurant,
and so my manager is Italian. After a week here, my English
wasn't so good, but I could speak to my boss in Italian.
I think maybe if I went somewhere else then I wouldn't have
found a job so easily. In Italy, it wouldn't be so easy.
England is expensive, I think, but no different to Italy.
In Italy they say, "England is so expensive!"
And everyone here says, "London is so expensive!",
but I don't think it's so bad. It's similar to Italy, so
I don't really notice it. What I pay for a flat here, I
pay for a flat in Rome; the food here is expensive, the
Italian food is expensive. And it doesn't taste anything
like proper Italian food!
From:
France
Works: Brighton Pier
I work on Brighton Pier selling donuts, burgers, coffee.
The people are fun, but the job is not. I want to be a journalist.
I'm actually going back to France for a few days next week
for some exams, and then I'll come back. The only people
who work on the pier are foreign. It's funny because a lot
of French groups come and ask me about the pier and about
Brighton, and I have to say, "I don't know, I'm not
from here either!"
I've been in Brighton six or seven months, and I'll stay
until the summer.
I came here to learn English, like most people. There is
a member of my family in London, so when I first got here
I tried to look for a job there. But I was in Sutton, and
the travelling was too much - and it wasn't a very nice
place to be. I told her there were too many old people there,
so she told me to come to Brighton.
I love the style of the place: the buildings, the people,
the beach with rocks - when I came here that surprised me,
we don't have that at home! I like the student culture;
there are a lot of young people here which is very nice
for me. The nightlife is great fun.
There isn't much I don't like. The food, I suppose, and
sometimes the English people. I think because there are
a lot of foreign people they think maybe we shouldn't be
here. They are rude to my face, especially at work. They
come and tell me that I don't speak proper English or whatever.
I think it's only the older people, though, but still I've
not made that many English friends. I've made friends with
a lot of Spanish people.
I think some people are scared because we are new and unknown,
and they don't take the time to find out about it.
From:
Spain
Works: ISIS School
I've been here one month, and I'll be here for another three
months. I came here to study. I am in my second year at
business school, and all the students come to Brighton for
work experience. They come here because you meet a lot of
people, and you can speak with people from all over the
world. And it's a great city! I'm training to be an International
Executive Secretary. We have to learn three languages: German,
French and English. I want to do a Masters in Scotland.
Maybe I will come back here, but not to study.
It is very different working here. For lunch in Spain we
get three hours, and here there is only one. And the English
all eat sandwiches! In Spain we will go home, have a proper
meal and a siesta. You won't see anyone eat in the office
in Spain, no one eats sandwiches. The days are much shorter
here also; everyone rushes, everything closes so early.
Back home I will be out until eight or nine in the morning,
and here when the clubs finish there is nowhere to go. I
think: what do I do now? But here you can go out all week,
at home you can go out only at the weekend.
I think some British people are very friendly, but some
I think don't have the time or don't want to understand
you. There is a girl in a fast food restaurant here that
always looks at me very strangely. You know when you say
words that sound similar in both languages? I say it in
Spanish and she says, "What? What? What?" and
looks angry.
I do think it's great here. I love it. When I go back to
Spain, I will miss it. I love my family, and I miss Spain,
but here is so good. You can go out all the time, and I
meet so many people from everywhere. And the boys here always
touch my bottom! It's not so bad if they are handsome, but
if they are ugly - no! Bye bye!
From:
Poland
Works: The Sanctuary Café
I've been here about a year. I don't know how long I'll
stay. My wife is from London, and she decided to do a PGCE
in Brighton so I came with her. I'm an English teacher,
but I can't teach in England. I'd first have to do a Literature
degree then a PGCE.
I'm from near Krakow and I studied there. It's similar to
here in a way, because Krakow is the cultural centre of
Poland. It's very bohemian, so in that way they are quite
similar, but the people are very different. The people at
home are very focussed on making money, whereas in Brighton
it's like no one has a job. I do a lot of voluntary work
with refugees and give them English lessons. It's a voluntary
project at the Cowley Club. I've met a lot of people doing
that, and they all seem to live on jobs they only do a few
hours a week.
There are quite a lot of people here trying to be posh -
it's very middle class. You don't get many people from different
countries. Well, you do, but there isn't much diversity:
you don't see many black people or whatever, it's very white
middle class. In London, it's hard to find an English person.
I like being by the sea, though. I like how it's liberal;
you can do whatever you want, no one really gives a damn.
It's a bit like London in that sense - it reminds me a bit
of Camden.
It is expensive here, especially because I like a healthy,
organic lifestyle, it's not cheap. But it is hard to get
work back home. It's very education-oriented. There are
a lot of people here who left because at home you earn so
little money you can barely pay your rent, and there is
just no point in staying there.
There is a different mentality here. People here take out
loans and go on holiday even if they have no money. It's
not bad I don't think, if you live in abundance the money
always comes.
From:
Czech Republic
Works: Louis Beach Café
I'm from Ostrava in the North East of the Czech Republic.
Everyone knows only Prague, but Ostrava is the second biggest
city. I studied Economics, Management and Marketing. I don't
know what I want to do. I don't really like economics. I've
been in England since November. I don't know what will happen
in the future, but I like it here so I will be here a while.
I came here because I wanted to learn English. Brighton
is an international city with lots of places to study English,
and my girlfriend is here. People know about Brighton in
the Czech Republic - we know it's like London but better,
nicer.
My social life is hard at the moment. I study at school,
and after that I go to work. I have to work because it's
very expensive for me here. Life is expensive here, but
the funny thing is you would pay the same money for stuff
in the Czech Republic as you would here - like a camera
or phone or whatever - but here I work one or two days and
I can buy it. But at home, I work maybe three weeks before
I can buy it.
The problem with finding a job is speaking English. If your
English is good, then it is no problem; but if your English
is not so good, then it is not so easy. I work in a coffee
shop on the beach. It's good for practising the language.
After we became members of the EU, it was much easier to
get work. For the Czech people before that, it was impossible
to get any kind of job, except maybe work as an au pair
or something like that.
The people here can be very crazy. I went to a club the
other day and the young people looked so mad and loud and
wild. But I think it's probably the same at home - there
are crazy people all over the world!
From:
Sweden/Greece
Works: The Sanctuary Café
I have two passports. Mostly I grew up in Greece, but I've
lived in Sweden. I came from Sweden and I've been here four
months. I have friends here and I've heard great things
about it. I just wanted something different; I wanted a
break. I'm staying until the summer, then I'm going back
to Sweden and Greece. I get to go home twice!
I've studied, worked, done care work, teaching, studying
educational studies, drama. I'm not looking to settle down
and do anything yet. I've travelled around the EU, but I
haven't worked anywhere except Sweden, Greece and England.
There are so many people from all over the place in Brighton.
I like that it's very cosmopolitan, there are people from
all over the place, that it's open minded to a lot of different
things. I hate the weather though! I don't like that there
isn't much more nature than the sea, but I like a lot of
things about Brighton.
Brighton specifically is much more chilled out than Sweden.
I've been to other parts of England though and it's not
the same. And, as for Greece, it's easier to earn your living
as a young person here. In Greece, the unemployment is high
and you very much depend on your family, your parents. It's
much easier to find a job, you can earn your living here,
you can pay your rent.
In Greece the wages are really bad and the cost of living
is so much higher. I seriously don't understand how people
manage. People come here because they can't get jobs, but
they also come to study, and there is a big Greek community
here. In Sweden it's not like that. But it's easier to save
money there than here, because the cost of living is high
here too.
copyright The Insight
2005 |
