Poland has proposed granting the right to permanent residence to Ukrainians
To maintain the previous pace of economic growth, Poland must accept five million immigrants by 2050. The head of the Association of Entrepreneurs and Employers, Cezary Kaźmierczak, emphasized that in the current situation, it is best to turn to Ukrainians, whose number in Poland is estimated at one million. 'This is a top-class emigrant; they don't need to be taught the language, given an apartment, or trained in a profession. They manage very well on their own,' said Kaźmierczak.
In turn, Tomasz Baran from the research center Maison/Panel Ariadna, who conducted a study on the right of permanent residence for Ukrainians, reported that 52% of respondents support this option. 'The attitude towards them is positively influenced by the situation where Poland, in a sense, so to speak, has a choice: to accept migrants from a completely different cultural space – for example, from Africa or Syria, about whom the media reports that they come to live on social assistance and their upkeep must be financed. Or Ukrainians who are already in Poland and work,' said Baran.
According to the Association of Entrepreneurs and Employers, nearly one million immigrants from Ukraine bring an annual profit to the Polish budget of between 7 and 9 billion zlotys (from 1.7 billion to 2.2 billion dollars).
Earlier, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło stated that there are 'about one million refugees' from Ukraine in her country. However, she did not explain how she managed to count that number. Subsequently, the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reported that only two refugees from Ukraine appeared in Poland last year. And the million is all Ukrainians who are in the neighboring country, including tourists.
In turn, the newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung wrote that Poland is passing off the employment of Ukrainians as the reception of refugees. The German newspaper adds that the majority of Ukrainian citizens who come to the neighboring country are students, Ukrainians with Polish roots, and thousands of workers.