Lucy Pinnell / Cornwall, England
Names have been changed to protect identities.
Anya originally came over to the Uk as a short-term migrant worker herself from a small rural village in Poland. Here she saw the farmers seriously lacking in workers, as a lot of British people are unwilling to do hard labour for minimum wage. Back home, she knew of many eople unable to find work or earn a living wage, as unemployment was high, and the Polish minimum wage was well below that of the UK. She saw a ga in the market, and from here created her own business- advertising to people back home, or in small, poor, rural villages, posting regular adverts in newspapers. She works alongside her husband, supplying his farming business with workers to cut and harvest cauliflowers, cabbages, daffodils, potatoes and any others in-season crops for supermarket chains.
In previous years, before and during the joining of Poland into the EU, and when the pound was four times stronger than the Zloty, workers could come over and earn what would be exchanged for a small fortune in their native currency, sometimes to support family overseas or simple to return home better off. Because she is the one who brings them over here, Anya feels a great responsibility for the workers. She arranges their accommodation, their work shifts, their wages, their benefits, taxes and medical appointments.
Today, ten years later, she manages over 100 workers scattered around the country. They live on caravan sites on farms, sometimes renting empty holiday lets in the winter; a few are also scattered around on odd bits of land owned by farmers. Within these caravan sites, a real sense of community is formed, particularly among the long-term residents, but also featuring a rotating cast of newer, temporary workers. With no contracts, these people are free to come and leave with no notice; as a result, many decide they want to return home after as little as a few days, and may simply pack their bags and leave overnight.
While there are better opportunities to earn money in the UK, the majority of Polish resident’s hearts will always belong to Poland. With a flexible, season-based job they are free to return to their homeland for months at a time ass they wish. Unfortunately not all of the worker’s decisions to emigrate are money-orientated; many of them are running from problems they face in their home country- court summons, debt problems, even husbands. Some would even be homeless; alcoholics that have been kicked out of their homes, people unable to afford a house or basic living expenses. For them, work in England is a life-altering opportunity, a chance to acquire a home and a decent wage.
Unfortunately, agriculture is among the most dangerous professions, with accidents frequent among workers. When harvesting cauliflowers using long and incredible sharp knives, loss of fingers and thumbs is common. The heavy machinery also presents a great risk, with people sometimes getting appendages stuck in moving parts, and even freak accidents such as one electrocution several years ago when a tall piece of machinery struck some power lines overhead, killing one man and injuring a dozen others.
More recently, while working on this project, I heard of a man who had cut the tip of his thumb off and been rushed to hospital. There he underwent four operations in just one week, due to the doctor’s botched attempts at sticking up his thumb, which resulted in infection and him ultimately losing half of the thumb. I heard him describe his terrifying experience, as he lay alone in the hospital without a translator and unable to speak a word of English, not knowing what was going on or what would happen to his thumb- a traumatic experience to say the least.
The working days are long, from early in the morning until late evening they work in rain, wind, snow or sun. One worked described cutting cauliflowers in gale force winds last year, explaining how he would pick a cauliflower up to cut the leaves off and it would simply blow out of his hand.
But the Polish are a proud, hard-working people, with high standards of cleanliness in their homes, and a close-knit sense of community among each other. This project had given me a more in-depth view into their lives than I could have imagined at the start, and allowed me to create an honest, personal account of their work and lives in this country.
This was a project undertaken by Lucy Pinnell in 2015. For any inquiries please email contact@lbjournals.com