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Recent trends in international migration - Poland 2002
Kepinska, Ewa and Okolski, Marek |
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| The continuing stagnation of the economy and the renewed rise in unemployment has meant that government policies were preoccupied with strictly economic and welfare matters, leaving migrant policy as an issue of secondary importance, states this paper. The indications are that this situation will continue and that the expected rapid transition from net emigration to net immigration is not yet in sight. On 11th April 2001, parliament substantially amended the Aliens Law, which gave rise to the setting up of a government immigration agency, the Office for Repatriation and Foreigners. However, after parliamentary elections in 2001, one of the first political declarations was the plan to radically trim central administration, including the Office for Repatriation and Foreigners. The decision to liquidate it was postponed for a year, and though this time has passed it is still functioning, thus creating a climate of uncertainty. Other important pieces of legislation in this area were a bilateral agreement between Poland and Spain, which provides the possibility of mutual employment of seasonal workers, of a period not exceeding 9 months in a calendar year and subject to the requirements of the respective labour markets and an international declaration between Germany and Poland, giving Polish workers greater access to the German labour market. The slowing down of economic activity and growing unemployment has resulted in more people becoming interested in taking work abroad with a higher propensity than in earlier years for the unemployed to seek jobs outside Poland. A major country of destination of migrant workers was Germany, followed by the USA and Italy, other important target countries included the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Spain. Employment of foreigners in Poland continues to be very low, with much of the work being seasonal or irregular. Due to the concealed nature of this work it is difficult to know whether the number of irregular foreign workers was increasing or decreasing in Poland. This paper looks in some detail at trans-border mobility, destinations for emigrants and the origin of immigrants, migration for work, the repatriation of ethnic Poles, foreign labour in Poland, asylum seekers, illegal movements by foreign citizens and the expulsion of foreigners from Poland. |
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