Poland's economy would have big problems if not for workers from Ukraine, experts are confident.
Polskie Radio spoke about Ukrainians in Poland with Kamil Rybikowski from the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers of Poland and Piotr Tyma from the Union of Ukrainians in Poland.
Kamil Rybikowski notes that it is impossible to count the number of Ukrainian workers in Poland because in most cases it is about temporary work:
"In fact, no one really knows how many there are. The number of people who come, mostly for a short time, is so large that it is practically impossible to give any specific figure of Ukrainians in Poland at any given moment. From month to month, this figure can change dramatically in either direction. If we talk about those Ukrainians who pay insurance premiums, that is, officially employed, their number reaches 387 thousand people. As for the total number, it is approximately one to one and a half million people, no more."
The representative of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers of Poland notes that the large number of arriving Ukrainians is beginning to affect the infrastructure of entire cities:
"If you look at such metropolises as Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw, or even Poznan and Gdansk, the number of students from Ukraine alone in these cities exceeds 50 thousand people. Moreover, many of them stay after graduation because they almost immediately receive a job offer. Very often these are students of elite Polish universities. On the other hand, Poland hosts a huge number of representative offices of Ukrainian firms that bring their employees and entire families here.
Thus, the issue of children's education arises, in medical institutions the demand for Ukrainian-Russian-speaking employees is growing due to the increase in the number of corresponding clients, large banks are starting to launch entire advertising campaigns in Ukrainian, entire cities are beginning to provide information in Ukrainian due to the growing number of residents who came from Ukraine."
Kamil Rybikowski commented on reports that the Polish economy largely depends on Ukrainian workers:
"This information truly corresponds to reality, because a demographic niche has formed in Poland, we have big problems with an aging society. Some political steps, such as lowering the retirement age, have only exacerbated this problem. All this has led to a shortage of labor in Poland. This is evidenced, in particular, by the constantly declining unemployment rate.
In this regard, by the way, the opinion that Ukrainians supposedly take jobs away from Poles is devoid of any meaning. No statistical data confirms this. It can be argued that many segments of the Polish economy – take construction, for example – would have huge problems if not for the influx of workers from Ukraine."
Piotr Tyma, in turn, notes that the influx of Ukrainian workers to Poland is a temporary phenomenon, as they are increasingly being hired in other EU countries:
"In Poland, more and more entrepreneurs are beginning to understand that the state of Poland's attractiveness for arrivals from Ukraine will not last forever. Increasingly attractive offers for Ukrainians are appearing, for example, in the Czech Republic or Germany. A specific infrastructure is actively developing in Poland, the number of language and even vocational schools for workers from Ukraine, who later leave for Germany, is constantly growing. Poland is becoming a kind of intermediary. A big problem could also be the deterioration of Polish-Ukrainian relations, which could affect the influx of Ukrainians."
"Recently, billboards of Ukrainian entrepreneurs appeared in Lublin, calling on Ukrainians to return to Ukraine, saying that decent work with decent pay can also be found at home. The fact is that Ukraine also has a problem with a shortage of labor, which has left for Poland. Moreover, I was recently in Brussels, where there is a trend of the following nature – jobs that previously, since the 1990s, were mainly taken by Poles, are now increasingly being filled by Ukrainians. This trend could also significantly affect the labor market in Poland."
According to Piotr Tyma from the Union of Ukrainians in Poland, there are at least two reasons why Ukrainian workers do not stay in Poland: first, after working in Poland, they increasingly go further West, and second, many of them constantly return to Ukraine:
"Currently, Poland is not ready for Ukrainian workers to switch to Western European markets, which will happen one way or another, because there too there is a shortage of labor. The fact is that Ukrainians perform their duties very well, which cannot be said about other migrant workers.
There is another problem of a geographical nature that does not encourage Ukrainians to stay in Poland. This problem is that from Warsaw to, say, Lviv, a worker from Ukraine can get home in a few hours, that is, he can return at any time. It turns out he has one foot in Poland and the other in Ukraine."