At a guest appearance in Poznań a few days ago, I talked about migration policy – the one that does not officially exist in Poland, the one that the government nevertheless pursues despite the lack of formal documents, and the one that should be there.
When discussing the integration of migrants in Konin, Kalisz or Piła (mid-size and smaller cities of western Poland), we have to take into account the broader context of what is happening throughout the country and around the world – after all, it is from around the world that the migrants come to us from. So while in Poznan I talk about Poland, but also about the world, the one that is and the one that will be.
In our backyard
It is interesting that in Poland – where the substantive dialogue we conduct, even as part of the Poznań conference, has nothing to do with the government’s hostile narrative about migration generously served before the elections. Poles’ sympathy and patience for Ukrainians is rapidly decreasing, and there is little trace of the recent support level for helping refugees (over 70 percent of the society, as polls show). The Poles are tired of helping, people from Ukraine are tired of being guests. How much longer can you handle this? Mandatory gratitude is difficult and artificial. Mandatory kindness too. What is needed is the normalization of mutual expectations, an honest assessment of difficulties and challenges, and a systematic search for solutions to them. This can’t happen fast enough.
In my speech I am quoting the Central Statistical Office data literally from last Monday – the number of people in Poland is shrinking almost four times faster than before. The number of Poles decreased by 141,000 this year. At the same time, the number of older people is growing. Eurostat data predicts what will happen next – there will be approximately eight million Poles fewer over the next 25 years. People over 60 will then constitute half of the population. The Central Statistical Office also reports that the number of children born to migrant women in Poland has increased tenfold in the last year. In 25 years they will work for the pensions of half of Poles. I will be 78 years old then. So we’re also talking about my retirement.
Next door
I’m talking about Ukraine when the war will end (when will it be?). How many people will come back and what will happen? You can say: the ball is still in play, but according to various experts, 1/3 to 2/3 of refugees will leave Poland for Ukraine. The others will stay. The main factor influencing this percentage is time. When migration from Ukraine amounts to almost 10 million people across the continent – we are talking about significant numbers here. Returns will certainly be a difficult topic in the near future – declarations by the local government authorities of Greater Poland region towards the west of the country clearly indicate that workers from Ukraine are welcome and needed in the voivodeship. At the same time, their return is a priority for Ukraine. We are therefore facing a significant conflict of interest – and there will be more of them. During a recent conference in Lviv in July 2023 I witnessed a half-day conversation about raspberries. Raspberries as a source of conflict, as much as grain, however strange this may sound at the time of war. The discussion was about the production, prices and sales markets of raspberries from Poland and raspberries from Ukraine – and there will be more raspberry topics. The reconstruction of Ukraine after the war and the process of Ukraine’s accession to the EU will abound in difficult topics in which our countries will have different priorities and visions. It will take a lot of maturity and vision to talk about them constructively. It will be very easy to argue. And we, as societies, do not need this. Yet, I am afraid this will happen.
In Europe
I touch slightly on the European dimension. The discourse on migration in the EU is as politically contaminated as in Poland, and rarely anyone looks at the data. Who knows that of the 446.7 million inhabitants of Europe, 8.5 percent are people born outside Europe, and approximately one million people apply for protection every year? Who knows that of the global refugee population (32 million plus 53 million internally displaced persons, as of 2023) only 10 percent have found refuge in Europe, and Turkey remains the leading host country? The belief that a river of fraudsters and scammers is heading to Europe is not confirmed by the data: 40 percent of people applying for international protection actually receive it – and according to very strict requirements. More people receive other forms of stay, also related to the need for protection – people have reasons for leaving their countries.
It is a serious challenge to introduce new residents to the labor market. 9 out of 10 European employers declare their willingness to employ new workers – there is a labor shortage in local markets, which slows down economic development, yet workers of migrant origin constitute 4.7 percent of the labor force. The challenge is not the presence of people in Europe – their number is constantly shrinking and they are needed. The challenge is to educate these people and introduce them to the labor market. It is also to use their skills. It is such a shame Europe allows for professional doctors, engineers, nurses and teachers to do cleaning jobs. And also – the shape of the discourse. Third generation migrants are frustrated because European talk about values and equality turns out to be nonsense from their perspective. They do not want to be second- or third-class citizens in the third generation. The young grandsons and granddaughters of immigrants see no chance for themselves – and they are not the ones responsible for it, having gone through European school systems that apparently failed to give them life opportunities.
And around
The picture wouldn’t be complete without a glimpse of the world. Climate change alone is making larger and larger areas of the Earth uninhabitable. The global economy is still focused on the profit of rich regions at the expense of poor regions. The Eurocentric thinking that the search for happiness, fulfillment and development is an obvious right for some and an unauthorized luxury (or claim) for others is not sustainable. For example, in the discourse on the Polish-Belarusian border, there is often an argument of defense of Polish territory, Polish rights and privileges, and in the second sentence that Poland will not pay for the mistakes (colonialism) of other European countries. And yet we want to buy bananas at Biedronka for PLN 2.50 and have cheap avocados all year round, even if it makes someone hungry somewhere. We enjoy the benefits of having unfair economic practices worldwide. We just don’t want to be blamed for its reasons.
So?
Using all the above as a kind of mental canvas, I draw a picture of migration policy in Poland.
It’s not there, but it’s there.
The government canceled the strategic document right after the 2015 elections. Nevertheless, important decisions are made that influence what we as a country offer to migrants.
An element of the unwritten policy was to open the border on February 24, 2022 for millions of people from Ukraine that found refugee in Poland. Opening the labor market, providing health insurance to people coming from Ukraine and opening access to education was a bold step – and no doubt an element of state-level policy.
Spontaneous policy
Currently, however, other steps are clearly visible that also contribute to the no-policy status quo: the authorities do not attach much importance to controlling the quality of assistance received by people from Ukraine. Accommodation places have not had a systemic approach for a year and a half: there are no operating standards for these places, no systematic monitoring, no systemic support for people with special needs: each facility or organization struggles on its own with the needs of people with disabilities, the elderly, the sick and the people with mental problems – since February 2022, no coherent system has been created, not even guidelines for working with such people.
The lack of a clear strategy, direction or priorities constitute an actual element of the state’s migration policy. The decision-makers decide to keep the support system in ambiguity and chaos. Even the system of housing subsidies does not hold together – a recent study conducted by the Migration Consortium shows very large discrepancies in the practice of these subsidies in different regions of Poland. It is a non-system, to say the least.
An attempt to prepare a social inclusion strategy is on the table – the document prepared by the Chancellery of the Prime Minister in spring has been consulted by the government with a variety of actors for over half a year. Shrouded in mystery and silence. I participated in the preparation of this document and I know that it specifies social needs and gaps. It specifies the groups at risk of social exclusion and what their needs are. The government knows this. It’s all collected in one document. But unfortunately this is not nice pre-election knowledge. The research shows many groups of people in Poland are not doing well. For now, their needs are not addressed.
The policy of not learning from other people’s mistakes
One element of state policy is retreat from the area of labor market control. De facto, decisions on bringing people to Poland to work are made by the market, business, and specific companies that hire employment agencies to bring groups of people from subsequent countries: India, Bangladesh, Nepal, the Philippines, Uzbekistan to name a few. The state is clearly pursuing a migration policy when it agrees to build a container settlement for 6,000 people near Płock for migrant workers. This is how the state is building a ghetto. It is making the same mistake that Germany made after the war by bringing Turkish labor to Germany and forgetting that behind the invited hands of construction workers there are human beings.
The mentioned container settlement has no chance of remaining a nice place to walk around: people crammed into a small space (four beds in each container – as seen in the TV report from this place), working hard, will not have the energy or desire to learn Polish or get to know the Polish culture. People not treated subjectively will not feel like people with full rights, nor will they feel welcome. They will not exercise their rights – they will not even be aware of them. Soon, there will be exploitation, fraud, abuse and violence there. Myths, fear and prejudice will grow around the estate. This is what happens to Polish workers in other EU countries – we should know first hand. Yet, as a country, we invite people to this model of life – the conditions we propose are bound to be harmful.
We breed problems
The state conducts migration policy in the area of education – that is, it raises a generation of young migrants with no opportunities for growth. It agrees to educational exclusion. According to the state, it is okay for young people with migration background in Poland to vegetate while waiting for the end of the war or for their mother to return from work. The state decides that there will be no efforts in Poland aimed at systemic education about diversity and migration. Check your children’s textbooks. The textbook narrative about migration is a narrative about pathology and fear. Migration is shown as a dangerous and evil phenomenon that should be fought. As a country, we do not teach people to cooperate. The activities of all non-governmental organizations in Poland are not enough, especially since the state systematically tries to ensure that our participation in shaping attitudes is as small as possible. We systemically breed excluded people – children without school do not exclude themselves.
Declaring interest in social cohesion, the Polish state plays a harmful role in the area of emotions and discourse. The pre-election narratives are in flagrant contradiction to what we are talking about at the conference in Poznań, and also in stark contrast to the truth. As a result, a lot of human energy is devoted to denying facts, instead of building new knowledge and skills. We are so far from the edge in our narratives that getting to zero, to a neutral conversation about why people leave one country for another and what changes then, seems risky. Not to mention teaching people how to live in a diverse world – which Poland already is a part of.
Not only Poles are people (seriously)
Often, not only in Poland, the dialogue on integration and migration is limited to too fundamental issues. Referring to the concept of Maslow’s pyramid of needs – as a country, we see people only through the prism of the lower levels of the pyramid. We identify that a person needs somewhere to live and something to eat. We identify that s/he needs language learning. However, as a system, we no longer think that people also need a sense of security, recognition, respect and friendship. Observing the actions of various authorities, one can even conclude that it is the state’s policy to do everything possible so that people do not accidentally experience a sense of belonging, recognition and respect.
The state wants people to come to pick mushrooms and apples. However, it absolutely does not want the mushroom collectors to feel that they are allowed to do anything else here. The state expects people to come to serve and be grateful for the opportunity of a lifetime. But that’s not how the world works today. Those who come to Poland nowadays have education, ambitions and don’t care about mushrooms. They start businesses in Poland and buy apartments. They come with resources that do not fit into the Polish understanding of migration – as a country, we cannot find our way to handle them. The system is therefore making life more difficult for migrating people, complicating procedures and multiplying formalities in order to show visitors where they belong and who is in charge. This is our policy. This is our national pride.
We – who?
Talking about integration always leads to the concept of bilaterality – integration is a two-way process. When we think about what migrants have to do to “fit in”, we do not pay enough attention to what we, the old residents, have to do. Meanwhile, for integration to work, we have lessons to learn. We need to think about our own identity, who we are, and stop thinking about it in a hysterical, defensive way. We need a rational conversation about reality: what values do we actually have, what distinguishes us (if it does) from others, what unites us in general? We need to derive a sense of belonging and security from something different than before – not from the fact that everyone meets in church on Sunday, not from the fact that in the village they have similar facial features. We need to learn to build relationships and trust with people who have different roots and a different view of the world. We need to learn to get along. So far, at the system level, things are not going too well. However, it is better at the level of small groups: companies, schools, cultural places – there are some modest successes here. We don’t take enough advantage of the fact that Poles are, for example, brave. We need some kind of state coaching session – rediscovering who we are here. We need healthy self-confidence and self-awareness.
Too often we consider integration as a law of grace. As it was a nod to the newcomers, a noble gesture. It is not. Integration is the only reasonable approach to the fact that societies are becoming diverse. The only one that does not lead to violence (if I am wrong in this reasoning – I would love to hear counter-arguments). It is a method of managing diversity and dealing with our own human nature. The unknown makes many people uncomfortable and anxious (except the minority of madmen and diversity lovers, who just enjoy the fact people are different). Most seek reassurance in the known, not the unknown. But the world has changed and we deal with the unknown much more often. That’s why we need integration – that is, methodical building of relationships, getting to know each other, getting used to each other, creating a meeting space – to build a sense of security and comfort for everyone.
Whoever writes the state’s migration policy after the elections (since this is unlikely to happen before) will need to face the facts that lie behind the narrative of fear and stereotypes that we are now dealing with. Imagination and vision to understand the world will be needed. For this we will need people – many specialties, from many different institutions and organizations, research centers, theoreticians and practitioners- think and plan together.
If whoever wins has the courage to do it honestly, I’ll sign up.