The book “Immigration to Poland” is an impressive collection of research on immigrants in Poland between 1989 and 2009. Main events which, according to the editors and authors, shaped migration patterns in post-socialist Poland include the freedom of movement outside state borders guaranteed in 1989, joining international organisations in the 1990s, negotiations leading to accession to the European Union in 2004, followed by joining the Schengen zone in 2007. In the last decade there has been an increasing interest in migration studies on Poland, mainly triggered by political factors which influenced migration flow in both directions. Nevertheless, as Poland is considered primarily a sending country, there are numerous publications on emigration (also throughout history), and respectively little research of the flow in the other direction. There are single projects researching certain aspects of migrants in Poland but it is this book which brings most of them together. All authors are associated with the Centre of Migration Research (CMR) at the University of Warsaw, which has been conducting pioneering projects concerning the phenomenon of migration into Poland.
The book is a direct outcome of such a cooperation between the CMR and partner universities within the IDEA project (Mediterranean and Eastern European Countries as New Immigration Destinations in the European Union).1 It is described as a project “focused on similarities and differences in becoming and being immigration country in three distinct groups of countries: Western European (‘old’ immigration countries), Southern European (‘new’ immigration countries) and Central and Eastern European (‘future’ immigration countries)”(p. 14). The main research question is whether Poland follows the IDEA framework patterns, meaning that it will change from a “net-emigration country” to a “net-immigration country”. A similar hypothesis has been already claimed in a volume edited by Wallace and Stola in 20012 predicting increasing inflow of migrants into the Eastern European region, including Poland. The present volume of CMR provides new and in-depth data analysis, concentrating on the Polish case in terms of migration policy, labour market and integration on an individual, a family and a community level. The richness of sources and data is visualized in graphs and maps which are helpful to grasp processes, institutional hierarchies, economic flows and other factors in the publication. Other useful features are frames with quotations from interviews, helping to place the theoretical problem in a practical setting. Most of the data used in the publication come from official statistics, which inform about migrants registered in the Polish system within various fields, for example those obtaining work permits or engaging in illegal activities. Information about circular or illegal immigrants had to be estimated or obtained from earlier research projects conducted by the CMR.
The general introduction leads through to the main trends in Polish migration with respect to the main regions in Poland where foreigners live, and characteristics of migrants including their nationalities and demographic features such as age, gender, education. Readers are familiarised with the question of citizenship in Polish law. At this point a deeper historical perspective of migration history in Poland and in the region of East Central Europe as a whole could have been provided. Although the period before 1989 is not the subject of the volume (despite the fact that the patterns of migration radically changed after the political transition) it would have been useful to draw attention to this period of Polish history. Even in the time of socialism some migrants and asylum seekers came to Poland, and have become settlers/immigrants who have shaped their migrant network in the country. This should be kept in mind when contributors discuss a change of character in terms of migration and seek to analyse the phenomenon along the lines of pull factors like labour market, migrant integration, and immigration policy.
The following parts of the volume deal with the fact that migration policy designed by and for Western countries was adopted in Poland before exhaustive migration analysis was pursued. Discussion about migration doctrine became more vital when Poland found herself at the Eastern border of the EU and when the new border regime emerged. This has been especially important for neighbouring countries, as most of migrants came and still come from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
The largest part of the book is concerned with labour migration. Economic growth in connected with Poland’s EU-membership caused, on the one hand outflow from the country, and on the other inflow of labour force. The authors assume that for mass migration to occur “a demand stimulus must coincide with a supply of immigrant labour or, reciprocally, a supply stimulus must coincide with demand for foreign labour force” (p. 92). Case studies conducted about the regions of Warsaw and Wrocław show how different policies on the regional level respond to foreign workers and how smooth the implementation into the Polish labour market is. Economic migration stimuli are stable and depend on the economic performance of the country which triggers supply and demand for labour.
A main field of study is integration. Authors classify migrants into 4 categories depending on place of birth and place of residence: (1) “immigrants” – born outside of Poland, but now residing only in Poland (that is repatriates); (2) “circular migrants” – who are living in another country but coming to Poland on the regular basis (that is petty traders); (3) “transmigrants connected with Poland” – who have their place of residence in Poland and possibly in other countries and spend a similar amount of time in each of them (that is foreign students); (4) “transmigrants not connected with Poland” – who also have several places of residence but not in Poland where they come occasionally (that is visiting servicemen). Concerning duration of stay the first category is the most stable one. The basis for studies of this type has been projects of CMR conducted on groups of Ukrainians and Vietnamese for over a decade. The focus was placed on factors potentially stimulating the shift from mobility into settlement. Important in this respect are interactions with Poles, social ties among migrants themselves, family networks and job opportunities. On one hand official migrant and ethnic organisations are not very popular among migrants, on the other kinship and networks with so called “local others” proved to be very useful in providing assistance.
In conclusion one can agree with those authors of the volume, who claim that dominating circular migration to Poland is generally a more fluid concept including elements of Bauman's “liquid modernity”.3 This scenario applies not only to the Polish case as one of transnational migrants' feature. It questions fixed national identity and to some extent universal culture and language. It also answers the hypothesis from its introduction that Poland will turn into mass net-immigration country as occurred in the past with Western European countries.
Notes:
1 More about the IDEA project and consortium partners universities in Austria, France, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Czech Republic, Hungary at: <http://www.idea6fp.uw.edu.pl/newsletter/index.php?strona=3> (09.02.2012).
2 Claire Wallace / Dariusz Stola, Patterns of Migration in Central Europe, Basingstoke 2001.
3 Zygmunt Bauman, Liquid Modernity, Cambridge 2000.