
Poland takes on more temporary foreign workers than USA and Germany – report - wrzuteczka
https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/increasing-numbers-of-workers-heading-to-poland-as-new-report-shows-country-takes-on-more-than-usa-and-germany-7792
======
acid303
I'd be cautious with this article, it's a portal of the national Polish Press
Agency and the link was posted by a 2-hour old account.

“As we have come to realize in recent years, Poland is often portrayed in
foreign media not entirely accurately, and we want to gently modify this
picture,” the president of the Polish Press Agency said in an interview.

As he went on to say, the aim of the website’s creators is to “reach specific
opinion-forming circles” with the help of social media.

[https://polandin.com/37070892/polish-press-agency-
launches-n...](https://polandin.com/37070892/polish-press-agency-launches-
news-service-in-english)

~~~
keiferski
The western media has portrayed Poland inaccurately for years now. Decades,
even. To anyone who has spent time in the country, it is blatantly obvious. As
such, if you're going to suggest caution, I suggest it is toward all media
organizations. Which is a good attitude to have in general, IMO.

~~~
southerndrift
In which way is it portrayed and what is the reality?

------
akavel
Found the original source, apparently at:

[https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/c3e35eec-
en/index.html?i...](https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/c3e35eec-
en/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/c3e35eec-en)

though I warn you: it's a _long_ article. I emphatically _DON 'T_ suggest
changing the link in the original submission to this reader-sleepiness-
inducing paper. The original submission is much easier to read, and I just
wanted to make sure it's based on real source. I found the source via:
[http://www.nordiclabourjournal.org/nyheter/news-2019/article...](http://www.nordiclabourjournal.org/nyheter/news-2019/article.2019-09-23.0754668044)
which I found via quick googling.

A relevant quote about Poland that I managed to find in an attempt at quick
skimming is in Chapter 1, section "Main findings", bullet point 5:

 _" For the second consecutive year, Poland was the top OECD destination for
temporary labour migrants, with 1.1 million new authorisations delivered to
non-EU workers and 21 000 intra-EU posted workers. The United States remained
the second most popular destination, with 691 000 new temporary workers in
2017."_

Sorry for not linking to the particular Chapter & Section, but deep linking on
the particular site seems broken to me (?).

~~~
anovikov
What's so wrong about it? They are doing it basically because they can. They
have a source of culturally similar people from much poorer neighboring
countries: Ukraine and Belarus.

Plus i have to say, there are also many people who come without those
permissions, and they are not illegals: they have right to work as people born
in the ex-Polish territory - pre-1939 - having so-called Karta Polaka.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karta_Polaka#Rights_of_the_hol...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karta_Polaka#Rights_of_the_holder)

~~~
akavel
Uh, I absolutely didn't try to suggest that anything is wrong about it!...
sorry if you got such an impression :/ I tried rewording my comment now, to
hopefully better convey what I meant, trying to avoid using some words that
I'm now guessing you maybe understood in some unintended way (?)

~~~
anovikov
Ah no no that's fine, i didn't mean it. It' just that most people probably saw
it as somehow bad news or something to criticize Poles about.

------
lazyjones
Somehow they forgot to mention the Ukraine crisis.

[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/13/ukraines-
refug...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/13/ukraines-refugees-
find-solace-in-poland-europes-most-homogenous-society)

[https://www.forbes.com/sites/freylindsay/2018/09/19/ukrainia...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/freylindsay/2018/09/19/ukrainian-
immigrants-give-the-polish-government-an-out-on-refugees/)

------
Neil44
I looked at jobs in Poland after a visit there. Everything was super cheap and
it's a beautiful place. However, once you were on Polish wages, things were
not super cheap any more.

~~~
ajuc
It's only good if you come from the east, as their wages are even worse
compared to their prices.

~~~
daemin
Or you actually work as a software engineer or for foreign companies as an
expat.

~~~
q3k
> Or you actually work as a software engineer or for foreign companies as an
> expat.

Even Google doesn't pay that well in Warsaw. You're much better off getting
some sort of pseudo-b2b arrangement to a local software house. That gives you
a ridiculously low income tax rate of 19%, too.

~~~
krzkaczor
The average salary in Warsaw (highest in Poland) is 6k PLN. Google (as any
reasonable IT company) will pay no less than 20k PLN for senior developers. I
would say that it's a pretty good salary even for Warsaw standards...

Of course, B2B contracts are event better, mostly because of lower taxes but
they have their own disadvantages (often they can be terminated within a week,
you don't have PTOs etc.)

~~~
zerr
> I would say that it's a pretty good salary even for Warsaw standards

Still less than what you can make working remotely for western European
companies.

~~~
daemin
Not that much less, and the cost of living is geared towards someone making a
tenth of what you make. I find I'm saving more than when I was living in a
western country.

~~~
zerr
"working remotely"

------
Merrill
Is this to compensate for the large number of Polish workers who have moved to
other EU countries?

~~~
ajuc
Mostly it's because demography is very bad. We had 700 000 kids born yearly in
80s and less than 400 000 in 90s.

~~~
rurban
But still the "youngest" country in the EU, right? I.e. the country with the
most young people.

Also the country with the most independent radio stations and film freaks. And
BSD hackers.

~~~
ajuc
Basically we've had the peak in 80s and that generation is now in the most
productive years (30s-40s), it's great for economy, but these people will
retire in 30 years and the next generations are almost 2 times smaller - it
will be hard to balance budget. Especially now that the current government
LOWERED the retirement age from 70 to 65 for men and 60 for women.

------
masonic
Clickbait. It's more _temporary_ workers.

~~~
ajuc
They can apply for permanent residence rather easily after working here for 10
years. This influx started in 2014 because of war, so I'd expect the permanent
residence permits to hike in 2024. Also there's a shortcut if you can find any
Polish nationality ancestor (and it's quite common as Poland and Ukraine were
one country for half of their history).

From anegdotal evidence it doesn't seem that the influx has stopped, 5 years
ago it was rare to hear anybody speaking Russian/Ukrainian on the street, now
it's a daily ocurrence.

~~~
pornel
Poland has a populist government, and alt-right movements flaring up a strong
anti-immigration sentiment (especially against anyone from the east). So while
permanent residence may be an option, or for some people a desperate need,
it's not a pleasant one.

~~~
wnzl
How did you come into such conclusion? I live in Poland and I do not agree
with it. At least in southern part (Silesia, Katowice) we are really happy
about the immigrants from east. They are really good workers, they have no
problem in learning language, and are really similar when it comes to family
and moral values.

~~~
unicornfinder
I'm not Polish but I've spent a fair bit of time in Warsaw and I'd say the
majority of people there are fine with it too - I mean, they complain but I
wouldn't say they're actively opposed either. I do genuinely wonder if it
might be a generational thing - I've noticed some of the older population
aren't quite as happy.

