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It may be worth setting your video recorders this evening at 9pm, BB2. As you may well be aware the BBC is running a series of programs under the heading of The White Season, Is white working class Britain becoming invisible? The title of the program tonight being The Poles are Coming:

According to some of the locals, Peterborough is being stretched to breaking point by the influx of Eastern Europeans, attracted to the area by the promise of high wages and decent living conditions in exchange for manual labour. Employers are delighted with their Polish recruits, but some residents want the Poles to go home.

They’re not alone. The Polish city of Gdansk wants its workers back. Its shipyards are struggling without them and there aren’t enough men to build the football stadium ready for Euro 2012. This prompts Gdansk’s leaders to visit Peterborough to plead for the return of their workers.
Can the Polish immigrants be tempted home and how will the local economy cope if they left? Award-winning documentary filmmaker Tim Samuels follows the global success of The Zimmers, the OAP pop group he brought to BBC Two, with this wry examination on the impact of immigration on one typical English city.

The program is also backed up by an exellent article on the BBC website that is full of economics.

I will be working through the article and be watching clips from the program with my AS group tomorrow and will update the blog with some of the ideas that we generate from our discussions.

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