‘Reactive’ government
Despite the size of the challenge, the Polish government is so far acting in a “reactive” way rather than showing any strong initiative, Duszczyk thinks.
“Poland has a relatively clearly regulated migration policy, but this is, however, scattered among multiple legal acts. There is no single document with a political dimension that would show which function the migrants should fulfil in our country and what is our strategy for the integration and inclusion of newcomers,” he claims. “We do not have such a strategy and this fact may turn against us in the future.”
Duszczyk says receiving such a big influx of migrants will always pose a challenge and how it plays out in Poland depends to a large extent on how fast the Polish government and society understand this.
“If we react appropriately at the moment of receiving the migrants, it will be much easier to include them later in specific aspects of social life. If we manage to include them, then we can move on to integration – that is, making sure they stop being foreigners and start being part of our society. At that stage, we will still perceive them as somewhat different. Then assimilation should take place, but it usually happens in the second or third generation,” he says.
“Will we succeed in this process? Will we take advantage of this opportunity?” Duszczyk wonders.
“We will be able to answer to this question only in 20 years, when Ukrainian and Belarusian children already born in Poland enter the labour market. Then we can see what are the differences between them and Poles when it comes to how they function in our society,” he says.
“Will they have the same level of education? Or will we have to deal with pathologies, with young people without an education or possibility to access the labour market, who are maybe sitting in jails serving sentences for petty crimes? If we end up with this latter scenario, this will be our failure,” he says
Duszczyk concludes by saying that Poland stands a good chance of turning into a destination country for migration without major negative consequences if the situation beyond its borders is resolved satisfactorily: the war in Ukraine ends, the country starts to rebuild and there is no further major political crisis in Belarus pushing more people into exile.
Yet in the expert’s opinion, there is one major caveat: “Poland should not be opening its doors too widely for newcomers from countries which are not culturally close to us. We do not have enough experience with such migrants.”
“Rather than act impulsively, Poland must act rationally and systemically, having integration in mind from the start,” he says. “Learning from the experiences of the West, we must first prioritise integration, and only then possibly open up more to countries beyond our geographical area.”
This interview is part of a series of articles on migration co-authored by BIRN and Gazeta Wyborcza.
