A new home in Poland
Malika is for many the ideal immigrant. A doctor from Chechnya, her skills are much in demand here and although she has found life in Poland agreeable, she would not recommend it as a destination for refugees.
"Refugees escape to survive and do not think about the destination," argues Malika, who arrived here six years ago when a second war in her country started. She admits that her family was thinking about going to Germany, but only because they did not know Poland accepts refugees. Much as she appreciates the help she was given from her employer and institutions here, such as the Polish Humanitarian Organization or the Warsaw Center of Family Help, she thinks that Poland cannot afford to accept refugees and guarantee them a future, as it cannot even guarantee decent salaries for its own doctors.
"Enormous amounts of money are needed, which Poland does not have. If somebody else from my family in Chechnya wanted to come to Poland, I would not advise them to do it," she says.
The bigger picture
Malika's case illustrates the broader situation in Poland. According to the Polish Chamber of Physicians and Dentists by the end of May 2006 some four percent of doctors and five percent of dentists had applied to emigrate within the bloc's borders for work. They are part of a wider stream of Poles who are venturing to other EU states in search of better pay and experience.
The gap they leave behind, particularly in the construction industry, is being filled, in part, by an inflow of immigrants and refugees. While surveys have already indicated that immigrants have increased British GDP by some 0.2-0.4 percent, a question arises whether this will also work in Poland. According to different estimations, there are about 600,000 to 900,000 foreigners with an unclear status in Poland, and opinions are divided on whether these numbers are growing or not.
The majority of legal immigrants in Poland can be split into two broad groups. The first group, to which Malika belongs, is those that leave their country because of a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a social group or political opinion. Since January this year 2,200 people have applied for refugee status in the Office of Repatriation and Aliens (UdsRiC). Three hundred of the applications were granted, and 1,000 were given a 'tolerated stay'. Last year, of the 6,860 people applying for refugee status, 335 were successful and in 2004 the UdsRiC received more than 8,000 applications. "In comparison to previous years, this year we observed a significant decrease in the number of these people," says the general director of UdsRiC, Jan Węgrzyn. Both refugee and 'tolerated stay' status entitle the applicant to legally work in Poland.
The second group of legal immigrants is foreigners coming to Poland to study, work and set up businesses. "In 2005 we issued 35,000 permits for them and in this case we also do not observe any growth," explains Węgrzyn. Most of these people come from Ukraine.
In the black
These two groups, however, are dwarfed by the size of the illegal immigrant labor market in Poland. Some estimates say that up to one million Ukrainians work in the country illegally, but Węgrzyn claims this number is exaggerated: "There could be 400,000 but nobody can really say as both foreign employees and employers do everything to hide it." This is unsurprising, as Ukrainian employees are often cheaper and less demanding than their Polish counterparts.
"An entrepreneur who is building his house using illegal workers pays half of what he would have to pay to a legally operating company," says Tadeusz Pilch, a professor at Warsaw University. "A family will not find a nanny for the money that the Ukrainian women accept. These are simple balances of profits and losses." Professor Pilch is currently supervising a project financed within the EU Equality program, called the Inter-Cultural Center of Job Adaptation.
For the most part, the Ukrainian labor force is seasonal and concerns only a few sectors, such as agriculture, gardening, construction, and childcare. Professor Pilch agrees that although the Polish government is aware of the problem, is not taking any steps to solve it. "Any intervention of the law is not able to encompass the complexity of all the aspects. The law is unable to regulate everything, it only regulates certain rudiments," he points out. Jan Węgrzyn takes a more hardline view: "Tolerating black market labor has negative consequences for the budget. Besides, the foreigner's job is not protected by any social and health protection."
According to Węgrzyn, one of the tools the government could use to fight the black economy is the quota system, which means that certain countries will agree to accept a quota of economic migrants from individual countries. "In 2005 Marek Belka's government wanted to introduce the quota system, but now the new government is more careful about it," he recalls.
Positive inflows
The question remains as to how much these 'invisible' workers contribute to Poland's economy. No detailed surveys or analyzes have yet been conducted, but economists have few doubts about their positive impact. "The Ukrainians contribute to the Polish economy just as Poles contribute to the British one," says Robert Gwiazdowski from the Adam Smith Center. "The black market also contributes to GDP growth. People do not work illegally because they like to, but because they have no other choice," he says.
Poland's membership of the EU makes it a more desirable destination for economic immigrants, both those looking to do business here, and those looking for an easy passage into the EU. "Poland is sentenced, as is the whole of Europe, to a wave of immigrants from the east, especially since the birthrate in underdeveloped countries is much higher than in developing countries," says Professor Pilch. Despite this, since 2004, when over 8,000 people applied for refugee status, the number of refugees has been declining, but it seems that in the case of refugees, the official figures tell only part of the story.
"What the UN Refugee Agency [UNHCR] is nowadays concerned with is not the numbers, but the fate of those who need protection [and] the quality of protection offered by states. We should focus on how to best protect people in need [and] how to accommodate in Polish society those who flee persecution," says Hiromitsu Mori, a representative with the Poland team of the UNHCR. He is convinced that it is in Poland's best interests to prepare for helping refugees: "The better they are helped, the more they can contribute to Polish society."
Indeed, the problems of refugees are much more delicate than those of other immigrants. Very often these people are forced to leave their country not just to find better opportunities, but to save their lives. This is the case for Chechens such as Malika, who are the most numerous group of refugees coming to Poland (6,244 people in 2005). The general observation confirmed by experts is that Chechens treat Poland as a transit country. "They calculate what they can expect in their destination country and they know that in Poland they will get less," says Węgrzyn.
The challenge of integration
The nationality that appears the most successful in adapting to living and working in Poland is the Vietnamese, but some 80-90 percent of them are in Poland illegally. "Officially there are 25,000 Vietnamese in Warsaw. Unofficially, it is almost 50,000 people," says Professor Pilch. The typical Vietnamese immigrant relies on strong family and social ties for work, and most work at stalls for downmarket products, particularly at the Jarmark Europe Stadium, and in Warsaw's many Vietnamese fast-food bars. There are currently six Vietnamese newspapers published in Poland, pointing to how strong the community's foothold is here, but the level of cultural integration continues to be low.
One person who doesn't have this problem is Bernardo Vicente Manuel Tomas, or Michael to his friends. He came to Poland in 1997 from Angola. A trained military pilot and Warsaw University graduate, he is now working as a teacher of Spanish and Portuguese, and is a familiar face on television and in artistic circles. However, he admits the early days were tough: "Legalizing my stay and receiving refugee status was very difficult - I waited five years. I decided to go to university here in order to integrate. I thought it was better to get closer to the Polish people."
In the interests of privacy, some names have been changed
