Ukrainians seek a Polish dream in Wrocław

Wrocław, Poland. Photo: (CC) https://pxhere.com/en/photo/456832

I have arranged a meeting with Alina to speak about her experience in Poland. I am a bit late and as soon as I enter Sielanka, I see a woman sitting alone at a table, who I assumed was her. I picked her out from among the others there based on a stereotype – strong make-up, and a slightly provocative outfit, one that shows traces of the post-Soviet 1990s style. I apologise for my tardiness and explain my difficulty finding a parking spot. I find out the woman is not Alina, even though she is also Ukrainian. This means that out of the 11 tables in the bar, at least two are occupied by Ukrainians. In Wrocław this is hardly a surprise. Here, Russian and Ukrainian are the languages that are often heard on mass transit, in the streets, restaurants and universities. The same goes for local shops and hair salons where Ukrainian staff is easily identified by their characteristic melodic accent.

A million… or more?

While almost everybody in Poland knows that there are many Ukrainians living here, nobody knows their exact number. The media and politicians often refer to one million Ukrainians (which sounds quite probable), but any precise number is not easy to calculate. According to official statistics, 140,000 Ukrainians hold a permit to reside (temporarily or permanently) in Poland. However, they can also legally work in Poland for six months because of a simplified procedure that allows Polish companies to hire foreigners. There is also an unknown number of people who work illegally and get paid under the table.

In 2016, 106,000 work permits were issued to Ukrainian workers and companies filed 1.3 million “statements of willingness to hire a foreigner”. However, these numbers cannot be simply translated into the number of Ukrainians residing in Poland. Filing a “statement” by an employer is just the first phase in the whole process of applying for a worker visa, which is a precondition for legal employment in Poland. Yet, not everyone who has been registered through such “statements” starts a visa procedure. Some people, even though they have passed, do not always end up working for the employer who filed the application for them. Around 30 per cent of Ukrainian workers come to Poland based on the “statement” that was issued by a different employer than the one for whom they later work. 

What is more, employers who are worried they could run short on workers, file a larger number of applications to be safe. In situations where a migrant worker changes occupation, their new employer also files a statement, which increases the overall number of applications registered. Seasonal employment also makes it difficult to determine accurate numbers. In this case the duration of employment, as specified in the “statements”, can be used either in a continuous manner (full six months) or in a few shorter periods of time. Moreover, starting from June 11th 2017, Ukrainian tourists can travel without visas to EU countries. The introduction of the visa-free regime, however, has not translated into increased migration. 

One can live here

“Why Wrocław?” I ask Alina, wanting to know what motivated her to come to Poland. She arrived here two and a half years ago. Being a professional journalist in Ukraine in her hometown of Sumy (north eastern Ukraine), she worked for a local television station. She is 28 years old now and does not look like the woman I accidently took her for. Alina is modestly, but elegantly, dressed and her outfit nicely matches her gentle make-up. “So what that I had a dream job, I could not afford to even move out from my parents’ flat. I always had to take money from them and the financial situation was only getting worse: prices were going up and I had to do something,” she responds. “I only told my dad about my plans, I informed my mom one week before I left – otherwise she would have stopped me.”

“I was first thinking about Germany, but I found a job through a Ukrainian employment agency in Wrocław,” she adds. “So, I packed my summer clothes and left. On the spot it turned out they put us, 50 people altogether, in a building with one bathroom. I cried for two days and I was close to giving up, especially when it turned out they were expecting us to work two shifts – I would finish the first one at 5pm to be picked up again at 7pm. We would sleep during our lunch breaks on benches. I was not used to such hard physical work. I was ready to admit I had failed and wanted to go back.”

Alina handed in her resignation after two weeks, even though her employer forced her to work for two more weeks and punished her with a lower hourly wage – which is illegal. Such incidents are likely to be common, and immigrants probably usually refrain from taking action against an employer’s abusiveness and exploitation. In fact, Ukrainian migrant workers have developed a reputation for being “hard workers”. On average, they work for around 57 hours per week in Poland. Many of them work in administration and its support industries (security and cleaning services) as well as in call centres. They are also employed in agriculture, construction, food and transport. A significant proportion of migrants divide their time between their job, the workers’ hotel and sending remittances back home.

Poland is not known for high wages, but they are still much higher than Ukraine, especially when workers take on additional hours or jobs. On average, a Ukrainian working in Poland makes 2,000 Polish zlotys a month, which is the equivalent of 500 euros. ”Poland is not a country to make money. Wages are not high enough here to make savings, but you can make a living. Rent a flat, sometimes even visit someplace nice,” Alina admits.

After quitting her job at the Amazon cafeteria (Amazon recently opened a large logistics centre in Wrocław), Alina found a job in a pierogi bistro and later as a bartender in a Wrocław restaurant. Throughout this whole time, however, she was looking for an office job. “I did not speak Polish then. When I was looking for a job, I was trying to find the right phrases in an online dictionary on my phone. I had to guess what the employer would be asking me and how I would answer. When I came here, I did not know anybody. Now, I can hear our people on every corner. I have a feeling that half of Ukraine has moved with me. There are organisations which provide information, there are many useful websites, there is free legal assistance, social media groups (like Vsi Svoi Wroclaw), where you can always find help.”

Noticeable increase

Alina is young and ambitious. She finally managed to get a job as a secretary in a law firm. She also found a boyfriend. “Now I am in a social group where I feel that I am supposed to be,” she admits. “Poland is not a dream country, but you can have a normal life here.”

Alina is happy that she can help her parents out financially, even though that is not why she came to Poland. She wants to settle down here. She is planning to do a post-graduate degree and that is why she is trying to improve her (already very good) language skills. The job with the law firm gives her stability and a sense of security. She has many friends in Wrocław and no longer thinks about returning to Ukraine.

A great increase of immigration from Ukraine has been noticeable in Poland since 2014. There is certainly a political dimension of this movement, most notably related to the 2013-2014 Revolution of Dignity and its consequences: the Russian annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and the war in eastern Ukraine, which continues until today. Even though the number of Ukrainian citizens seeking asylum abroad has significantly increased since 2014, the number who received such status is still relatively small. In 2014 no Ukrainian citizen was granted refugee status in Poland, and in 2015 only two people received it. In 2016 that number reached 32. Between January 1st 2017 and October 1st 2017, 56 Ukrainians were granted refugee status in Poland.

When talking about her hometown, Alina recalls the horrifying sound of armoured vehicles passing by her window, oftentimes late at night, on their way to the frontline. She would wake up worrying that the combat zone would expand to her town. But it was not the war that pushed Alina to leave her country. It was the complete lack of opportunity. Her story, and those of many others, is reflected by research carried out by the Centre of Migration Research at Warsaw University, which suggest that the main reasons why Ukrainians leave home have to do with unsatisfactory salaries and unemployment.

Alina cannot forgive the Ukrainian leaders who do very little to prevent citizens from having to make decisions like hers. In her view the Ukrainian state does not fulfil its basic duties to its citizens, which she sees as the fault of its political elite. “Even this war is artificial,” she says. “If the politicians wanted, they could finish it in a day. They gave away Crimea without a single gunshot. My mom comes from Crimea, my grandmother is from Crimea. I would go there every year for vacation…” A significant number of Ukrainians living Poland share similar attitudes. They do not come to Poland to make quick money and then return home. They want to stay here forever, often emigrating with whole families, seeking a better life; a life you cannot find in Ukraine.

Poland also benefits from economic migration and will continue to do so. The demographic situation of the country is dire, with population growth rates in the negative – one of the worst in the EU. Official estimates indicate that Poland will need at least five million migrants by 2050 to counter-balance this demographic decline.

Immigrant idyllic place

Integration is relatively easy for Ukrainians since the languages and cultures are very similar. For those who work legally, they pay into the official social security system, which helps the Polish national budget as well. In fact, the advantages of Ukrainian migration are not only recognised by businesses. Local governments also see the benefits of potentially filling the oncoming demographic gap and slowing down the ongoing depopulation of many Polish cities.

Wrocław, the city Alina arrived in mostly by accident but later chose to live, has a population of just under 630,000. According to official estimates, between 51,000 and 64,000 thousand Ukrainians now live there. In other words, one out of every ten residents in Wrocław today is Ukrainian. Looking across the various sectors it is easy to notice that Ukrainians are no longer only cashiers at supermarkets or messengers, but also restaurant owners, students and IT workers. In response to the growing number of immigrants, the city is now preparing a Strategy for Intercultural Dialogue, which is to develop an integration model for all foreigners living there. Local media and public affairs bureaus are already publishing information in Ukrainian and there is even a local newspaper published in Ukrainian, called Pryvit.

Alina worries that the large numbers of immigrants coming from Ukraine will damage relations with Poland. She has already heard unpleasant voices claiming that Ukrainians are “taking jobs away” from the Poles. Polish-Ukrainian relations in the context of history are also heating up, which could be having an effect on the attitude of Poles towards Ukrainians.

“Quite often when I go shopping, I hear someone say: Again a Ukrainian cashier! That’s why service will be slow,” Alina says, adding quickly: “For me health clinics are the most annoying. I do not have a Polish social security number and nobody knows how to register me. They have to make a thousand phone calls to find out as how to do it and in the meantime the line behind me gets longer. I can hear comments like: ‘go back home and get treatment there!’ There are also other unpleasant situations, like when people ask me: ‘Do you know that in western Ukraine, Ukrainians were killing Poles?’” Life in Poland for the newcomers may be idyll, but certainly only for a while, not forever.

Translated by Iwona Reichardt

Statistics and data used for this article come from the Polish Ministry of Family, Work and Social Policy, the Office of Foreigners’ Affairs, the Centre of Migration Research, the statistical office of the city of Wrocław as well as the Wrocław city strategy for intercultural dialogue.

Olga Chrebor is a promoter of dialogue and multi-culturalism and a Polish-Ukrainian translator. She specialises in anti-discrimination and migration issues as well as Polish-Ukrainian co-operation. She has initiated and co-ordinated many international projects focusing primarily on Polish-Ukrainian exchanges.

Poland, Ukraine migration, Wrocław