"It’s a fight, a struggle. People die on the streets and you have to be careful with whom you talk.

“It is important to have friends, but in order to have them, you need to have a drink sometimes.”

These are the words of a Polish migrant talking about the reality of life on the streets for thousands of Central and Eastern Europeans who come to the UK in search of work and end up homeless, destitute and dependent on alcohol.

The issue was raised yesterday at a conference held by Horton Link-Up, a partnership between Horton Housing and Sharing Voices, Bradford-based community and mental health organisation working with minority communities.

Held at Bradford’s Hilton Hotel, the conference featured speakers from across the country who discussed the link between Central and Eastern European migration and issues such as alcohol abuse, homelessness and human trafficking.

People from the A8 countries are free to move to Britain and reside here for three months, but the conference heard that many are avoiding deportation and numbers of migrant rough sleepers are rising.

Dr Andrew O’Shaughnessy, consultant in public health at NHS Airedale, Bradford and Leeds, said there are 92,000 hazardous drinkers in Bradford district, leading to high hospital admissions. It’s a growing issue in Eastern European communities.

Dr Michael Garapich, a social anthropologist at the Centre for Research on National, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism, has produced a study called The Unwanted, looking at social and cultural determinants of homelessness.

Examining the role alcohol plays in the lives of marginalised migrants, he found it establishes a ‘bonding’ process important to rough sleepers.

Through interviewing homeless Eastern Europeans in London, he found that the ‘uniform’ pre-migration history was that they were either businessmen unable to pay debts or workers made redundant from large, state-owned industries.

In brief, he said, they are “victims” of the post-1989 socio-economic transformation in Eastern Europe and, once in the UK, they fall victim to “structural exclusion” in terms of welfare provision and low-paid jobs.

“Their world view is dominated by hostility and mistrust towards ‘the system’. Even social assistance and day centre staff are part of their hostile world,” said Dr Garapich.

“They don’t understand the system and feel it doesn’t want or accept them. That is partly down to the bureaucratic maze they enter, without language skills, and partly down to their experience of economic transition and the strong anti-state traditions of Eastern European societies.”

He added: “It is in this hostile world that the value of honest, face-to-face relationships increases. Migrants seek means of finding trust and friendship – alcohol consumption is bonding.”

Dr Garapich said other factors leading to alcohol abuse included homelessness, isolation from institutions and lack of family relationships in the UK.

“They talk of life on the streets as a struggle and, as they are mostly men, develop a ‘war-like’ bonding. It gives their life meaning and re-inforces the boundary between ‘us’ and ‘the system’,” he said.

“Knowing the ‘tricks’ of life on the streets, being self-reliant through diverse strategies of survival, gives a sense of power to those who feel powerless.”

Dr Garapich said, nationally, migrants are victims of a lack of professional, culturally sensitive native language psychotherapy and counselling, and exclusion from their own ethnic communities.

Helena Danielczuk, community development worker for Central and Eastern European communities at Sharing Voices, said language was the biggest barrier for migrants.

“All services in Bradford report language as the most pressing area,” she said. “The current provision in Bradford is minimal, considering the numbers of migrants located across the district. Empathy and communication need to be addressed.”

Speaking about her work with Roma families – mostly from Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic – Jackie Ward, of Bradford Council’s Education Services for New Communities and Travellers, said Roma people have faced discrimination and segregation in their home countries, leaving them wary of authority in the UK.

She said a “significant number” of interpreters have a racist attitude towards Roma.

“Often we’re just so relieved to have someone who knows the language, but we should also be checking on their attitudes,” she said.

The conference also heard from Adam Clark, project co-ordinator for Bradford charity Hope Housing which seeks to cover gaps in homeless provision. About a third of its clients are Eastern European migrants.

The charity screened a film shot in squats and makeshift shelters in Bradford, highlighting the squalor many migrants live in.