Poland has its share of problems with migration processess within EU

Challanges connected with the integration of immigrants and migration processes within the EU were discussed during a conference co-organised by the Institute of Public Affairs in Warsaw and the Biritsh Council. Experts also discussed the findings of the recently released Migration Integration Policy Index. It concludes that Poland, similarly to other new EU member states, does not guarantee efficient integration of migrants into the society.

Migration Integration Policy Index produced by a consortium of 25 international organisations, thin-tanks, foundations and NGOs compared the actions of 25 European and 3 non-European governments aimed at promoting the integration of immigrants in societies. Among the 140 criteria for ranking were: long-term residence, anti-discrimination and access to labor market. Thomas Huddleston, policy analyst from Migration Policy Group - a Brussels-based think tank says that every European country has a pathway to improve. Out of 28 countries evaluated Poland ranked 21.

'Poland has its strenghts in its laws on allowing migrants to become long-term residents and to live with their family. But of course there are areas for improvement, for example for Poland on making sure that the labor market can benefit from migrants who are already living in Poland and also ensuring those migrants are protected from racism and discrimination'.

Poland is still sending more migrants abroad that accepting foreigners on its soil. According to the latest report released by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs as many as 1.5 million Poles have already emigrated for labour abroad, most of them to Ireland and Great Britain. Joanna Fomina, a research fellow at Bradford University has researched the image of Polish migrants in the British press. What came of her study is a dissonance between the image of Polish migrants and the perceived impact of their presence in Britain.

'The image of Polish migrants is predominantly very positive. Obviously there are some stories about drunkards, about homeless people etc. But they are rather marginal and they are rather typical for tabloids - serious press is rather optymistic. As far as the impact is concerned , the picture is slightly different. Newspapers were speculating about numbers all the time. Besides, probably the most focus was put on the economic effects ofPolish migration and the labor market.'

The immigration of third-country nationals to Poland is low but growing in size and importance. Professor Irena Rzeplińska of the Helsinki Foundation Human Rights is a lawyer providing free legal aid to refugees. The program was established when Poland ratified the Geneva convention.

'Now we have a different category of migrants in Poland. One of the new phenomena is refugees and another is foreigners who look in Poland for better life, like citizens from Belarus, from Russia and especially from Ukraine. It is a completely new phenomena because until recently we, Poles were foreigners in the European Union countries'.

This country also receives few asylum seekers and many - most of them Chechens - transit through Poland on their way to western Europe.
Justyna Frelak is a coordinator of migration and eastern policy program at Warsaw's Institute of Public Affairs.

'They are not going to settle down here but go to Belgium or England because they think that Poland cannot actually offer them good living conditions. So we don't have to care about them because they will leave anyway. Especially that 90% is from Chechnya. They are victims of conflicts in Russia and the Caucasus and they are a really difficult group for any state'.

In order to help deal with this and other groups af refugees a new social campaign has been launched in Poland. Held under the slogan “Poland is diverse” it was prepared, among others, by the Association for the Integration and Protection of Refugees in Poland “Proxenia” and the Polish Red Cross. Its organizers wanted to make a reference to the fact that although now Poland seems to be a nation of one race, culture, language and religion there are many examples from the past that it was often home to various ethnic groups who coexisted here successfully.

Source: By Danuta Isler, polskieradio.pl