In Dublin two years ago, I was surprised at all the Poles there. Even a daily Polish newspaper. They flocked in when the economy was booming and I hear many are signing for welfare now. One of the benefits of EUism.
My first trip to England, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland was back in 2006. I was shocked at the number of foreigners they had working at the hotels we stayed at along the way. The tour I took was 20 days, and at each hotel, the bulk of the staff were either Czech, Polish, Lithuanian, Romanian, etc. Our tour guide was Irish, and told us that the Irish Ferries company we were using to cross from Wales to Waterford, Ireland, had fired all the local people, and hired nothing but Poles to run the ferries. I guess it was cheaper to hire foreigners than pay the higher wages to native-born employees.
It was kind of a culture shock to me to have to deal with so many people who weren't from the country I was visiting. In many cases, these workers couldn't even speak English. Taking your orders was one thing, but if you had a problem with your food, or made a special request, they couldn't understand what you were saying.
I went back and read my notes from my trip, and here's what I wrote: "One other thing that has bothered me since we've been in Ireland and Scotland is the large amount of foreigners working at the hotels. Most can't speak or understand English. It's like: "Hey!! where are the Irish people in Ireland, and the Scottish people in Scotland? The Irish Ferries are manned solely by Polish people. At the Dublin dinner and cabaret, we were served primarily by Asians. At the hotel on the Isle of Skye, one kid was from Turkey, and the other were all from other countries, and had problems understanding us. Tonight we had all Czechs waiting on us. WTF?"
I'm far from being anti-immigration. Both my parents were immigrants to America. But, when you visit other countries, you want to be able to interact with the people native to that country. You might run into people from other countries along the way, but you don't expect the hotels and businesses you deal with to be so over-run with foreign-speaking workers, that you almost forget the country you're presently visiting.