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No Third Way Between Assimilation and Exclusion.
The Case of Ukrainians in Poland
Andreea Udrea
With Poland's accession to the EU, the longest Eastern border of the EU became the
Eastern border of Poland. Despite the ardent political and public debates initiated in
the Member-States a couple of years ago and referring to the EU's Eastern border, the
difficulty of setting a European institution to deal with immigration in general, and
with the Eastern one in particular, gives Poland's legal provisions towards thirdcountry
nationals a considerable weight in the EU after the enlargement. Precisely,
being the first major EU transit or destination country, Poland's legal provisions
towards Eastern migration determine the major characteristics of the Eastern migration
phenomena and also empower a general image upon EU's approach to migration either
as an open-border or as a `fortress' Europe. Consequently, analysing Poland's
approach to migration from the East and to specific groups of migrants shows the
shortcomings of its specific legal provisions and its lack of expertise for undertaking
such a major task as designing the Eastern migration policy of the EU, an ambition
that the Polish government aims at realizing.
The present inquiry deals with the case of the Ukrainian migrantsi
, a group of thirdcountry
nationals that raised particular political, social and economic challenges to the
ways the postcommunist Polish Aliens Acts were formulated and implemented.
Although the analysis does not investigate thoroughly the political debates behind the
adoption of certain legal provisions, by focusing on the number, on the place the
Ukrainians occupy in the Polish society, on the ways polities deal with them as a
foreign group, and on the future prospects of the East-West migration, the nature of the
tensions between migrants' reality and migration provisions will be revealed.
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1. The Socio-Demographic, Cultural and Historical Characteristics of Ukrainians
in Poland
In recent years, the debates on migration from the East targeted two countries
explicitly, Ukraine and Russia. Primarily, due to the sizes and their populations, and
secondarily, to the association between crime, poverty, mafia, and the nationals of
these two countries, Ukraine and Russia slowly became the dangers against which
Europe should protect itself, and their nationals a problem to any societal order.
Although hard to estimate the real volume of Ukrainian migrants to Poland, the
statisticsii
point out to the fact that among the legal migrants to Poland, Ukrainians
represent the largest group, about 17% of the total number of immigrants (see Table
below). However, to these statistics one should add the number of `old' Ukrainians
already assimilated into the Polish society, but still visible through their Orthodox and
Greek-Catholic religions.
Table Various legal categories of foreigners registered in Poland in 2000. Source: Official registers of
Poland, in: Grzymała-Kazłowska & Okólski, 2003: 9
Country
No. of
immigrants1
Stock of
permanent
residents
Stock of foreigners registered
and granted fixed-permanent
residence2
Employment
consents issued to
temporary residents
Refugee
applications
Ukraine 291 4399 27062 3158 70
Russia 129 2513 4138 816 1174
Belarus 77 1468 3718 2058 63
Germany 2494 1338 3556 1481 Vietnam
51 1492 2931a
935 161
USA 1185 620 1342b
656 France
269 346 2932 1265 UK
256 359 1958 1438 Armenia
69 473 2422 238 836
Bulgaria 41 968 1169 415 340
Kazachstan 408 338 545a
109 30
China 28 155 828 446 76
Total 7331 25855 77899 19662 4644
1. According to Iglicka & Rybicki, the categories from the official registers of Poland
`immigrants', `stock of permanent residents' and `new permission for settlement' overlap.
2. The following categories `stock of foreigners granted fixed-time residence', `new permission
for fixed-time residents' and `newly arrived foreigners registered for temporary residence' were
summed up. Each category represents the stock of foreigners at three different steps of the same
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procedure, which starts with the registration of foreigners and finishes with their granting a fixedtime
residence permit.
(a) the figure indicates the whole stock of newly arrived foreigners from Asia;
(b) the figure indicates the whole stock of newly arrived foreigners from North, Central and Latin
America.
To analyse the place Ukrainian migrants occupy in the Polish society, one has to
distinguish between `old' and `new' Ukrainians, and between different types of
migrants: petty traders, short-term residents, long-term residents and immigrants. After
the Second World War, when Poland lost its territories forming now Western Ukraine,
the only regions inhabited by Ukrainians and Lemkos were those from SouthernEastern
Poland. However, in 1947, through what is known as Vistula Action, most of
the Ukrainians living in these areas were forced to move to the Western territories of
Poland and to work in agriculture. Until 1956, they were not allowed to move outside
the area they lived in, or to return to their home countryiii
. After 1989, the revival of
Ukrainian culture proved that the socio-economic differences between the `old'
Ukrainians and Poles are minimal, the only major distinction which still generates
conflicts are their distinct religious affiliation.
The border opening between Poland and Ukraine led to a high influx of Ukrainians
especially from Western Ukraine after the fall of communism. In the 90s, many
Ukrainians were to be found as petty traders and seasonal workers in agriculture and
constructions mainly. A low percentage of Ukrainians settled down in Poland through
marriage. All these categories of migrants formed the `new' Ukrainians group.
Compared to the `old' Ukrainians, the `new' ones, who are more visible in the Polish
public space due to the specific occupational status they occupy, the language they
speak and their religious affiliations, are rejected by the Polish society judging from
the stereotypes used in the public discourse. Their association with crime led to the
emergence of negative perceptions towards them, which is often tempered by the
historical accounts emphasizing the brotherhood between Poland and Ukraine. This
double-discourse, from which positive and negative perceptions towards Ukrainians
emerge, leads to a paradoxical situation: the Ukrainians are socially accepted and
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rejected at the same time depending upon the type of rhetoric for which they are the
subject.
2. The Legal Determinants of Migrants' Exclusion in Poland
The social marginalization of the Ukrainian migrants, and of migrants in general, is not
only a consequence of the settled popular connection between them and crime, but also
of the incomplete regulations of immigration of the postcommunist Poland. The
complete absence of an immigration policy that would ensure migrants' integration
into the main spheres of the Polish society, to which is added the strict migration
policy passed as 1997 Aliens Act and its subsequent amendments which only aim at
stopping population movements from the East, both lead to the `criminalization' of
migration from the East, no matter its purposes. Furthermore, the lengthy and costly
procedures of legalizing one's stay in Poland and the split between the right to reside
and the right to work, push migrants towards the informal and illegal marketsiv
, a
vicious circle which determines their social and cultural marginalization and economic
exclusion.
It is important to mention that as in all postcommunist societies the legal status
determines one's chances of social inclusion into the legal socio-economic sphere.
Lengthy and costly procedures only lead to more complex mechanisms of rejection. In
a game with the legal system, migrants will always lose no matter their country of
residence. I emphasize though, that due to the cultural similarity between Poland and
Ukrainian cultures, Ukrainians may be less of losers than other nationals, such as
Vietnamese, Armenians, etc., since they can dissimulate their identity and be accepted
socio-culturally.
I conclude by pointing out to the fact that generally the legal provisions towards
migration alone do not lead to integration of migrants as distinct socio-cultural groups
unless they are doubled by a set of legal provisions that grant certain collective sociocultural
rights. Therefore, if `old' Ukrainians had received any ethnic rights from the
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Polish government, the entry of the `new' Ukrainians as ethnics would have been
much easier, however it is not the case. In Poland, only Germans enjoy special ethnic
rights. Consequently, Ukrainians, as other groups of migrants, can fight exclusion only
through assimilation.
3. Future Prospects
Poland's admission into the EU also meant that its national market became part of the
European single market. As it is argued in the migration literature, solely this factor
will encourage not only EU's internal migration, but also the migration from outside
the EU to the EU, in order to ensure the flexibility and competitiveness of the EU
market. Consequently, the emphasis placed by the new EU regulations on `working
resident' and the freedom of enterprise will represent the `gates' through which many
migrants from the East will enter the EU. However, despite Poland's strict regulations
on migration, sooner or later the country will have to line up to the new EU's
requirements and open itself to migrants.
In conclusion, I am of the opinion that as the case of the Ukrainians in Poland showed
that, despite its strategic geographical position, Poland is not prepared to undertake the
task of designing the EU's Eastern migration policy. Its own migration policy is
incomplete and it lacks an immigration policy, which offers to the potential migrants
only two options: exclusion or assimilation. It is the general problem of countries that
adopted the French model of law according to which belonging to the host-nation is
the main mechanism of social inclusion. For this reason, I am of the opinion, that the
design of the EU's Eastern migration policy should be a multi-national enterprise that
should follow the principle of German law, which is not so assimilative in its design.
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i
The post-communist Polish Aliens Acts apply the term `immigrant' solely to persons who register as
Polish citizens. Thus, it strictly refers to Polish ethnics who return to live in Poland. The legal
terminology refers to all cases of legal migrants as residents distinguishing only among the length of
their residence.
ii
The official data concerning migration fluxes to Poland are incomplete and even contradictory. The
legal categories for classifying migrants overlap, and there is no coherence between the Polish legal
categories and the UN terminology. Furthermore, the fact that the right to reside is granted by one
institution ­ Regional Office of Aliens' Affairs, while the right to work is granted by the Ministry of
Work, makes difficult the analyses of the data produced by these two institutions together.
iii
Source: Iglicka, Krystyna. February2000. The Revival of Ethnic Consciousness: A Case of Poland.
Series: Prace Migracyjne nr. 31. Warsaw: Ośrodek Badań nad Migracjami, ISS, UW.
iv
It is estimated that between 500.000 and 1.000.000 Ukrainians are to be found annually working on
the illegal and informal markets.