Poles in Canary Islands

There is quite a bit of Poles living in the Canary Islands, but not as many as in Great Britain. There are several thousands of Poles living here and I think that the number of Poles who have chosen to live in the Canaries would be bigger if it wasn't for the distance between the islands and Poland. In any case, the Polish language cannot be heard here on the street as often as in the UK. I also think that an additional reason for this is that the Canary Islands are not a very easy place to live, unless you have a good education or speak Spanish fluently. However, there is an increasing interest in the Spanish language in Poland, so I think there will be the a wider group of Poles living in Canary Islands over the years. 

Poles who settled in the Canary Islands are therefore either better educated or better off financially, or more ingenious and not afraid of risk. There are Polish priests, doctors, musicians and business owners here. In the island of Tenerife lives also well-known Polish musician Kazik Staszewski. By my estimation we Poles are liked and judged positively by the natives of the Canary Islands. Of course, as in every country there are groups of people hostile to foreigners, where the phenomenon of xenophobia reaches significant size, but it is not a problem of a particular ethnic group.

It is worth to mention that the Poles living in Canaries do not isolate so much from the local population and seek to integrate, making it easier for us to gain good opinion and easier to live in the local society.