What do Ledbury's East European migrant workers think of Ledbury? What do they think of English food and English people? How are they treated in Ledbury? This citizen journalist met two hard-working migrants to find the answers to these and other questions.

Audrey from Armenia

Audrey from Armenia and Zuzana from Slovakia are fairly typical of the East European migrant workers, who have travelled to England and Ledbury after gaining employment here through agencies. They are hard-working, well-educated and intelligent individuals, who, as migrants, are motivated, resourceful and eager to adapt to life in England.

Both arrived here in early summer and have spent their time picking strawberries at a local farm with other migrant workers. They've been earning about £200 a week, which is what Zuzana would earn in a month in Slovakia, but would take Audrey four months to earn in Armenia. It is obvious why they would rather work here than back home. Audrey has already sent £1000 back to his family - the equivalent to nearly two years of wages in Armenia! Zuzana prefers to spend her wages on clothes.

Saving like this means living frugally. Very few nights out - English beer in pubs is expensive they complain and food shopping is done from Tesco's. Still, life here was a little too austere for Audrey when he first arrived. Unable to speak any English and with no friends on the farm, he told me he didn't eat for a week because he didn't know where the shops were or where to buy food from. Eventually he stumbled into town and into the Full Pitcher, where, using sign language he managed to order a bowl of soup.

Still Audrey's English is not good. Mixing with Ukrainians, Latvians and Bulgarians on the farm meant that a common language needed to be adopted - and that language surprisingly wasn't English, but Russian. Even now after they've been together all summer Zuzana and Audrey speak in Russian together. For the purposes of this interview Zuzana translated Audrey's Russian into English for me. But surely this is a terrible state of affairs - the English language is one of our biggest and most important exports, and here we are with intelligent, linguistically able young migrants from around Europe in England learning Russian instead of English!

There are no English classes available in Ledbury for speakers of other languages - I know, I checked - it took me 50 minutes on the telephone between John Masefield High School, who said there were, and Hereford Technical College, who said there weren't. The latter were correct, the former had confused basic literacy skills for adults as ESOL classes. I made the point to both educational establishments that any potential foreign student looking for a course would have given up long before those 50 minutes of confusion were up.

Anyway, this is 'academic' really. If you're working picking strawberries from six in the morning to six or seven in the evening (sometimes 11pm in June), with only a 30 minute break in the day, then not only have you not enough time to sit in a language class, but your brain and body are too tired to learn a new language.

How did they feel about their jobs I wondered. Although Audrey said he'd rather work in construction, they both praised the farm, their boss, supervisors and the agencies that had found them the job. In fact they were happy in Ledbury and both wanted to stay. This was difficult for Audrey as his visa was soon expiring and he had little choice, but to return to Armenia. Looking dejected he told me there were few opportunities for employment back home and that unemployment was high there. For Zuzana, as an EU citizen, she could stay in the UK and was now looking for alternative employment. Their only complaint was their accommodation. They've been sharing a caravan with other workers, which meant little privacy for the couple, and, at this time of year, some very chilly nights and early mornings.

They have had time to enjoy a few of the sights in England. Their farm has organized coach excursions to London, Oxford, Birmingham, Hereford and Ross-on-Wye, which they've enjoyed. What about English food I wondered. Audrey said he ate everything and enjoyed English food, although he told me Tesco's pizzas were disgusting. Zuzana missed Slovakian bread and disliked the English custom of putting vinegar on chips.

Had they had any problems with the local people I asked. Not at all, they replied, saying everyone had been very friendly towards them. Zuzana told me how once when she was walking back from Tesco's loaded down with shopping bags, a woman had stopped in her car and offered her a lift. Audrey said that during the floods he had been up to his chest in water on the Ross road as he tried to get back to his caravan. A Land Rover driver picked him up and got him home. The only exception to these kindnesses they said were young children, about 8-12 years old, who had shouted and thrown chewing gum at them, when they were shopping at Tesco's. Zuzana had been surprised when the children asked her for cigarettes and she'd told them if they weren't old enough to buy them they weren't old enough to smoke them.

It seems strange that these academically trained young people should be grafting away at a strawberry farm - a question of misplaced talent it would seem. Zuzana graduated in Economic Management after five year's of study in Slovakia, while Audrey graduated in Agricultural Management from an Armenian university. The farmers say that they have no choice but to employ migrant workers, as not enough local people are willing to do this work. Meanwhile, our own young people leave the county in search of jobs elsewhere or to go into higher education. Few return. In recent years Ledbury has joined the 'global village' big time, bringing this transitory age group into the town, that in the past was lacking.

Many thanks to Audrey and Zuzana for speaking to the Ledbury Portal.