Polish and East European Immigration
Banbury has one of the UK's lowest unemployment rates, dipping as low as 1% in 2005, although it has since risen due to the recession which began in 2008. with a resultant high demand for labour. Once Poland joined the European Union in 2004, a number of Banbury-based employment agencies began advertising for staff in major Polish newspapers. According to an estimate by the Banbury Polish Association, there are between 5,000 and 6,000 Poles in the town. The influx of the largely Roman Catholic Polish workers has revitalised Banbury's Catholic churches, to the extent that at least one now offers a Mass said partially in Polish. Additionally specialist Polish food shops have opened as well as supermarkets such as Tesco opening specialist food counters for the Polish migrants.
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