Poland seeks to balance economic, security factors in immigration policy - minister

oland needs to balance economic and security issues before deciding on its immigration policy, Internal Affairs and Administration Minister Janusz Kaczmarek reiterated at a press conference Tuesday.

A task force, under the auspices of Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski and including officials from ministries of labor, foreign affairs and internal affairs and administration, as well as secret services, is working on an action plan to open the labor market to immigration from Asia or from post-Soviet countries.

"Only this body can carry out a full analysis, also from the point of view of security," Kaczmarek said. "For it is well known there have been countries that have absorbed large numbers of immigrants and have seen ethnic districts spring up in their cities and have seen organized crime associated with these districts."

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Poland, which has experienced a significant outflow of workers to the more affluent countries of Western Europe since its May 2004 accession to the European Union, expects to import labor in the run-up to the Euro 2012 soccer championship, which will require a massive infrastructure build-up. With a construction boom already in progress, some industry segments are already experiencing skills shortages, as unemployment - while still high - has been in a rapid decline and wages have soared.

When Poland was awarded co-organization of the European Championship in April this year, the government revealed the existence of a task force to decide policy priorities to address the issue of immigration.

"The task force is to make an evaluation of the labor market in Poland [] of the impact of legal migration and also of illegal migration," Kaczmarek said. "[It is charged with] carrying out an analysis of the phenomenon from the point of view of who we should open to."

Poland has in recent years attracted relatively small numbers of migrants from countries such as Ukraine and Vietnam.

"We have to decide, whether we want to orientate ourselves to Asians, who are looking at Poland as an attractive destination, and some want to even settle here," Kaczmarek said. "Or we should look to citizens from those countries, culturally close to us, such as Russia, Ukraine, Belarus."
Source: gielda.wp.pl