Self-fulfilling prophecy. How Poland sabotaging the integration of migrants

Of all the rankings and lists in which Poland leads the primacy, 1 is seldom mentioned – Poland is the fastest in past due to the fact that in little than 10 years, it has evolved from the country of emigration to the country of immigration.

After 2004, a gag was popular “who last leaves for the UK, let the lights out at the airport” and in 2025 over the Vistula River more than 2 and a half million foreigners reside. These are about 2 million Ukrainians – wage migrants and war refugees with the position of PESEL UKR, over 200 000 Belarusians, as well as citizens of India, Vietnam, Nepal or Colombia.

Some of them live in labour hostels, work in factories (where Poles are already only managers) and will return home after a fewer months – or come back for a fewer months. Others buy apartments, send children to the Polish school, consider Poland their home and intend to apply for citizenship (it is possible after more than 8 years of constant surviving and working in the country).

Polish elites – whether from PiS or KO – for a decade repeated that they would not let a grim script known from the West to be implemented: a large but alienated migrant community that caused concern to the inhabitants and weakened social cohesion. By the way, it's rather a comic charge in the mouth of a organization that has been operating for years due to quarreling Poles. They both promised that Poland, unlike the West, would reap the benefits of migration. Hence the evidence beginning to economical migration with more than modest indicators of asylum granting.

It is not essential to be sympathetic to the right to note that the presence of abroad diasporas and the influx of fresh residents into the European Union is accompanied by anxiety. 41% of Europeans in 2025 consider irregular migration a major challenge for the EU.

Poland had all the advantages to avoid this fear. The lion's part of foreigners are citizens of Ukraine and Belarus who are akin to Poles in appearance and rapidly learn language on a communicative level. While many migrants come to the West through household reunification, in Poland more than 80% of foreigners come to work (so they contribute to the budget). The rate of crime committed among migrants is lower than that of the indigenous population. Finally, migrants do not compete with Poles for social assistance – firstly, effective social assistance does not be even for citizens, secondly, it does not apply to foreigners before obtaining permanent residence (and there is simply a number in Poland). Even Ukrainian citizens with temporary protection position benefit from social assistance and NFZ little frequently than Polish residents.

And yet, the level of social hysteria around migration reaches zenith. The coalition followed it on 15 October, announcing the simplification of payments to 800+ Ukrainian refugees or the restoration of border control with Germany.

Is it due to the fact that more people abruptly came to Poland? Did they get any fresh laws? No, it's not. It's the consequence of past PiS omissions and fresh KO errors. The Confederate will be able to prey on them, giving out cards in Polish politics for months.

Better change

The Law and Justice was rather predictable in this case. In 2015-2023, Poland issued hundreds of thousands of visas and tens of thousands of residence cards to delight business and support the economy. At the same time, right-wing politicians proclaimed that migrants endanger Polishness. But if you look at it, the essence of migration policy was not so much hostility, but cold indifference. Migration has been described as (necessary) evil, danger, origin of instability – knowingly throwing legal and unregulated migration, economical migrants and refugees into 1 bag.

There have been moments of increased hate, as in 2021 during the border crisis, but besides moments of compassion – like accepting war refugees from Ukraine in the spring of 2022. But there were no systemic solutions to limit the power of the emotional factor.

When in 2023 the KO sought to take power, Liberals besides began criticizing the Law and Justice for migration policy – but not for deficiency of integration, but... for besides indulgence!

The pretext was the "visa scandal" – hundreds of national visas and Schengen issued in violation of procedures, mainly in Asia. Although the scale of errors is little than 1% of all visas issued, Tusk is inactive presented as the 1 who saved Poles from the “water” of illegal migrants.

Back then, there was hope for a constructive approach. All the more so, in the coalition government, a specialist is liable for migration – Prof. UW Maciej Duszczyk. His catchy (although not research-based) thesis that Poland had already reached maximum reception capacity without hazard of social tensions sounded like a starting point for intensive integration activities.

What do we have 2 years later? The migration policy strategy announced in October 2024 sees migrants as a safety threat, completely ignoring the demographic aspect. The promised integration is alternatively like assimilation: “They are to conform to us” alternatively than “we learn to live together”.

In the presidential campaign, the smiling face of Poland – Rafał Trzaskowski – supported the Confederacy's thought to take 800+ from Ukrainian non-working refugees. There are not many of them – Ukrainians are very active on the Polish labour market. They are usually multi-children's mothers or guardians of older relatives. Today, the power boasts that it issues little visas, the law has besides been changed – the ellipse of people who can apply for temporary stay has been limited, as well as those who can legally work while awaiting a residence card. Procedures last for years – and during them people cannot leave the country. They'll work in a grey area.

The wall on the border with Belarus is besides getting taller and tighter. late Prime Minister Donald Tusk besides introduced checks at the western border – where asylum seekers who came to Germany through Poland are sent back. What makes you think that? Yes, again from the Confederacy. And the “citizens” patrols of Bąkiewicz.

Disintegration centre

It would seem that if everyone – from right to center – fears that foreigners will endanger Polishness, we must make those legally resident Poles as shortly as possible – teach language, history, tradition. Until 2022 Polish language courses for migrants were mainly conducted by NGOs, and only in large cities. Since then the offer has expanded, but request continues to exceed supply. Most migrants go to the course only erstwhile they decide to settle in the country, frequently after a fewer years.

The answer to this problem was to be the Centers for the Integration of Foreigners (CIC) – hubs in average and large cities where migrants could learn language, get consultation on legalization of residence and crisis relief. The CIC task was created in the Ministry of household and Social Policy inactive under the Law and Justice, with EU funds. 1 100 percent "vegetarian" – for legal migrants, not for residents of closed centres. Still, he became the mark of Confederate attacks.

Krzysztof Bosak claims that German borderers are allegedly dumping Poland to "their" migrants who have never been to Poland, and the Confederation says that the CIC is serving illegal migrants who will come here in accordance with the EU migration pact. At the initiative of this party, protests against the beginning of the CIC were held in Łomża, Skierniewice, Toruń, Zyrardów or Suwałki. As the scandal started during the presidential campaign, during which Rafał Trzaskowski could not grin at the visitors, the Tusk government did nothing about it.

Instead, he decided (we inactive do not know to what extent) to revise the Joint Ministry of Education and Social Organisations' integration task migrant children in schools. The state besides abdicated in this field.

In conclusion, Poland expects migrants to become Poles as shortly as possible, but the state will not aid them. For this, it will support the initiatives of the far right, fueling hatred to the fresh people of the country. As a result, the alienation of migrants is increasing. This is precisely what happened in the West before, where the problem was not so much the arrival of abroad workers and their families, but the deficiency of equality and fraternity towards fresh neighbours.

It is not migrants who separate themselves from the Polish way of life – it is Poles, with the hands of elected representatives, who separate them, repeating Western mistakes on their own request. That's how a self-fulfilling prophecy works.