After the Brexit Vote, What Next for Britain’s Poles?

It has been nearly three months since Arek Jozwik, a 40-year-old Polish factory worker in Harlow, England, was killed after being punched to the ground in what police suspect is a hate crime. The Harlow police arrested six teenagers, five of whom were released because of insufficient evidence, while one has been released on bail. Two Polish police officers whom Warsaw dispatched to reassure Harlow’s Polish community have headed home, leaving Jozwik’s friends and family desperate for justice and deeply afraid. “We only stick together now. We only go to places where you know who is there,” says Eric Hind, a Polish close friend of Jozwik.  

It has been a hard year for . After months of anti-immigrant rhetoric, Britain’s decision to leave the European Union on June 23 was followed by a 41 percent surge in hate crimes, many directed against immigrants, in the month after on fire. In Leeds, a local couple allegedly told a Polish shopkeeper to “go to your own country.” The man, who had a heart condition, collapsed and had to be taken to the hospital.