Who Needs America?

We spoke to young people who are in the position to compare work and living conditions in the United States and Western Europe. They all thought that coming to Great Britain or Ireland is much more rewarding than immigrating to the United States. Even though the United States is a fascinating country, finding legal employment closer to Poland is an argument hard to beat for many young Polish immigrants. Visa difficulties seem to be an even stronger reason for opting to go to Western Europe, as chances of finding legal employment in the United States are relatively smaller. As well, one has to invest quite a lot of money in order to travel to the United States and the risk of staying there on a tourist visa and working illegally is unacceptable for many.

As Michal Chudzik of ITC, a Krakow-based employment agency, told Nowy Dziennik, the waning appeal of the USA-focused Work & Travel program has affected the whole travel industry since May 1, 2004.

Katarzyna Sudak, 24, came to the United States for a childcare program au-pair and served as a babysitter for an American family in Michigan. In the evenings she attended English as a Second Language (ESL) classes. “I have very good memories from the first six months of my stay. I would breathe America in even though I didn’t have too many opportunities to take a closer look at the country,” she recalled.

Sightseeing in the United States had been Katarzyna’s dream since childhood. She was even thinking of settling in the United States for good. However, at some point during her stay here, she started to feel very disappointed.

“I realized that no matter how hard I tried, I would always be treated like a stranger. I also feared becoming ‘illegal’, and I wanted to grow,” said Katarzyna.

She packed her bags and returned to Poland. She later left for Ireland. Katarzyna is now working for an online bank in Dublin. The money she earns allows her to devote evenings to her journalistic passion writing for one of the Polish dailies. She also paints.

“A month ago, I represented Poland at an international art exhibition in an exclusive national gallery. I feel professionally and artistically fulfilled. I am happy. I feel European and I feel at home here,” she added. She thinks the United States would never offer her this level of self-fulfillment. “But America has taught me how to be mentally strong. I will definitely go there again, but only as a tourist.”

“America was supposed to be the biggest adventure of my life,” said Monika Gorka, 30, who came to the United States in April of 2005.

From the first week of Monika’s stay in the United States her American Dream was overshadowed by extremely hard work. Even though she knew what hard work is from helping her parents on a farm, as a child, Monika still feels disappointed. “I feel disheartened mostly because of the atmosphere in the local Polish community – jealousy, lack of interest in taking initiatives together and complete anonymity. You want to get away from it all,” she said.

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