According to the Polish Office for Foreigners, there are currently about 42,000 Ukrainian citizens legally residing in the country. They make up approximately one quarter of all foreigners living in Poland. In fact, Poland currently specializes in hosting refugees from Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Half of the asylum applications in the country came from Chechnya. They are followed by citizens of Ukraine, Georgia, and Tajikistan.
As for absolute numbers, Poland lags far behind, for example, Germany. In the first half of 2015, only the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia hosted about 80,000 refugees, while in all of Poland in the same period there were only 4,000. Moreover, Poland has a population of 38 million, which is twice the population of that German federal state. In addition, only about five percent of asylum applications are granted in Poland.
However, most Ukrainian citizens living in Poland are not refugees. They primarily come to work, for example, in construction. In the first quarter of 2015 alone, about 10,000 Ukrainian migrants applied for temporary residence permits here. That is roughly twice as many as in 2014, explains Ewa Piechota, spokesperson for the Office for Foreigners. The agency believes that the number of applications will continue to grow.
In the event of another escalation of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, 'thousands of new refugees will continue to leave this country, mainly towards Hungary and Poland,' said newly elected Polish President Andrzej Duda in an interview with the newspaper Bild. According to him, there are already signs that several hundred thousand Ukrainians want to flee to Poland. 'Other European states should take this into account when we talk about readiness to help,' the president emphasized.
According to opinion polls, the majority of Polish residents have a negative attitude towards migrants. Primarily, Poles could come to terms with the appearance of Ukrainians in the country – and only where there is a labor shortage. As for refugees from the Middle East, Poles say they are only willing to accept Christians who have been persecuted.
Therefore, the Polish government has promised other EU member states to host only 2,000 refugees from Syria and Eritrea in the next few years. However, even such a symbolic gesture sparked a wave of criticism – especially from national-conservative forces and on social media. There was even talk of the 'Islamization' of Poland.
However, hosting refugees is supported by many Poles living abroad. They understand this because during the 'Iron Curtain' they themselves received asylum in many Western countries, including West Germany.