Boston: A town united by diversity » Communities » 24dash.com

Until Poland and a number of other Eastern European countries joined the European Union in May 2004, the Lincolnshire town of Boston was perhaps most renowned for its 272ft church tower, aptly named the Boston Stump due to its appearance.

But in recent years the town's population has ballooned, with thousands of migrants from Eastern Europe flooding in to Boston looking for work.

Local people say there were tensions at first but these have eased in recent times and the town is united by diversity with efforts to encourage integration between the indigenous and migrant communities.

Patricia McNally, 41, works at an estate agent in Boston, having moved to the town from Bradford. She said she was not surprised by Hazel Blears' comments.

Miss McNally said: "I think in Bradford people mixed more with other races. Boston is a bit behind. It's an expanding town but if you had gone to Bradford in the 1950s nobody would have mixed as much.

"Boston is catching up now and people are becoming more settled. I think it is better than the public perception. The council and police have set up educational schemes for foreign nationals to learn English and the police have emphasised that they can help in terms of interpreters.

"I think the Government should have done more to control the immigration. There's been some concern with the hospital in terms of the maternity services. All the migrants seem to be coming here to work so they are all paying taxes. As they are bringing in extra income, the Government should be putting the money back into hospitals and schools.

"It's put a strain on services and the Government should have predicted that. I think they under-estimated how many people would come to the town."

Tracey Sharp, 19, works as assistant manager at The Prospect pub in the town. She said: "Learning the language is really important because those that don't speak English group together and don't integrate with everyone else.

"I have lived here all my life and you do sometimes feel there are more foreigners now than English people. There are nice foreigners who we have a laugh with but then there are those that can't speak English who are rude."

Arkadiusz Godlewski, 26, arrived in Boston seven years ago, three years before his native country, Poland, joined the EU. He is now part-owner of Grill Janosik, a mountain-style Polish restaurant in the town.

He said: "People came to Boston because of the ability to work. There is plenty of work in Boston on the land and in factories and it was very easy to find a job in 2004 and 2005.

"There were lots of agencies that didn't require you to have a knowledge of languages. They were advertising in Polish newspapers for workers in England, especially in Boston."

He added: "The English and Polish communities get on well. In 2004 and 2005 there were a few bad examples of English people not liking us. It wasn't like London where there are lots of different communities.

"But they (the indigenous population) have found us helpful with work. They work with us, they live with us and we pay our taxes and National Insurance. They just had to understand that we were the same.

"I meet people every day who say they want to stay forever and then some say they are going back. Some go back and then return to England because they say nothing has changed in Poland.

"I think more people will stay in England than go back because of the level of living. For example, one hour's work in Poland will buy you one litre of petrol whereas in England it will buy you five litres, so I don't think that Poland is going to get better than England."