Local businessmen walk past a Scottish referendum poster in Edinburgh, Scotland, 11 September 2014. EPA/ANDY RAIN Dostawca: PAP/EPA.
About 120,000 non-Scottish EU citizens are entitled to vote in the referendum, with Poles by far the largest group.
A 2011 census indicated that there are over 61,000 Poles living in Scotland.
Edinburgh-based Marcin Soltysiak, director of the Polish Community in Scotland, claims that Poles are being doorstepped by pro-Unionists and told they will have to leave the country if the 'Yes' campaign wins, as Scotland would have to renegotiate its EU membership if it becomes independent.
“To suggest that we will all be deported following a Yes vote is patronising and insulting,” Soltysiak told the Scottish Herald.
First Minister Alex Salmond, leader of the Yes Campaign, has rejected the notion that EU-migrants will be jeopardised.
“At a time when Scotland’s European future is being placed in jeopardy by a Westminster elite obsessed by UKIP, it is becoming ever clearer that Scotland’s European policy is best decided by people in Scotland, ” he said this week.
“This is our chance to act and minorities across Scotland to unite to help Scots achieve our common goal for the benefit of us all,” he claimed.
Nevertheless, Salmond has struggled to convince many voters, with one recurrent problem being what currency Scotland would use, should it become independent.
The most recent You Gov poll, published on 11 September indicated that 52 percent of eligible voters want to preserve the union, while 48 are for independence.
Polls repeatedly indicate that voters aged 65 and over are most in favour of maintaining the union. This bracket includes some Poles who settled in Scotland after the Second World War, when it became clear that a Soviet-backed communist government was being installed in Warsaw.
Meanwhile, Scottish-born Britons who currently live in England, Wales or Northern Ireland are not entitled to vote in the referendum, a factor which has caused resentment.(nh)
Source: Dziennik Polski, The Scotsman, Scottish Herald