Opinion: Foreign workers are vital to the economy

"Awash" is more neutral and less emotive than "swamped", used by successive generations of politicians to engender fear about "waves" of immigration. But it still says something about popular fears of being "flooded", so it is important to remember that fewer than half a million Poles have come to work in Britain since Poland joined the European Union.

They are by far the largest national group from those countries that joined in May 2004.

Many Poles are young people, willing to work hard for the better wages they receive here than back home. Generally they have been accepted, certainly compared with the reception of refugees and asylum seekers from other countries. Nevertheless, there are continued debates over how open our borders should be, notwithstanding the freedom of movement permitted within the EU, and usually based on distortion of the nature of these groups of "foreigners". Circling around that debate are the vultures and their tired cliches about dole scroungers. In other words, "they" present a threat we need to contain.