Immigrant Voices

Nigerian-born Gregory Ibok arrived in Poland in 1971 to study medicine. During his studies, he met a Polish woman and got married. With the birth of his son in 1979, Ibok left university to open a restaurant in Lodz. The political turmoil of 1989 and the early 1990s prompted him to sell the restaurant and travel to England to study English. "I anticipated that with all these changes happening," Ibok says, "there would be demand for qualified English teachers in Poland." In 1994 he returned to Poland as a fully accredited English teacher and now instructs students in the language at a private trade college in Lodz. Together with some friends, Ibok last year founded the Association for Aid to Foreigners Living in Poland. The organization's aim is to provide newly arrived foreigners in Poland with the help they need to adjust to the new culture."I feel that in some groups I'm accepted, but generally Poles are quite conservative when it comes to other nationalities and it causes a lot of problems of cooperation. But I feel the whole problem comes from the economic situation of the country. There is a bit of intolerance in society, but this intolerance has a long history and it is not only intolerance against black people. We have to understand that intolerance exists even among Poles themselves one is a Catholic, another maybe an Orthodox, maybe even a Muslim. When I first came to study here, you could count on your fingers the number of foreigners moving about. I don't blame this on the Poles. I feel with time things will have to change. I really like to live here. I don't have problems at my workplace. I don't even have problems with the food. In fact, any time I'm out of Poland for more than two weeks, I get homesick."