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Influx and integration of migrants in Poland in the early XXI century
Okolski, Marek and Grzymała-Kazłowska, Aleksandra |
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| Poland still lacks an immigration doctrine and long-term policy, something that can be explained by the fact that, it is a country, which has historically been host to a relatively small number of long-term or permanent residents, argues this paper. As a consequence of membership of the Soviet led Communist bloc, with its restrictions on travel, before 1990 population movements into Poland were negligible. Since then there has been a huge increase, not only in the numbers, but also, in the geographical diversity of the people coming to Poland. Many of them came to raise money and to support their livelihood by engaging in petty trade and occasional jobs as well as beggary theft, prostitution etc. Poland has also become a transit territory to massive flows of people from Eastern Europe and Asia to the West. Adding to the numbers were those repatriated ethnic Poles from former Polish territories and elsewhere, notably Kazakhstan. Since 1989, and the restoration of democracy, Poland, which since 1945 officially claimed to be a homogenous nation with one ethnicity and one religion, has dramatically changed its ethnic profile. The first immigrants who appeared in Poland at the end of the 80’s were seen as a novelty in Poland’s post-war society and the welcome was reasonably warm. Later, due to the perception of foreigners as rivals in the labour market and as people involved in illegal economic activities and serious criminality there was increasing hostility. The distribution of migrants in Poland and their impact on Polish society is very uneven, with most concentrated in the east, some in the south and west and the majority in the capital. In Warsaw Vietnamese traders cluster around large open markets where their economic activities take place. In the current stage of development the immigration phenomenon is stabilising, the influx is being controlled and a coherent immigration policy is being developed. Immigration at this transitional stage can be characterised as contradictory and unpredictable. |
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