Introduction
The migration of Central and Eastern Europeans to the Western part of the continent after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 has already received a great deal of academic interest. Sociologists in particular, but also other scholars, have focused on many of its aspects: push-factors in Eastern Europe, migration movements, the policy of local and national authorities in the host country, the settlement process, return migration, gender and class patterns, changing identities and values, etc.1
However, this migration has not only influenced the life and views of the immigrants. It has also affected the host society. For many Western Europeans, the Central and Eastern European immigrants were the first people they met from the former Eastern Bloc. Even stronger: as many immigrants were employed as domestic workers or construction labourers by Western families, they somehow penetrated into Western European households.
How the individualization of immigration resulting from direct contact between a Central or Eastern European employee and a Western European employer reshaped the latter’s perceptions is the subject of this article. Was there any ‘real’ contact at all, or did communication only take place in an indirect way, hindered by the lack of a common language or the absence of employers during their employees’ working hours? Which opinions arose and to what extent did they differ from classic stereotypes about immigrants and/or Central Europeans? Were these views generalized to larger groups of Central European newcomers or did employers distinguish the immigrants they knew personally from the grey mass of ‘others’? Has labour migration been a major factor in the construction of new representations or is this overshadowed by other image-building phenomena, such as media and travel? And finally: to what extent do the immigration and employment contribute to the rise of a common European identity and how is this defined?
These questions will be explored via the case of Polish workers in Leuven, Belgium. The choice of Poles is self-evident: they are the largest group of Central and Eastern European immigrants. In many Western countries they have become the literal embodiment of East-West migration: the Polish plumber in France, the seasonal worker in Southern Europe, the cleaning woman in Belgium, and the youngster in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Concerning the employers, I opted for people living in a medium-sized town, a halfway station between the more multicultural metropolis and the more traditional countryside.
Belgium and Leuven can be considered as representative for much of the rest of Western Europe. Like France and Germany, Belgium has hosted many thousands of Polish workers since 1989. Contrary to Great Britain, Ireland, and Sweden, it did not immediately open its labour market for the new EU member states in 2004. Only from 1 June 2006 onwards has it allowed Central European workers to fill 112 so-called ‘bottleneck professions’ (mainly in construction and in seasonal fruit-picking). In the first year, 14,209 vacancies were filled in Flanders alone, of which 88% were by Polish workers. Others, however, continue to work illegally.2 On 1 January 2007, the city of Leuven counted 383 registered Polish inhabitants. Of course, the official data concerning ‘foreign’ inhabitants do not necessarily include all people of foreign origin: many of these do not report for registration, or they have been naturalized.3 Most interviewed Poles assess their total number in the city to run from 500 to 1000. This is less than the Polish presence in Belgium’s biggest cities, such as Brussels and Antwerp, but it remains a considerable number nevertheless.
For this study, it was not the Poles themselves but rather their employers that were the main source. I concentrated on the employers of domestic and construction workers, as these are the main economic sectors in which the Poles in Leuven are active. Moreover, both professions intersect on the crossroads of the family-related and the labour spheres, and are therefore important sources of influence on private employers. Together with my students, I interviewed 32 employers of Polish domestic workers in Leuven, Belgium. They were selected haphazardly (also because ‘black work’ is a difficult subject to find interviewees for), but all in all they form a group that is very heterogeneous with regard to age, sex, class, etc. The group can therefore be considered as representative, the more so as the research was not conducted in a quantitative way. The interviews took place in the spring of 2007.
Contact
A first important finding is the high intensity of contact. Many Belgian employers turn out to have regular contacts with their domestic worker, or to be at least in the know on several aspects of his or her life. This is striking. On the one hand, most Poles clean or reconstruct houses during the daytime, when many, if out most, Belgians are at work. Still, this does not make encounters impossible. Polish workers arriving early in the morning often have a brief chat with their employers while the latter are having their breakfast. Those working through the afternoon may still be there when the family – mostly the wife or mother – comes home. In addition, many have worked for the same employer for years on end, so that a mutual acquaintance has developed over a long period. They may have met more often at the beginning and since then have kept more distance, but this does not stop employers from being informed about their domestic worker’s life, or at least pretending to be so. In a certain sense, they are somehow forced to gather some social background information on their foreign help as they trust their domestic workers with a key or with access to their houses (although social control, for instance by neighbours, also intervenes here). Finally, it is not just two-income households that employ Polish workers. Pensioners, or housewives spending most of their own time likewise in the home, also do so. All in all, it is the children and the fathers especially who seem to have less contact with the domestic worker. With respect to Polish construction workers, perhaps evidently so, patterns of contact tend to be somewhat different.
The high intensity of contact is also striking because most often employers and employees do not share a common language. Only very few Poles speak Flemish and even their knowledge of French or English is often limited. However, this does not seem to be an inhibiting factor. First, even a limited command of foreign languages allows foreigners to pass on information. Sometimes, their efforts as such are well appreciated by their employers, certainly when they realize that they have learned the language in Belgium after their working hours. Second, there is a lot of non-verbal communication. Signs are used to make a message clearer. Pictures are shown to tell of life and family back in Poland. Several employers have also been served traditional Polish dishes, and in return have shown their appreciation by learning to pronounce ‘bigos’, ‘pierogi,’ ‘sernik,’ or perhaps more frequently ‘vodka’ and ‘cheers’ in Polish. Even physical contact can play a role in the image-building. ‘You see that these are people with a good heart, but it is impossible to talk. Sometimes she holds you and you don’t know why,’ as somebody said about her domestic worker of an advanced age who spoke no foreign languages at all.
Not only communication, but also observation is an important source of information. A lot of data that the interviewees appear to know about their domestic workers was not supplied by their domestic workers themselves, but resulted from personal observation. In many interviews, we heard remarks such as ‘She has many clothes’, ‘she has a car’, ‘she comes by public transport’, ‘she prays before lunch’, etc. Sometimes, these and other facts are discussed with fellow employers of the same domestic worker. Indeed, it often occurs that a Pole also works at relatives’ or neighbours’ homes, and some interviewees admitted that they gossip or talk about their domestic worker.
All in all, it is obvious that contact was much more intense and general than one would have expected. There is no clear distinction between people who are at home during their employees’ working hours and people who are not: both groups prove to have a general knowledge about their domestic worker. Even more, contact often is not limited to the domain of work. One Belgian family with a satellite dish sometimes watched Polish television programmes with their construction worker. Another family puts up their domestic worker’s daughter when she stays in Belgium. Several employers have paid visits to their domestic worker, for instance for a dinner in their apartment or for a maternity visit in the hospital. A number of Belgian families have already travelled to Poland. Some of them were invited for a wedding, others just dropped in during a holiday trip (although their choice of destination had been inspired by their employee). It is clear that such contacts have a huge impact on these Belgians’ perception of Eastern Europe, certainly because many domestic workers do not live in touristy areas or historical cities, but in Eastern Poland or in the countryside. However, the effect has not always been positive. One Belgian family was so indignant at the way ‘their’ money had been spent (on a big villa and, more particularly, on a very expensive wedding party), that they fired their Polish domestic worker.
Topics of conversation
The fact that employers and employees have regular contact does not mean that all kinds of topics are discussed. On the contrary, conversations remain limited to rather superficial subjects. Most of all, talk steers a course through topics of daily life: weather, the traffic, or the price of goods (during these conversations, Poland and Belgium are often compared). In addition, domestic workers often present their own background and employers appear to know their family situation or what their children study. Health is an important subject too, and so are other important personal events such as a death or a birth in the family. Finally, conversations often tend to be on important current affairs, such as 9/11 or murders that make it into the national or international news.
However, employers are much less acquainted with the more precise circumstances surrounding their domestic workers’ migration. Not every employer is able to answer even simple questions about their employee’s length of stay or his or her exact reason for emigration – a strikingly high number did not even know their cleaning women’s address. The Poles’ views on a multicultural society, their relationship with other immigrants and many other aspects of a migrant life in Belgium are almost never discussed. On the other hand, neither do employees know a great deal about their employers’ living circumstances nor about their social life. Interestingly, the illegal aspect of the employment – often still operating on the black labour market – remains taboo. In interviews, this is only touched upon from a Belgian angle: ‘I have no problem with black-work: the Belgian state demands a lot of taxes and misuses its income’, as one person said. Of course, these topics are also avoided by the Polish conversation partners, who prefer to keep silent about such ‘sensitive’ subjects. For the same reason, the precise destination of the money immigrants earn is seldom known: most employers suppose that the pay is sent to Poland and used for supporting the family or for building a house.
Of course, this is sometimes true. Yet, a comparison of Belgian views with the results of interviews with Polish domestic workers themselves reveals a lot of differences. While all Belgians are convinced that Poles live a better life as émigrés than they would had they remained at home, Poles often talk about their difficult living circumstances in Belgium: the poor housing, the complicated family life, the homesickness for children and parents, the daily stress of being arrested for illegal work, and the competition between Polish workers. Belgians are not aware of this. Sometimes they mention that, for instance, their domestic worker always closes the door or does not want to clean the street and the outside windows, but they do not realize that this is caused by a permanent fear. They certainly do not know that the jobs they offer in their own house are often sold by illegal Polish subcontractors.
Images
In general, Belgians are very positive about their domestic workers. This concerns especially the latter’s performance in the work place. In almost all interviews, Polish cleaning women are described in terms of honesty, reliability, punctuality, faithfulness, and gratefulness. Their diligence and motivation are often stressed: Poles are perceived as workers who do everything that is asked of them and some employers even notice that their workers are (unjustly) afraid that they do not clean well enough. Their thrift is also treasured: remarks such as ‘they do not use a lot of water and soap’ or ‘they do not throw away anything’ often occur – with a certain satisfaction – in interviews. Also worth mentioning is their so-called emancipation. Belgian women are pleased to see that their Polish domestic worker is sometimes accompanied by her husband, who helps her in mopping, ironing and other domestic chores in which Belgian husbands do not have a good reputation. Interestingly, Polish women are also fond of the emancipation of Belgian men, who are often observed in the kitchen, playroom or in other rooms where Polish husbands and fathers seldom make an appearance.
Other characteristics are often cherished too. Poles are often called open, kind, and good-natured. Many employers stress their cordiality: ‘she kisses me’ or ‘they show their feelings much more than we do’. Poles are also appreciated for their lack of materialism – this was especially true for a young Belgian mother who was offered free assistance by her Polish domestic worker after she had given birth. The same applies for their deep respect for other values. In particular, their adherence to family values is often mentioned: ‘they support their parents’, ‘they pay for their children’s education’, or ‘she was shocked by the fact that we have so little respect for our parents’. Polish women are also recommended for taking good care of themselves (‘they make themselves up’) and for being proud at the same time (‘I sometimes give her clothes, but she is too proud to wear them herself’).
Of course, critical voices are sometimes also heard. Some domestic workers are reproached for submissiveness, while others, on the contrary, are blamed for directness (‘she always says what she thinks’, ‘they have their own will and do not want to change this’). Classic stereotypes also occur. While domestic workers themselves are called industrious, laziness is sometimes associated with Poles too (e.g. ‘her mother is often in Belgium and she does not do anything here’). The same goes for the lack of integration and the – now limited – knowledge of languages. One employer compared Poles with other immigrants in Belgium: ‘Turks and Moroccans have come with the whole family. Poles are different. The wife comes and the husband remains in Poland. Eastern Europeans share apartments.’
All in all, however, the view is positive. Compared with domestic workers of other nationalities, Poles are clearly much better liked by their Belgian employers. Local Flemish domestic workers are not motivated – ‘as if they work in a ministry’ – and are much more difficult to find. The latter also applies to jobs other than domestic work, and several interviewees stated that they had also employed Polish odd-jobbers (plumbers, decorators, plasterers, etc) or that they had wanted to do so but in the end did not, only because the Poles lacked their own materials. Asian and African domestic workers, on the other hand, are considered lazy and unreliable. They are perceived as much more remote from the mentality and labour culture of the Belgians than the Poles.
Impact
These positive images contrast rather sharply with the numerous negative sources of information about Poland. Two recent (and still unpublished studies) reveal that Poles are represented in a very unfavourable way in Belgian fiction as well as non-fiction. From an analysis of four Flemish newspapers dated October 2005 through July 2006 Marc Peirs and Paul De Roo conclude that Polish immigrants are often associated with crime, low-paid jobs, black work and unlawfulness. With reference to Poles, these media used the word ‘illegal’ five times more frequently than the term ‘legal’. If crimes are committed by Poles, their nationality is often mentioned, contrary to Belgian lawbreakers (which is perceived as irrelevant) or malefactors of another nationality (which is perceived as racist).4 An analysis of Flemish soap operas and drama serials on the national channels leads Kris Van Heuckelom to arrive at similar conclusions: Poles are mostly associated with ‘Trabant’ cars, gypsy music, an unpronounceable language (in a written version often including Cyrillic and Greek letters), and vodka or chickens ready to be slaughtered – a close comparison with the movie figure Borat is not far-fetched.5
This negative coverage is countered by the generally positive perception of individual Polish domestic and construction workers. It is remarkable how Belgian classic clichés about Poles – both those living in Belgium and those staying at home – are almost diametrically opposed to the personal opinion of Belgians with regard to Polish individuals in their employ. The role of this labour migration in the rise of new views on Poland is thus very important, certainly because Polish domestic workers are the main channel through which Belgians are exposed to Polish individuals. Only a limited number of the interviewees have travelled to Eastern Europe (‘I’ve never been to Poland: I don’t want to spend my holidays in poor countries’), but if they had, the trip had often been inspired or stimulated by the Polish domestic worker.
However, this does not mean that old stereotypes disappear. Clichés are deconstructed, but can also be confirmed. The catholic reputation of Poles, for instance, is confirmed and enfeebled at the same time by the contact with domestic workers. Belgian employers notice their cleaning women’s affection for the Polish pope. A significant number of Belgians employ an orthodox domestic worker and are thus confronted with the fact that more than half a million Poles belong to the Orthodox Church (especially in the east of the country from where there is a higher number of immigrants). Others see that the Poles they know do not fit at all into the category of Polak Katolik: ‘She was pregnant when she was 17 years old, married afterwards, divorced, and does not go to church. The same holds for the other two Polish women I know: they are all divorced’. Even traditionalism or conservatism, a feature that is often linked to Catholicism, proves not to apply to all Poles: ‘She goes to the gym instead of going to the church and she uses the internet.’ And if Poles go to church, this is not always for their spiritual welfare: ‘Generally speaking, all Poles in Brussels go to church. There, they meet each other and they are together and they talk together. They go to the church more for social contact than for the church.’
Other stereotypes are submitted to the same process of simultaneous deconstruction and confirmation. Interviewees often state that their domestic worker does not drink or is ashamed about the misuse of alcohol by compatriots. But clichés continue to stand: ‘It is important for Poles that you always have enough vodka at home. First vodka, then food’. Another employer even compared Russians with Poles: ‘Do Russians and Poles differ? I cannot see a difference. Of course, they have not always been the best of friends. But both are Slavs and love vodka. But I doubt if they are soul-mates.’ Also in other fields, Poland continues to be associated with Russia: ‘I thought it was cold in Poland. A bit like Siberia. But that is not the case: we often talk about the weather and it can be hot there too.’
The fact that old stereotypes are not completely deconstructed is not surprising. They might be clichés, but they are also based on a certain truth. Poland is a catholic country and alcohol is very popular in the country. In 2008, Poles ranked fourth on the list of alcohol consumption per capita (after Russia, Ukraine and the US) and vodka is still the most popular drink (before beer; together, both drinks account for 90% of Polish alcohol use).6 In this field, Poland can still be put in one category with Russia. A complete negation of the stereotypes would be incorrect.
However, thanks to contact with labour migrants, these stereotypes are progressively put in perspective. Belgians become acquainted with Polish individuals and realize that the classic opinion about Poles might have a certain basis in truth, but is still not generally applicable. By meeting individual Poles, differences are nuanced and, even more, overshadowed by similarities. Belgians realize that Poles might differ from them, being more religious or using more alcohol, for instance, but they also come to see that they still have much more in common. Next to ethnicity, other categories of collective identification are found: gender, age, class, and even ‘culture’.
Europeanization
Does this mean that the employment of Polish labour migrants contributes to the rise and spread of a common European identity – a phenomenon that can be called ‘Europeanization’? The answer to this question is double-edged.
There is certainly no explicit or absolute Europeanization. First, everybody agrees that Poland is European. A limited number of interviewees questioned this statement, but still admitted that ‘Poland at least tries to be European’. This label seems obvious, and Polish immigrants have not (or to a very limited extent) contributed to its spread. Second, the knowledge of Europe and Poland’s place in its construction is very poor. Europe can be defined in different ways – all interviewees agree – but many of them do not know, for instance, if Poland is a member of the European Union (even a Leuven University professor had doubts about this) or belongs to the euro zone. Europe is often understood as a mental or cultural concept rather than a political one. In such cases the European character of Poland is not put in doubt, although people may remark, for instance, that ‘they are European, of course, but they have been communist minded for a long time’. All in all, it is clear that most interviewees have not thought a great deal about such questions. One of them thought that a knowledge of languages was a criterion of European-ness, but then had to concede that ‘my grandmother cannot speak French or English, so she is not European!’.
Third, it is important to remark that a process of Europeanization is very gradual and that the influence of Polish immigrants is neither direct nor immediate. National identities continue to prevail and people are not always inclined to identify themselves with other European nations, either with Poles or with others. Old concepts continue to exist and mental mapping remains traditional. The term Eastern Bloc is still used very often, and Poland, Lithuania, and Russia are perceived as one homogeneous region.
However, all these findings cannot negate the existence of a certain, although mostly unconscious, Europeanization. On the one hand, the perception of many similarities has led to the awareness of a common identity. In this regard, it is striking that many interviewees explain differences by means of chronological development, stating that 50 years ago Belgians were just as Poles are now. Belgians were not yet secularized, were more traditional, and were poorer (and therefore, according to one interviewee, drank more alcohol) a couple of decades ago. ‘Compare it to Spain: Spain was different 50 years ago, but it is not anymore’. On the other hand, this similarity is contrasted with other ethnical groups. Lesser known immigrants in Belgium are perceived as much more different. This concerns most especially Muslims, who are therefore explicitly excluded from being European by most interviewees (although here again people that have personal contacts with Moroccans or Turks are more apt to consider them as European).
It is also interesting that the contact with Polish labour migrants somehow side-steps the classic division between Eastern and Western Europe and overlays it with a split between North and South. Intensive contacts, and the positive images resulting thereof, have convinced an important number of interviewees that Poles are much more similar to Belgians than, for instance, Italians or Bulgarians. Not only skin colour, but also more internal characteristics, such as peace and quiet, are referred to in this context. Of course, this implies the construction of a new, or at least yet another, mental map, based on mistaken ideas (for instance, religion or religious practice is also mentioned as a difference between the North and the South of Europe). Still, it remains interesting that in this way the ingrained difference between East and West is challenged. The construction of an Eastern (and a Western) Europe originated in the 18th century, when British and French enlightened thinkers ‘invented’ an eastern, uncivilized Europe in order to break the classic division between the developed and cultural South (the cradle of classicism and Renaissance) and the backward North (the home of the Goths and other such barbarians) and to include themselves among the more developed nations of Europe.7 For the first time in 200 years, this East–West duality seems to be questioned.
However, what does not change at all is the categorization of people within ethnic groups and their assessment in terms of good and bad or similar and different. Interviews regularly reveal that other groups have now replaced Poles in certain popular imaginaries. Roma (gypsies), Romanians, and Albanians are perceived as the more problematic ethnicities and hence are compared unfavourably to the Poles: ‘Poles are going to work – why do others steal?’ Such comparisons are the best illustration of the mental influence of Polish labour migration: the fact that Poles are perceived as ‘workers’ contributes to a more positive image building. Their domestic employment and their correlative infiltration into Belgian families is an enormous advantage for their country’s image. Other ethnic groups would clearly be better off with similar individual representation among Belgian households.
Idesbald Goddeeris is an Assistant Professor with the Research Unit ‘Modernity and Society 1800–2000’ of Leuven University/K.U. Leuven (Belgium). He studied Slavic Languages (1990–94) and History (1994–97) and obtained his PhD in History in 2001 with a dissertation on Polish exile politics in Belgium in the 19th and 20th centuries. His main fields of interest are migration history, history of the Cold War, and historical culture in Eastern Europe. He teaches courses on the history of colonialism and imperialism, and of regions such as Russia, the US and Central Europe.
