Poland’s attractiveness is growing. More and more foreigners decide to study and work in our country

Poland’s accession to the European Union had a significant impact on migration trends in our country. This is confirmed by the latest report by the consulting company CRIDO “Is Poland an attractive destination for employees and people acquiring qualifications?”. Its content is devoted to the history of immigration and emigration in the 20 years after accession to the EU.

Immigration not only from the European Union. Ukrainians dominate among foreigners coming to Poland

In the opinion of the authors of the report, integration with the European Union has had a significant impact on the stabilization of the labor market in Poland. According to the data discussed, since 2004 there has been a significant increase not only in the scale of economic immigration to Poland from Member States, but also from non-EU countries – including the Eastern European region. “Membership in the European Union has not turned out to be a barrier preventing citizens from outside the community from coming to Poland,” note the authors of the report.

One of the signals indicating Poland’s higher attractiveness is the growing number of Polish emigrants returning to the country. The authors of the report indicate that in the years 2004-2022, most immigrants coming to Poland permanently came from Great Britain and Germany. This was related to the high number of Poles who, after integration with the EU, chose these countries as their emigration destinations. After many years, they decided to return to the country.

Ukraine was third in terms of the number of immigrants arriving permanently in Poland during this period. People with Ukrainian citizenship are still the dominant group of immigrants in Poland. Their number has also been increasing since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022 and is also related to a number of facilities offered to people fleeing the war-torn country. According to the Central Statistical Office data discussed by the authors of the report, Ukrainian citizens currently constitute over 80 percent. all foreigners settling in Poland.

Since 2015, the number of work permits issued for foreigners in Poland has increased rapidly every year. In 2015, it was still 65,786. In 2019, a record number of 444,738 permits were issued. The rising trend was reversed only in 2020, which was related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even this year, a total of 406,496 work permits were issued. The Central Statistical Office data discussed in the report indicate that from 70 percent up to 80 percent work permits issued in these years concerned citizens of Ukraine.

The Central Statistical Office data discussed in the report indicate that in 2020 the number of foreigners staying in Poland was approximately 500,000. people. In mid-2023, the number of foreigners registered with ZUS already exceeded one million. : :

Is Poland an attractive destination for students? One of the factors is the Erasmus program

Another factor proving Poland’s growing competitiveness may also be the consistent increase in the number of foreign students coming to the country. This is also related to accession to the EU and participation in the Erasmus program, which allows students of European universities to participate in academic exchanges.

The growing attractiveness of Poland can also be proven by the fact that while immediately after integration with the EU the number of outgoing Polish students predominated, now it is almost equal to the number of foreign students coming to Poland. Students coming to Poland in the period from 1998 to 2014 most often came from countries such as Spain, Turkey, Germany, France and Portugal. Italy, the Czech Republic and Belgium were slightly lower.

In the opinion of the authors of the report, Poland’s accession to the EU had a positive impact on the labor market in our country. The opening of markets in other EU countries resulted in a decline in unemployment. They also point out that the increase in the number of migrants coming to the country “intensifies in periods of good economic conditions in Poland, and weakens in times of economic slowdown. In this way, migration processes seem to stabilize our labor market.”