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This page was last updated on 20 November 2006

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Why we came

‘I don't want to do this forever - I am tired all the time.’

Jarek Kowalik, 24, from Poland, is working as a kitchen porter and cleaner in London


I have been working in London for two years and it is hard work. I came from a village near Krakow to London with the hope of earning money but it has been less easy that I thought. I now work two jobs one as a KP (kitchen porter) and the other as a cleaner early in the morning. This gives me enough money to live and to save but it also means constantly working. I don't want to do this forever - I am tired all the time.

At the moment I have a nice boss at the restaurant and the chef makes very nice staff meals and has a joke and all the other staff are very friendly and we sometimes go out for drinks together. Before this I worked somewhere and was just shouted at all the time and the waitresses pretended you were invisible. So that meant working hard and being unhappy. Sometimes I still get asked to do too much or am told off for being lazy but I am not lazy just sometimes very tired.

I like London and have also been to Cornwall to visit some people I know who work there but I want to go back to my home eventually. I think it would be harder to settle down here. There are some successful Polish people here but I think it is more like a holiday, a working holiday and in two years I think it will end.

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