his lack of English and experience of working in Britain

After completing a Masters degree at a Polish university, Mariusz Gazda travelled to the UK hoping to find higher wages than those in his homeland. Now, like 500 of his fellow countrymen w:

"Lukasz said his brother had applied to Rolls-Royce for two positions while they lived together in Mount Carmel Street, Normanton.

He said: "They sent him letters thanking him for his application and telling him to try again in the future, but I think his lack of English and experience of working in Britain was a factor.

"He was packaging chocolates on a production line and for a few days he was delivering and preparing meat.

"He came to Derby because I was here and because friends said there were jobs available but the situation wasn't as he expected."

The head of the Polish embassy's economics department, Krzysztof Trepczynski, said the change in his country's economic situation had effects across the UK.

He said: "There has been a drop in the number of Polish people applying for work permits to the Home Office and some flights from Poland to the UK are no longer popular enough to continue to run.

"But we can't be surprised by this. In the 1980s, the same thing happened with migrants from Spain and Ireland."

Bish Wojcik, chairman of Derby's Eastern European Migrants Advice Committee, said the number of Polish people living in the city had levelled out over the past six months.

He said: "There are still 2,000 people filling two services at Derby's Polish church every Sunday, which gives you some idea of how many are here."