Poland accepts one fifth of all immigrants coming to Europe

According to 2017 official data, more than 3.7 million people from outside the Community settled in the European Union, of which 565 thousand were granted asylum and 3.1 million received a residence permit. It turns out that Poland, which is considered the opponent of migration, has accepted 18% of this pool, becoming the second – after Germany – most favorable towards non-EU foreigners.

Although in 2017, among 28 countries, Poland was the ninth from the end in terms of the number of accepted refugees (560 positive decisions),¹⁾Asylum decisions in the EU. EU Member States granted protection to more than half a million asylum seekers in 2017, Eurostat 2018-04-19.it issued the largest number of residence permits. Last year Warsaw allowed for arrival of over 683 thousand people from outside the EU,²⁾Residence permits for non-EU citizens. First residence permits issued in the EU Member States remain above 3 million in 2017, Eurostat 2018-10-25.of which Ukrainians, the largest group, number 585 thousand, to be followed by 42.8 thousand Belorussians and 7.8 thousand Moldovans. In 87% of the cases, a residence permit was issued on the basis of an employment contract.

Among the EU countries, Poland ranks third in terms of the number of immigrants, which is 18, per 1000 citizens. Only Malta (26.8) and Cyprus (23.7) are ahead of Poland, but these are countries with a small population, lying directly on the migration routes from the Middle East and Africa. By comparison, European leading migration advocates, i.e. Germany, France, and recently also Spain, have accepted 6, 17 and 16 foreigners from outside the EU per 1000 citizens respectively.

Warsaw takes Western European countries as an example and uses immigrants to make up for the shrinking number of the indigenous working-age people. The problem of the low fertility rate of Polish women, which in 2017 was 1.45,³⁾Demographic situation in Poland up to 2017 Births and fertility, GUS 2018 2018-08-09far below the generation replacement, offers the Ukrainians a high chance of living in Poland, all the more so because they are as people with a similar culture, language and religion welcomed by the Polish authorities. For the citizens of Ukraine, Poland is a country where one can easily find employment with a better remuneration, a country which can be treated as a stepping stone on the way to resettlement to one of the Western states.