Who will walk through Poland’s open door policy?

Poland's Labor Ministry has decided that all EU citizens, including new entrants, Romanians and Bulgarians, will have free access to the Polish labor market once they join the European Union in January 2007. Meanwhile, Britain and Ireland have restricted the new entrants' working rights. Bulgarians and Romanians respond that their citizens will head primarily to Italy, Spain and Greece.

The Polish Ministry of Labor and Social Policy has declared that it will grant new EU entrants an automatic right of access to the Polish job market. This came just a few days after Britain and Ireland announced they will put a curb on skilled and unskilled labor coming from Romania and Bulgaria. Justifying its decision, the Polish Labor ministry said that the free flow of people is one of the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by European Union laws.

Both Romanian and Bulgarian authorities offer assurance that Poland has no need to fear an overwhelming influx of cheap labor force. They predict their citizens will not be leaving in great numbers. And those who do emigrate won't be heading to Poland.

Mircea Cosea, a Romanian politician and observer to the EU explains:

'I think the Romanian people will not emigrate in such a great number because Romania now is in a very complicated situation, we need manpower now because our growth is too high now it's about 7%, maybe 8% yearly and in some branches we already have difficulties finding manpower. So my estimation is that probably in the next 3 years something like 200 000 people will emigrate to find jobs in other countries.'

Cosea does not think that Poland will be Romanians' primary destination.
'I think Romanian people will emigrate to Latin countries, first of all Spain and Italy. Small number of people will emigrate to look for some jobs probably to countries like Greece but the majority of people will emigrate to Spain and Italy.'

There are a number of reasons why Romanian emigrants are predicted to favor Latin cultures. Mircea Cosea, Romanian observer to the EU again:

'First of all, it's a similar culture and also, we have big communities already in Spain and Italy. In Spain we have about half a million people working there and in Italy probably the same number of people, so they are going there to work in Romanian communities, with their own schools and churches.'

But not every country is willing to open its borders to new EU entrants. Britain and Ireland currently seek to prevent a new wave of arrivals. This marks a big change in policy, since two years ago, when Poland joined the EU, both government and business in Britain and Ireland were in favor of granting free access to workers from new EU states.

For the host countries it was a way to combat job shortages and at the same time prevent wage inflation. The actual number of arrivals exceeded the government predictions. Now host countries like Britain and Ireland are making moves to cut down on immigration.

Tomasz Teluk is an economic analyst for the Adam Smith Center. He addresses fears that cheap labor coming into Poland may generate competition for Poles already struggling to be employed:

'This kind of argument was first used by Adolf Hitler and it is not true. Competition is good also for the labor market. People will not loose their jobs.'

Teluk also supports the general idea of opening borders and combining labor markets.

'I think it's good. The idea of integration of the EU is connected also with the idea of integration of labor market. European economy will benefit from free flow of jobs. It's very profitable for workers as well as for entrepreneurs. And businesses can choose between different labor forces. European citizens can choose the best wages and best possibilities for their jobs. So I think Poland will also profit of it.'

Besides welcoming workers from new EU states, the Polish government is also planning to ease legal restrictions for Ukrainians.
Source:polskieradio.pl