This English Town Backed Brexit. Now the Poles Are Leaving

“Have you been drinking?” shouts policewoman Amy Lucas to a group of mostly Polish migrants hanging out on the street on a cold afternoon in December. They swear they haven’t—and dart down an alleyway. Lucas follows them to a parking lot, where she confiscates a large bottle of beer and lets them go after hearing they’re homeless, sleeping in a tent in a nearby forest.

It’s not an unusual event in Thetford, a small town two hours northeast of London, where complaints about the rise of street drinking have become synonymous with grumbles that too many east European migrants have settled in the area. The streets have just as many inebriated English people though they’re often mistaken for migrants because many swill cheap, extra strong Polish beer bought for a pound ($1.30) in local east European shops.