The Polish late payment bonus is slow ending. In this peculiar case, it is about the impact on our country of mass migration movements, both legal and illegal. Poland, which led to an increase in the surviving rate of society in the short word and according to Eurostat (GDP per capita according to purchasing power) surpassed Portugal and the heels of Spain[1]It is becoming an increasingly attractive destination for immigrants.
We can't avoid immigration.
It is besides crucial to have an active business attitude, which, in the face of low unemployment, partially caused by the ageing of the population, partially by the conflict in Ukraine, is actively seeking hands for work in agriculture, services, construction and production. The request for workers is besides linked to our country's position in the global value chain. We are powerfully connected with the economy of Germany. In 2021 Poland was the third, behind China and the Netherlands, the country from which our western partner imported products and natural materials, which in turn represented more than 1/4 of our exports[2].
In this arrangement Poland is mostly a supplier of semi-finished or finished products within chains controlled by the partner. This means that for this part of the business, which operates within these global connections, availability of skilled and at the same time comparatively cheaper labour becomes important.
Here comes a broader question, going beyond the scope of this article, but it should be stressed: is this model to be a driving force for the improvement of the Polish economy, or in order to avoid the trap of average growth, should we make another conditions? The answer to this question gives emergence to another question: whether and what immigration is needed by the Polish economy?
The second migration stream is the 1 that reaches us as a consequence of the illegal crossing of the state border. We are not a destination for these immigrants who are heading for Germany and sometimes further to the West, but this situation will not be lasting much longer. In the first phase of the creation of this route, Germany absorbed any of this immigration, but this changes with political sentiments, as the utmost right-wing alternate for Germany (AfD) is gaining expanding support in the polls, and the authorities of the east states are demanding the restoration of border controls with Poland and the Czech Republic (with Austria border controls have been restored temporarily since 2015).
It should be noted that the fresh migration pact already adopted by the European Council, simplifying and speeding up Dublin procedures, i.e. those aimed at returning irregular immigrants to the country of first entry into the EU, to examine its application or deportation procedure. These factors, plus the existence of a way in the awareness of immigrants and smugglers, will foster continued usage of it, and force on the east border can only be reduced by the decision of the Belarusian government and possibly broad deportation activities and cooperation with the countries of origin or 3rd countries.
This means that mass migration will affect our country to a greater or lesser degree and it is worth considering how to deal with it, why, as you can see, intensive electoral campaigns are not conducive. Unfortunately, the full discussion about the issue of immigrants focuses on who allowed or intended to let them in and how they arrive in Poland: legally or illegally.
Of course, it would not be actual to say that in the case of irregular immigration, especially among the fresh waves of asylum seekers, there is no problem of radicalisation or over-representation coming in serious crime statistics. However, this is inactive a number throughout the population. The debate is so focused on the present and not on the prospects for the future presence of immigrants, which would answer questions specified as the preferred directions of immigration.
The adoption of this position is besides utilized to duplicate Germany's misconception of the 1960s, that in the case of paid immigration we are dealing with short-term immigration, so after the contract or another gainful work, immigrants will leave. In an interview with the diary of Legal Newspapers, an immigration investigator prof. Ruud Koopmans of the Berlin Institute of Social Sciences (WZB) deals with these naive expectations, arguing that employers, having a trained and teamed employee, will press for his detention and then for the anticipation of bringing his household together[3].
The exception here may be circular, seasonal immigration, targeting the hotel-gastronomic or agricultural sector. It does not give specified wages to support itself in Poland with family, and at the same time due to differences in purchasing power allows to improve surviving conditions in the country of origin. The talks conducted by journalists with immigrants surviving in barracks at large construction sites besides show that they do not share the thought of shortly leaving after the contract and plan to live in Poland with their relatives[4].
Which model of integration works?
In the approach to the next generations and their integration, we should take advantage of the Polish hold mentioned at the beginning and look at what worked and what was ineffective in our western neighbours. Although each country had a separate policy, 3 models were about distinguished: British, French and German.
The British model assumed large freedom of immigrants to cultivate their cultures, religions and customs. It gave large attention to alleged communities; to the point that, at any point, in civilian arbitration, courts based on sharia were allowed to exist. There was no authoritative policy of adapting to any British model. It was assumed that the best way to integrate is to show acceptance of different cultures.
The other was the French model, which required a migrant to accept the principles of the secular republic. In the private sphere, France did not interfere with the culture and beliefs of immigrants and their children, but in the public sphere restrictions were introduced on the manifestation of spiritual beliefs, awaiting integration and adoption of the French model of the state. This integration was to take place by adopting this model, so certain requirements were introduced. At the same time, France was the 1 who was most frequently accused of pushing immigrants into the suburbs and discriminating them in the labour market.
The German model, as mentioned earlier, has long avoided the problem of integration beyond the brackets of state action, hoping that immigration is simply a temporary phenomenon. Later, various integration policies were attempted, and politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, declared that immigrants had to integrate and respect the values shared by the Germans. There's besides a deadline. Leitcul, i.e. a leading culture, creating a framework for integration, but attitudes requiring integration were besides hampered in the public debate by putting Germany in head of politics towards the judaic number during the 3rd Reich.
It is already apparent that no of these countries are free from integration problems. Political and extremist Islam is developing in the UK with a large threat of terrorism; there are sometimes conflicts of value, specified as freedom of speech and spiritual sentiments, and tensions between Muslim and Hindu immigrant communities.
France has issued a fight against “Islamist separatist” and runs a “reconquist” suburb, while at the same time following police brutality charges, these suburbs are burning and looting shops.
In turn, Germany struggles with clan crime, extremist muslim movements, as well as abroad activity (mainly from Turkey) or disinformation by people from Russia.
There is simply a problem of social cohesion in each of these countries. In addition, if you look at data on unemployment among immigrants, according to information from France for any directions of migrant influx specified as Tunisia, Morocco or Turkey, the situation is worse in the second generation than in the first generation[5]. German investigation says the integration model by joining immigrants in the mediate class fails in Turkey[6], in turn Turkish and Moroccan immigrants have much worse education in the Netherlands than those from Southeast Asia[7].
Danish integration minister Mattias Tesfaye most likely made a decision for a reason to separate the MENAPT region (near East, North Africa, Pakistan and Turkey) from all statistic for non-European immigrants. The government needed better data, as immigrants from these countries were importantly different from the employment rate of another non-European immigrants.
Integration problems, despite different models, thus happen in many different areas. prof. Koopmans, who has been researching immigrant models for years, informs that not so much the model of integration adopted is important, but the cultural distance[8]. He points out that in the case of skilled workers from middle-class culturally distant countries, their participation in global culture does not make this distance so large and assimilation is much easier.
On the integration of the latter, I propose 2 examples. erstwhile Dr. Adam Balcer wrote a paper on immigrants of Muslim origin who had made careers in Western politics, he showed involuntary 1 thing: they were in the vast majority of people who someway distanced themselves from their religion. They declared themselves unpractical, they drank alcohol publicly, they were in unions not approved by mainstream Islam, or they even fought against its orthodox principles[9]. This means that the educated layers not only integrate better, but besides that the adoption of its customs in Europe allows for higher social layers.
The second example was the 2023 elections in Turkey. While the alleged Anatolian immigration in Germany, poorly educated, coming from backward regions, after decades of abroad residence and alleged president Erdoğan, representing the Islamic-nationalist and frequently anti-European trend of Turkish politics, the Turks in Poland up to 90% voted for a counter-candidate, representing a secular state and declaring a pro-Western turn in Turkish politics[10].
And this is actually the main lesson that can be drawn from European experience, remembering all the time that legal immigration, which is now the main origin of the influx of immigrants from outside Europe, is immigration, which we can full decide. In this regard, state policy has no restrictions on global conventions or EU treaties.
Lessons from Western Experience
However, there are also Western experiences. It is crucial to disperse immigrants in a given country so that ghettos do not develop. And this is not even about threatening crime or no-go zones, but about the fact that immigrants can operate in specified areas without having to talk a good language, that they attract people illegally entering a country where they can be without control, and that the economical or structural problems of these areas take on the dimension of cultural conflict. Therefore, even against criticism, the Danish Government has decided to reduce the percent of non-Western immigration in individual urban areas.[11].
However, if we say that serious problems start with the second or 3rd generations of immigrants, then it is crucial to have education that enables better work and social promotion. Data from the Netherlands or Germany show much worse than the secondary education of immigrants from Turkey or Morocco, early abandonment of education, which translates into later outcomes in the labour market, contacts in host society, wealth and, as a result, a sense of discrimination.
It should besides be remembered that settling a large population of legal immigration from 1 direction will make further migration from this side. The social networks created by immigrants increase the chances of arriving both legally and illegally to organise their lives in a given place. In this case, legal immigration may besides be unfavourable from an economical point of view, as it may be based on the merger of families that will de facto the collection of fresh immigrants. For this reason, Denmark has set a minimum age for a non-resident for 24 years. In this way, the abuse of household reunification is avoided to attract more immigrants through arranged marriages. After studies showing a akin pattern in Sweden, there is simply a debate on expanding this age to 21. Due to forced marriages, mainly among immigrants, in 2006, the French Parliament adopted a law raising the age of matrimony from 15 to 18, and this was the case for the full population.
Another problem, which is the aftermath of the ideology of multiculturalism, is to overlook the tensions between different immigrant groups. Over the years, their relations with the society of the host country have been considered, while conflicts from another geographical areas have been transferred to Europe. We have sometimes intense disputes between Turks and Kurds, Turks and Armenians, Sunni and Shiite, Hindus and Muslims, or disputes within those minorities that have their own discriminated minorities, which shows, for example, the issue of a homosexual mosque in Berlin. 1 can besides imagine specified a conflict between the Ukrainian and Russian communities.
Another problem, which has been widely discussed by the services of states and politicians, is the issue of the influence of abroad states on these communities. Turkey, Morocco, Qatar (here mostly a spiritual community) or Russia are now mentioned among the countries that effort to implement their policies through their countrymen on emigration. It is so a separate challenge to combat the financing of various organisations and, above all, spiritual centres by these countries. In Poland, due to tiny immigration, we do not see, for example, the activity of the Turkish office for religion, Diyanet, and this office, criticized in France and Germany, begins to form its representation over the Vistula River.
Immigration to nature
Various immigration phenomena and challenges require separate analysis. They must besides be adapted to the conditions of Poland and to the various immigration streams that flow to Europe at different times. Another challenge was immigration from postcolonial countries to the centre, another characteristic was economical immigration from poor, backward regions, and the migrations from conflict areas, related to obtaining global protection and then transforming into settlement immigration.
In immigration streams reaching Europe illegally, there is not a large majority of people going to Poland as the destination country. If they are not forced in any way, these people will proceed their journey to their networks in the West, posing a challenge to our services and administrations, but not to integration. Legal immigration, which increases in subsequent years, is an crucial origin in population influx. For now, however, it is treated as temporary by the government, and employers are happy to accept the benefits it offers them by shifting future costs to society. And this is the component that should look forward to a broad debate and uncovering a fresh social consensus.
As I have tried to show, the main tool for integrating this kind of immigrants is primarily the decently constructed immigration policy, and in this regard, in Poland, I will usage the boomer term, a free American.
[1] 300The economy.pl, Eurostat: Poland is first prosperous than Portugal [online], 20.04.2023, https://300economy.pl/news/eurostat-polska-po-po-raz-1st-de-Portugal [accessed: 3.10.2023].
[2] Data for the Observatory of economical Complexity, https://oec.world/.
[3] J. Wójcik, Competition for resources [online], 18.08.20123, https://edgp.gasetaprrawna.pl/e-issue/59115,18-August-2023/76561,Journal-Gazeta-Legal/874701,Rivalization-o-resources.html [accessed: 3.10.2023].
[4] K. Kropidłowski, A. Dudik, Z. Simon, After weaponizing immigrants, Europe’s east finds it needs them [online], 28.08.2023, https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/08/28/world/society/east-europe-weaponize-immigration-needed/ [accessed: 3.10.2023].
[5] J. Hartmann, To second-generation Turkish migrants in Germany assist into the mediate class?, ‘Ethnicities’, Volume 16, issue 3, 2016, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1468796814548234 [accessed: 3.10.2023].
[6] Y. Birnbaum, D. Meurs, J.C. Premon, Situation sur le marché du travail : statutes d’activité, accès à l’emploi et discrimination [in:] C. Beauchemin, C. Hamel, P. Simon (ed.),Trajectoires et origins, Ined Éditions, 2016, https://books.openedition.org/ined/856 [accessed: 3.10.2023].
[7] University College London, Studiepakket Multicultureel Nederland [online], https://www.ucl.ac.uk/dutchstudies/an/SP_LINKS_UCL_POPUP/SPs_english/multicultureel_gev_ENG/pages/problemen.html [accessed: 3.10.2023].
[8] J. Wójcik, pp.
[9] J. Wójcik, Do non-Islamic politicians prove good integration? [online], 17.07.2020, https://euroislam.pl/do-unbelievers-Islamic-politicians-provide-for-good-integration/ [accessed: 3.10.2023].
[10] The president How did Turks surviving outside vote in Turkey’s run-off election? [online], 29.05.2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/29/how-did-turks-viving-abroad-vote-in-turkeys-run-off-election [accessed: 3.10.2023].
[11] O. Moody, Denmark disperses ghettoes with cap on ‘non-westerners’ to scope 2031 target [online], 19.03.2023, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/denmark-disperses-ghettoes-with-cap-on-non-westerners-to-reach-2031-target-3583sqk05 [accessed: 3.10.2023].
