Some people may rightly ask why all of these people come to this country. Where have they come from, what are they doing here and how come they are so different?

I prefer to try to understand people rather than drawing from my own limited experience of the world. Maybe we should take more time to have conversations, to listen, learn and understand from each other.

Here are some of my thoughts from a meeting set-up with a Polish doctor on why he came to the UK. The first thing to point out was that the doctor came as a result of the solidarity movement which brought him to London during the restrictive economic and political situation in Poland.

Our doctor felt that English is difficult to learn as a language, apparently Latin is easier. However even with the limited language skills, he found he could work during the day and study in the night time. There were easy jobs to be found in kitchens and hotels or hospitals but now it is becoming more difficult.

He lived by the mantra that ‘your success in your own hands’ and took that phrase literally when he wrote his first book about how the world is set up for right handed people rather than left handed people. He wanted to explain to left handed people how they could live and operate all of the different tools which are designed for right handed people.

Today our doctor is a pensioner who works for private people speaking in Polish. There are many different societies based in London for Poles. Most Polish people emigrate to West Europe rather than Russia as they were the bad guys in the old days.

English culture, history and political climate were better than French and German. Also the real Polish government was based in the UK during the communist era. So the UK was the obvious place to go for Polish people.

The solidarity movement made it very easy for Polish people to gain a passport. There was a strong relationship between the British and Polish armies and many of the people’s army who did not accept Soviet regime came to England.

Not everybody accepts that people should flee their own country. Some Polish people are seen as the rats that are fleeing from the sinking ship; more people should be staying in and not leaving their country of origin.

In the beginning it was mostly intelligent people with good culture who managed to come into the UK but after 1990, the village people started to come to London which strangled the culture off the Polish community. Likewise gangstars started coming into the community.

The difference between the old communist/ex-combatant Polish people to the new village and rural community is striking. The people from smaller cities are very primitive and mostly live on a different planet. Emigration makes people home sick – people get depressed, problems with the food, no contact with local people, not speaking the language and not being allowed to work in professional jobs so they need to see psychologists and a doctor.