The first days of July in Poland passed on outdoor field games. Young people of various ages, from respective years to advanced decades, heroically defended our western border.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Donald Tusk heroically defended the same border, but against these young men. Of course, so that our brothers and friends Germany can freely share with us what they have the most precious, that is, the personnel resources of their engineers and cardiosurgeons.
Interestingly, both sides of the hard-hitting were patting in the rhythm of the Tibetan mantra that only illegal immigrants and so “bad” are the problem. Legal immigrants, so "good", work and pay taxes, ergo are no problem. I don't know how this, evidently false, paradigm has arrived in our general consciousness. It is as if we did not see that an immigrant is becoming an illegal immigrant to date rather legal, whose stay in Poland will expire. This is simply a much more frequent practice than illegal crossing the border.
It is even more amazing that almost no 1 asks the apparent question today: does Poland request immigrants at all? In my opinion, I do not request what I will effort to justify to you in short soldier words. Supporters of bringing workers from abroad to Poland frequently argue that without economical immigrants, the Polish economy would usually fall and fall. This thesis is most popular for local businessmen to not tell Janusze business. The argument seems reasonable, but does not withstand confrontation with facts.
At the beginning of this year's 2025 average unemployment in Poland was 5.4%, which is little. In the Wielkopolska Voivodeship, which is traditionally the least labour-sceptic, it was only 3.3%, so it was method unemployment resulting from the rotation of jobs. Thus, in Wielkopolska there is no de facto unemployment, as in Silesia, Małopolska or Mazowsze, where statistic greatly improve the absorbent labour marketplace of the capital. The list is closed by Warmian-Masurian voivodships with 9% and Podkarpackie with 9.1% unemployment. inactive not a bad score. The real number of unemployed people is presently oscillating around the order of 500 000. In this context, given the geographical factors, it would be possible to recognise from poorness the appropriateness of bringing workers from abroad. However, let us take a closer look at the labour market.
According to various accounts, the population of Poland is between 36.5 and 38.5 million people, of which as many as 1.5 million of them are not Poles. From this population 22 million people are people of the alleged working age, that is, people who are capable of working. Of these, 17.5 million people are described as active. They are not just workers, as they include unemployed people and, therefore, non-employed people.
How easy it is to number 5 million people in Poland does not work. Of course, in this number we have students of stationary studies, rencists, mothers dealing with houses, people working in black, etc. In addition to an easily-translatable group of students and rencists in another cases, we trust solely on estimates. However, even utilizing the farthest ones, we will not get more than 2 million for this group.
Thus 3 million Poles do not work. What do they live on? – I don't know, but I guess. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm certain you will, too. Our professional activation strategy simply does not work, while the Polish economy has gigantic interior reserves that we can usage as our driving force. What can you do to make that happen? Well, we must apply the biblical maxim which Saint Paul or Lenin indicated to us. Although this seems to be a contradiction, it is precisely the same maxim: “Whoever does not work does not eat”.
Such a strategy has been operating successfully for years behind our east border, where Alexander Lukashenko ensures that all Belarusian has a job. Sometimes it is work below qualifications, very frequently it is work below aspirations, but there is no situation erstwhile individual in Belarus gets money to survive, for nothing to do. We should copy the wise solutions that our neighbors use, no substance what our relation with them.
The second argument, as false as the erstwhile one, which they rise with stubbornness worthy of a better cause, is the demographic issue. "Poland is dying, we must fill this generation gap with another people" – we hear. That's not the way. Demography is indeed a giant problem, but if we want to solve this problem, as in the erstwhile case, let us learn from our neighbours, this time from the Czechs, who as the only ones in our part of Europe could slow down the process of extinction of their population.
Instead of trying to break open the door, let's go with the Czechs for a beer, let's look at their solutions and how it is now wisely defined to implement them on our ground. If they work, they make sense. If they're effective on the another side of the Sudetes, they'll be there.
Meanwhile, even drawing a comparatively ethnically and culturally close Ukrainian population will lead to the formation of a closed minority. That's due to the fact that this population is heavy infected by criminal flag ideology. An ideology that puts hostility towards Poland as 1 of its foundations. So Ukrainians are not a possible solution to the problem for us, but they can only be the origin of further complications.
Moreover, large, non-integrated groups of migrants always have a destructive effect on the host state. We don't gotta presume that. After all, we see what is happening in our western neighbours in Germany, but besides in France, the Netherlands or the Nordic countries. Migrant populations surviving off the grid frequently feel excluded. At that time, she adopts hostile attitudes toward the countries in which she settled. It is now a regular European practice.
Poland does not request any immigrants today. Not the legal ones, not the illegal ones. It's apparent with the others. They just request to be deported. erstwhile they're in our territory, they're breaking the law, which can't be allowed.
If we want to save our demography and aid the economy, let us invitation not exotic visitors to Poland, but Poles. All those who were forced to live beyond her borders. Not only the descendants of Poles exported to the east, but besides our compatriots from the last waves of economical emigration. There's area for everyone.
Przemysław Piasta
photo of border bridge in Słubice
Think Poland, No. 29-30 (20-27.07.2025)
