Female immigrants in Polish migration policy

Assessment of the effectiveness of the regulations – an empirical study

Krystyna Slany, Karolina Krzystek, Agnieszka Małek

Working Paper No. 9 – WP2 July 2006

Integration of Female Immigrants in Labour Market and Society. Policy Assessment and Policy Recommendations

A Specific Targeted Research Project of the 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission

Jagiellonian University Cracow Ul. Golebia 24, 31007 Cracow, Poland e-mail: k.slany@iphils.uj.edu.pl

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 3

1. METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH 5

2. ORGANIZATIONS UNDER RESEARCH – MAIN CHARACTERISTICS 7

2.1 NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS 7

2.2 IMMIGRANTS' ASSOCIATIONS 8

2.3 STATE ACTORS – PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION UNITS 9

3. MIGRATION POLICY – THE ANALYSIS OF EMPIRICAL MATERIAL 10

3.1. SHORTCOMINGS AND PROBLEMS CONNECTED WITH BINDING REGULATIONS 12

3.2. THE SITUATION OF IMMIGRANTS 17

4. THE ORGANIZATIONS IN THE EYES OF THEIR REPRESENTATIVES 19

4.1. KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE ORGANIZATION 19

4.2. KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE GOALS AND ACTIVITIES OF THE ORGANIZATION 21

4.3. OPINIONS ABOUT PROBLEMS AND ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ACTIVITIES 24

4.4. COOPERATION WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS 26

5. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BETTER POLICIES 28

REFERENCES 33

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Introduction

Poland has been a country of emigration for a very long time. It wasn’t until the year 1989 that it

began also receiving the migrants. Nevertheless, the number of immigrants coming to the country is still

significantly lower than the number of the emigrants leaving Poland every year. According to many Polish

experts in migration studies, the outflow of people from Poland per year will outnumber the inflow to the

country for at lest the next twenty years. Therefore the creation of immigration policy is still a

considerably new challenge for our country’s government. Even though the policy has been developing

since the onset of the systemic transformation it has been shaped mainly by a diffusion of norms,

procedures, institutional solutions and regulations from the European Union. This process has been widely

addressed in the literature of the subject as the phenomenon of Europeanization of the migration policy in

Poland (Slany et al. 2006:10).

While addressing the need for the inclusion of the immigrants into the new society the main issue

emerging is the question of the integration. Different European and non-European states have formed and

adopted various types of integration policies within the boarder context of the immigration policy: the

policy of cultural pluralism, the policy of assimilation, to name a few. For the purposes of this analysis we

define integration as a process of becoming an accepted part of society. Therefore one might distinguish

three analytically different dimensions of integration: a legal and political dimension; an economic

dimension; and last but not least a socio-cultural dimension (Penninx 2005:5). The Legal and political

dimension is related to the fundamental question of whether the immigrants are or are not rightful

members of the society. In the countries where the character of immigration policy makes obtaining a

legal permit to settle a long, difficult and complicated process the immigrants themselves demonstrate less

inclination towards integration with the new society. In those countries which have simplified the process

of legalizing the stay, the newcomers integrate faster and more willingly, and they also tend to be more

active in the social and political sphere (Penninx 2005:6). The economic dimension is related to the

financial and economic situation and rights of a given country’s inhabitants irrespective of their

citizenship. The level of integration of the immigrants in this dimension depends on the level of equality

of rights to employment, access to social and care services, as well as medical care or unemployment

allowance the foreigners share with the native workforce. The third dimension of integration is related to

the socio-cultural sphere. It may be therefore explained by answering the following questions in a context

of a particular society: Do the immigrants have legal right to manifest their opinions or organise

themselves as ethnic, religious or racial groups? Are their rights and needs acknowledged by the state?

Are the foreigners socially accepted and treated as equal? How does the migration policy work to prevent

social exclusion and marginalization of immigrants?

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The socio-cultural sphere is, according to the experts, practically absent in the Polish migration

policy of the state, despite the emphasis put by the Council of Europe on programmes increasing social

cohesion, therefore focusing on supporting the weakest groups, which also includes immigrants, in order

to guarantee equal rights and ability to fight against social exclusion (Grzymała-Kazłowska, Okólski

2003:35). This is explained by the lack of tradition of immigration, the small scale of the phenomenon to

date, the fact that most immigrants stay only temporarily, or treat Poland as a transit country, as well as by

the accumulation of other social and economic problems (Grzymała-Kazłowska, Okólski 2003:35). As a

result, government programmes are directed only towards repatriates and refugees, but these also are

limited due to a shortage of funds and staff. There are no programmes focusing exclusively on women.

Analysis of the migration policy of a given country should take into consideration the institutional

framework in which it is being created. In order to assess the effectiveness and quality of the Polish

migration policy, interviews with a group of authors of this policy were conducted, those responsible for

its introduction and implementation on the administrative level, as well as with the actors connected with

non-governmental organisations serving foreigners or in which immigrants are associated. In May and

June 2006 two researchers carried out seven single in-depth interviews. The interviewee sample included:

two representatives of non-governmental organizations serving immigrants – a female psychologist

employed in the Centre for Assistance of Refugees and Migrants [CPUiM] of Caritas in Lublin and a

woman - project manager from the ‘La Strada Poland Foundation against the Trafficking in Women’; two

female immigrants - members of immigrant associations in Poland – an Armenian from the Armenian

Cultural Association [OTK] and a Vietnamese representing the Association of Vietnamese [SW] in

Poland; two policy makers employed in Central Offices – a specialist from the Department of Social

Assistance and Integration [DPiI] of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the President of the

Office for Repatriation and Aliens [URiC], functioning within the Ministry of Interior and Administration

[MSWiA] and an expert on migration studies and migration policy – a professor at the Leon Kozminski

Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management in Warsaw also representing the ‘Centre for Migration

Research’ in Warsaw University [CMR]1. The expert on migrations is one of the most prominent scholarly

authorities in this field in Poland. The interviewees were assigned the following codes: representatives of

non-governmental organizations: O1, O2; policy makers: P1, P2, female immigrants: I 1, I 2, expert: E.

This report has been divided into two parts. The first part – chapters one and two – deals with the

theoretical issues: methodology of the research and some basic information about the organizations from

which the respondents were selected: the non-governmental institutions; immigrants’ associations; state

actors represented by public administration units. In the second, empirical part – chapters three and four –

1 Both full names of the institutions and organizations and their acronyms, provided in brackets, are used in the text.

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authors of the report have introduced the following structure of analysis of collected data: issues under

research are grouped in two main categories, and six subcategories involving all subjects discussed during

the interviews. The first main category covers the problems and dilemmas of the Polish migration policy,

divided into two separate groups of problems – firstly, the shortcomings and difficulties connected with

binding regulations, secondly, the situation of the immigrants in Poland with emphasis on the female

immigrants. The second category encompasses a (self) portrait of the organization and is divided into four

subcategories: representative’s knowledge about the history of the organization; her/his knowledge about

the goals and activities of the organization directed at female immigrants; her/his opinions on the

problems and assessments of the effectiveness of activities carried out by respondent’s organization;

cooperation with other organizations and institutions. Each question addressed in the research is presented

form the perspective of the respondent representing either a state, a non-governmental or an immigrants’

organization. In the final chapter devoted to the possible solutions and recommendations for better policies

the authors of the paper present the outcomes of their analysis based on the empirical data collected during

the interviews.

1. Methodology of the research

Interviews with key informants were conducted with the use of the in-depth interview research

technique, orally and individually with every respondent. In the interviews the ‘interview schedule’ of the

FeMiPol project was implemented All interviews were conducted face-to-face and tape recorded. Every

interview was later transcribed and protocols including researchers’ additional comments were prepared.

The problems addressed in the interviews included: the history and structure of the organizations to which

the respondents belong and the position they hold in them; the place of female immigrants in the activities

of these organizations; opinions concerning the general characteristics of the situation of women

immigrants in Poland with respect to the existing regulations and migration policy; the effectiveness of the

activities carried out by Polish organizations; recommendations concerning the improvement of the

existing regulations and the situation of immigrants in Poland within the migration policy.

The research sample was selected on the basis of the criteria adopted for the whole FeMiPol

research project. Those selected to act as key informants were actors responsible for the formation of the

migration policy in the form of existing regulations; representatives of the state administration and offices

connected with the implementation and supervision of these regulations on both the local and international

level; actors actively involved in non-governmental migrants’ organizations, who are engaged in

improving their situation in Poland. During the research, the researchers had difficulty reaching some of

the respondents and conducting face-to-face interviews with them.

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The policy makers were easily accessible. The President of the Office for Repatriation and Aliens

turned out to be a very busy person but agreed to participate in the interview. The specialist from the

Department of Social Assistance and Integration of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy was the first

person who immediately agreed to take part in the interview which took place in her workplace, in MPiPS

in Warsaw, during working time.

The psychologist employed in the Centre for Assistance for Refugees and Migrants of Caritas in

Lublin agreed, after long persuasion, to meet in person with one of the researchers; the interview took

place on the Centre’s premises in Lublin, where renovation works were taking place at that time,

therefore, the interview was interrupted a few times.

In order to arrange a meeting with the manager employed in the La Strada Foundation against the

Trafficking in Women, the researchers had to use an informal network of contacts. The respondent agreed

to have an interview after we were recommended by a friendly director of one of the Cracow’s women’s

organization which co-operates with La Strada. Moreover, the address of the organization is not publicly

accessible, because victims of human trafficking find refuge on its premises, therefore entering poses a

considerable difficulty for a person “from the outside”.

Reaching women immigrants active in foreigners’ organizations turned out to be almost

impossible without resorting to an informal network of contacts. Both the Armenian Cultural Association

and the Association of Vietnamese in Poland do not have an regular office; the organization of

Vietnamese does not have its own website either, which makes it very difficult to obtain any kind of

information about it. Treated literally, the interview with the Vietnamese woman can be deemed

unsuccessful: the respondent spoke little and reluctantly. However, this interview, when analyzed together

with the researcher’s impressions based on nonverbal messages from the respondent, proved a relevant

resource for the diagnosis of the situation of women immigrants in Poland. Moreover, we must consider

the general cultural context: the Vietnamese are a group encountering a severe discrimination in such a

homogenous - from a religious and ethnic perspective - country as Poland. Most of the immigrants from

Vietnam earn a living running bars with Asian cuisine, which often fall prey to racial incidents. Therefore,

it can be assumed that Vietnamese do not want to talk about Polish regulations and difficulties connected

with living in Poland out of fear of further assaults. They are distrustful of Poles and maintain very strong

and close ties within their own ethnic group.

The research team had also decided to carry out an additional interview with a prominent expert

on migration policy, who has been conducting scholarly research in this field for many years, while also

acting as advisor for such institutions as: Office of the Committee for European Integration, Senate

Commission of Foreign Affairs, Office for Repatriation and Aliens, Centre for International Relations,

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Council on Refugees. The data obtained may serve as a starting point for more advanced in-depth

research.

2. Organizations under research - main characteristics

2.1 Non-governmental organizations

The organizations included in the research were selected on the basis of the aforementioned

criteria. Since there is no non-governmental organization in Poland working strictly for female

immigrants, representatives of the NGOs were selected from two organizations: ‘Centre for Assistance

for Refugees and Migrants of Caritas in Lublin’ – an organization addressing their activities to

immigrants in general, and ‘La Strada Foundation against Trafficking in Women’ – an organization

working exclusively for female victims of human trafficking, many of whom are also immigrants.

Caritas Poland is a church organization focusing in its activities on providing assistance for

particular social groups, which include, owing to various circumstances, wronged and marginalized

persons. Caritas Poland has forty-seven independent units throughout the country. The ‘Centre for

Assistance for Refugees and Migrants of Caritas’ in the Lublin Archdiocese is a specialist

establishment set up in 1995 to provide help and support for foreigners in Poland. The ‘Centre’ offers its

assistance mostly to foreigners staying in Poland, irrespective of their legal and social status, nationality or

religion. In practice, support is directed in the first place towards persons applying for refugee status and

staying in the nearby refugee camp. This type of assistance is in greatest demand. The Centre provides the

foreigners with help and assistance in the following fields: legal advice (Polish legal procedures, social

services, medical care, access to education and labour market); psychological counselling (individual and

group therapy, medical counselling, spiritual support); social counselling (supporting the integration

process, financial aid, vocational training, access to social services, family reunification).

‘La Strada Foundation against Trafficking in Women – Poland’ is a non-governmental

women's organization that seeks to prevent and combat the trafficking of women from and to Poland. The

Warsaw office was established in 1995 as part of a pilot project, "La Strada Programme: Prevention of

Trafficking in Women in Central and Eastern Europe", under the supervision of Stichting tegen

Vrouwenhandel (Dutch Foundation against Trafficking in Women, STV). After eight years the

programme has expanded to a network of 9 independent but coordinated offices in Poland, the

Netherlands, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Belorussia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and

Moldova. The La Strada Program seeks to make the issue of trafficking in women visible and to influence

the authorities and public opinion to address the topic from a human rights perspective. The program also

seeks to refer victims to support networks and to educate women and girls against potential dangers of

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trafficking. La Strada offers a shelter for foreign victims of human trafficking as well as free legal and

psychological assistance. The organisation has set up a helpline in the Russian and Vietnamese languages.

The Foundation undertakes efforts to change legal regulations in order to create tools for helping

aggrieved female foreigners (Slany et al, 2006:35).

2.2 Immigrants’ associations

The number of immigrants’ associations representing the specific interests of foreigners in Poland

is very limited. For instance, the Ukrainians, a very significant group amongst Polish immigrants, have not

formed any kind of an association whatsoever that could provide Ukrainian citizens with help or legal

assistance (Slany et al., 2006:35). Not a single exclusively ‘women’s’ immigrants’ organization exists in

Poland. Therefore, for the purposes of our research we have chosen two immigrants’ associations –

Armenian and Vietnamese - both catering to, respectively, all Armenians and Vietnamese in Poland,

despite their gender. The two organizations have women in their chair boards. As mentioned in the

methodology section above, both the Armenian Cultural Association and the Association of Vietnamese in

Poland do not have regular offices; the organization of Vietnamese does not have its own website either,

which makes it very difficult to obtain any kind of information about it.

The ‘Armenian Cultural Association’ was established in Cracow in 1990. It is a social and

cultural organization of Polish Armenians, functioning officially on the basis of the Law on Associations,

registered by the Voivodship Court2 in Cracow. The goal of the Association is to integrate the community

of Polish Armenians and document their history and culture. The Association also establishes links with

Armenia and with the Armenian Diaspora abroad, in order to help Polish Armenians maintain “spiritual”

contact with the rest of the nation. The ‘Association’ organizes numerous cultural and social events in

order to bring together all immigrants from Armenia. It also offers legal advice to ‘new immigrants’

coming to Poland and operates a weekend school were children may learn Armenian language, history,

culture and dance. The school was established two years ago as a project designed by a female member of

the ‘Association’ – a respondent with whom one of our interviews was conducted.

The Association of Vietnamese in Poland “Solidarity and Friendship” was established in 1999.

Its main tasks include supporting fellow nationals in severely difficult situations, providing them with

financial support and legal advice during contacts with Polish authorities. There are about 800 families

associated in it. The organization also participates in charity events and activities for the benefit of Polish

citizens by organizing collections of food and cloths and fund-raising for the orphans and families in need.

2 In 1999 the Voivodships Courts were transformed into the Regional Courts

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2.3 State actors – Public administration units

Two offices were also included in the research – agencies operating in two fields of migration

policy: creation of legal regulations and their implementation, represented by the ‘Office for

Repatriation and Aliens’ from the Ministry of Interior and Administration and the ‘Department of

Social Assistance and Integration’, constituting a part of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy.

‘Office for Repatriation and Aliens’ is comprised of the Departments and Offices for:

Repatriation and Citizenship, Asylum Procedures, Legalisation of Stay and Register of Aliens, Censuses,

Statistics and European Information, and International Cooperation. The Office for Repatriation and

Aliens was opened on 29 June 2001. The creation of this office is a result of an amendment to the

foreigner act of 11 April 2001. It deals in a comprehensive way with issues connected with foreigners

(before there was a Department of Migration and Refugees in the MSWiA). The President of the Office

for Repatriation and Aliens is responsible for tasks connected with citizenship, repatriation, administrative

proceedings referring to the granting of the refugee status and legalisation of stay of aliens on the territory

of the Republic of Poland. The office follows the solutions adopted in the EU countries in its work.

The Office was also created with the aim to facilitate the solution of difficult repatriation problems

connected with the increase in the number of Poles without Polish citizenship who wish to return to their

home country, e.g. from Kazakhstan, Ukraine. The President of the Office is a central organ of state

administration for repatriation, entry of aliens, transit through the territory of the Republic of Poland,

residence in and departure from it, granting of refugee status and asylum, assistance for repatriates,

running centres for foreigners applying for refugee status, keeping a register of data on acquisition and

withdrawal of the Polish citizenship (Slany et al, 2006:36).

The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy is a leading institution with respect to the creation of the

policy of integration of foreigners in Poland. It has prepared a document concerning the creation of a

comprehensive policy of integration of immigrants in Poland, which was approved by the European

Committee. Four elements of the integration policy have been highlighted: political, legal, institutional

and social. The ‘Department of Social Assistance and Integration’ is responsible for defining directions

for social welfare distribution and preparing standards in this field, as well as for monitoring the

implementation of the solutions. The tasks of the Department include the preparation of projects and

policy guidelines, as well as normative acts in the domain of social policy, particularly those concerning

assistance for and social integration of foreigners in Poland. The Department organizes courses in

immigrant integration in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Actions of the state institutions are based on the most important legal tools serving the

empowerment of immigrants and their incorporation into social life, namely the European Convention on

Human Rights with protocols, including the one on the non-discrimination rule, the Convention on the

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Status of Migrant Workers and the Convention on the Participation of Foreigners in Public Life at

Local Level. Their objective is to prepare a Framework Policy on Integration, determining legal

measures connected with the status of immigrants, citizenship, the right to stay, employment, access to

education, social services.

3. Migration policy – the analysis of empirical material

A crucial factor for the legislative initiatives in Poland was the process of Europeanization of the

migration policy, namely the transfer of the norms concerning the creation, pursuit and legitimization of a

given policy, both in the legal and in the cultural dimension on the national level connected with the

integration with the European Union (Weinar 2006). The very fact of the accession and necessity to

implement acquis communautaire, including the solutions of the Schengen Treaty, resulted in the fact that

the preparation of Polish legislation on migration and the surrounding debate were to a large extent a

derivative of the process of integration with the EU (Iglicka et al. 2003).

This chapter is devoted to showing how the process of shaping the migration policy is assessed by

the actors active in key positions in the field. The analysis of the interviews with the informants provokes

the following question: is there a migration policy in Poland or should we rather use the term migration

legislation? The respondents views on the binding regulations vary, ranging from radical opinions denying

the existence of any kind of a policy – “first of all - there is no migration policy in Poland” (P1), through

perception of some elements of migration policy, created mostly as a result of political and economic

changes, as well as European Union directives and solutions, to explicit statement that the legislation

existing in Poland aims at preventing access to the labour market and curtail the inflow of foreigners.

“So if you take the law on aliens, read it carefully, and also when you take the regulations of the Law on

promotion of employment and institutions of the labour market, read them carefully, put it all together and

impose…think about the way in which it functions, you’ll be able to see the policy. This is a policy of

limiting access of foreigners to the labour market in Poland, that is the fundamental assumption (...) and to

this extent it might even have a formal foundation, because if you take and look through the government

documents being created by, I don’t know, this government has not created any yet, but the previous one,

about the labour market, then you’ll be able to read there: the basic objective should be to prevent access to

the labour market for foreigners, so if we prevent, then we prevent, and hence the three-stage road to

obtaining a work permit, road of torture, if you want, this torture is not a result of there being four

bureaucrats somewhere sitting and thinking how to... but a result of translating policy into practice, if we are

supposed to prevent, then they should be discouraged (...) First of all the employer arranges, then you

arrange, then.. and so on...the longer…this is a vision of certain policy, it is not the whim of a few people,

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but this is exactly the implementation of a certain policy - a state with an 18 per cent unemployment rate

doesn’t need foreigners on the labour market.” (P2)3

This is a very strong statement, which shows that one may hardly talk about an immigration policy

in Poland. The perception of immigrants as a threat to the local labour force is both unfounded and

shortsighted especially in current circumstances of a challenging demographical situation, namely the

recent emigration trends of young people and very low birth rates. The outflow of qualified workers,

doctors, nurses and female domestic workers creates a large demand for immigrant workers within those

sectors of economy.

On the other hand, the policy maker, co-author of the binding Law on Aliens, highlights the

necessity to consider the analyses of the labour market and define the demand for specific categories of

employees. It also seems that a closer cooperation between various departments is indispensable.

“if anyone says that in Poland foreigners are of any use to anyone, then we’ll be able to construct a policy

which will be based on something, exactly on this, because so far it’s been based on the assumption that

foreigners are necessary only when they come themselves and give something for the Polish state, then

we’ll agree that they stay here.” (P2)

And further on: “but should this mass be big, small, how should it be managed, if somebody gives us clear

political directives, that we now have to create a law which is open to foreigners, or such that we will let

foreigners into some and not other sectors of the labour market, then we will create, implement and execute,

but it can’t be expected that the URiC will write a migration policy, that it will be assumed here that yes,

that we are going to import medium skilled IT specialists, because that is exactly what we need, because we

have no idea whom we need. According to the data of the Ministry of Labour we don’t need anything and

anybody at the moment.” (P2)

An intensification of inter-departmental cooperation is requisite – the creation of a centre co-ordinating

specific activities and an increase in the flow of information. It is important to emphasize here that we

cannot speak of Polish migration policy per se, the lack of a holistic vision in this respect is obvious.

When relating to Polish legal regulations concerning the migratory processes and both the outflow and the

inflow of people one may talk about ‘migration legislation’ but not about a policy. Within the legislation

however, no female immigrants are addressed as separate social actors characterized by different problems

pertaining to integration processes or the economic and legal situation.

3 Underlined in all quotations in the text are expressions emphasized by the interviewees with intonation.

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3.1. Shortcomings and problems connected with binding regulations

Further analysis enables us to discern several basic shortcomings and problems within the binding

regulations, indicated by the respondents (it should be emphasized that they were focusing on the issues

falling within their scope of responsibilities):

• Legal status of immigrants (especially the category of tolerated stay)

• Unfavourable solutions concerning the employment opportunities

• Lack of sufficient protection for victims of human trafficking who choose to take part in the court

proceedings

• Lack of coordination (cooperation) between governmental institutions, immigrants and non-

governmental organizations with respect to the creation of normative acts.

Objections are raised, on the part of both the representatives of the non-governmental

organizations and officers of state administration, to the category of the “tolerated stay” as well as

regulations linked with it. The institution of tolerated stay was introduced for the first time in the Polish

legislation by the Law on Aliens. It is justified by Poland’s commitments regarding non-expulsion of

aliens to countries where their basic rights are threatened. Proceedings concerning the issuing of permits

for tolerated stay usually take place during the proceedings for the granting of refugee status, however,

premises for granting refugee status are examined in the first place, and later, if need be, premises for

issuing a permit for tolerated stay. It is only granted when expulsion might be effected to a country where

his/her right to life, to freedom and personal safety could be under threat, where he/she could be subjected

to tortures or degrading treatment or punishment, or could be forced to work or be deprived of the right to

fair trial, or could be punished without any legal grounds – within the meaning of the Convention on

Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms signed in Rome on 4 November 1950 [vide: Slany et al, 2006:

pp.14-16].

Also the specific character of the migration of women is not acknowledged. In 2005 the Office for

Repatriation and Aliens received altogether 6860 applications for the granting of refugee status. During

the year 335 persons were granted the refugee status. 1822 persons were granted the permit for tolerated

stay. Applicants came from 50 different countries, over 90 per cent of them arrived in Poland from

Chechnya (6244 persons). Other significant groups of people applying for the status came to Poland from

Ukraine (84 persons), Belorussia (82), Pakistan (69), Georgia (47) and India (36). In the year 2004,

among 8079 persons applying for refugee status there were: 3595 women and 4484 men. Especially the

problems connected with the integration of Muslim Chechen women are not recognized, for many of them

would adapt to the new situation differently than men especially when it comes to entering the labour

market.

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The necessity to extend the existing integration programme – so far granted only to acknowledged

refugees - was postulated, so as to include also these persons who have been granted tolerated stay. The

major problem is a lack of measures to facilitate the adaptation process and professional

activation of this group. The respondents pointed to the significant number of this type of permits issued

every year, surpassing significantly the number of acknowledged refugees and insignificant participation

of the government institutions in supporting them in the adaptation to the new conditions.

“I think, however, that mostly it is the group with tolerated stay, because they are the largest group. There are

e.g. many single mothers in this group, so the integration programme for this group is imperative, well, simply it

is imperative.” (O 1)

“tolerated stay means everything and nothing, because supposedly there is the permit to work, and to have work

you need a flat, you can’t have a flat because there are no flats, they don’t have money and no one is going to

employ them when there is such high unemployment and without knowledge of the Polish language. In other

words, it is like hanging in the air.” (E)

Concern is raised by the lack of initiatives aimed at immigrants settled in Poland, the focus on the control

of the inflow and the lack of reflection on the integration aspect.

“these large groups of immigrants who have come to Poland from third countries, like for example the

Vietnamese, there is no integration policy towards them, and the integration policy, if it exists to a

certain...on the national level, it is connected with the repatriates from Kazakhstan, but according to the law

they are not treated as immigrants.” (E)

“all debates which were taking place in the Parliament referred to the legal acts connected with the

residence permit, entry, stay of aliens, but referred exactly to regulations, visa, permit for a specified period

of time, permit to settle or granting citizenship.” (E)

The actors clearly stated that the current law in Poland concentrates mainly on the rules of admission,

while the policy of integration is much less visible. The concept of integration hasn’t yet been formed in

Poland (Mazur 2004). The issue was also raised of the integration of the acknowledged refugees.

According to the representative of the Office responsible for the coordination of the integration

programmes (existing in Poland since 2001), most of them are interrupted because the refugee leaves the

country. In her opinion:

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“(…) if they themselves don’t want to integrate, they shouldn’t be forced to stay. The unemployment is

high enough in Poland, it is not like there is a labour shortage and these refugees are indispensable for us. If

they don’t it want themselves, then I think they shouldn’t be pressed.” (P1)

In this statement a similar attitude to the one of the president of the Office for Repatriation and

Aliens was expressed. A belief that immigrants pose a threat towards the native labour force.

On the other hand, according to a representative of one non-governmental organization,

integration programmes (especially language instruction and teaching of the rudiments of culture) should

be obligatory for everyone already during the stay in the centre for refugees, while application for the

refugee status is being processed

“ (…) it should be a requirement stipulated by law, otherwise you lose benefits (...)” (O2)

Another problem raised by the respondents was connected with the possibilities of legal employment in

Poland. One of the respondents pointed particularly to legal barriers faced by foreigners who want to

become entrepreneurs. As a result, educated people are forced to look for a job on the secondary market,

which offers employment opportunities much below their qualifications.

„Two years ago the possibility to set up a business was liquidated, I don’t know why. Now it is much more

difficult for these people because they can’t register. It is most difficult for educated people to find

employment in their professions, there is only manual labour left. To open a company you need to have a

registered business, which is impossible.” (I1)

Moreover, she pointed to very high labour costs, which discourage a potential employer from hiring a

foreigner.

„I have friends in the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium. Compared with the policy of these countries,

nothing is being done for immigrants in Poland. There, if you have obtained the residence permit, at the

same time you are granted the work permit. If you know the language well, you’ll be employed. In Poland,

one has to apply for the work permit, and the employer must pay 800 PLN for such permit. What employer

will want to employ an immigrant if it costs so much?” (I1)

A separate problem is the issue of women. Respondents unanimously pointed to a marginal

presence of these issues both on the level of discussions and on the level of specific legal solutions. The

needs of women in the Polish migration legislation have not been accounted for (except for the acts

15

combating trafficking in women) and it seems that especially in the minds of the people responsible for

specific legal solutions this problem is practically non-existent or is disparaged.

“(…) I think there’s no, and as far as I know, there was no discussion about the needs of women, in this

sense that if it is assumed in the policy to prevent access, then everyone is prevented. In other words, there

are no assumptions in our policy that women are needed here in any particular way (...) generally I don’t

remember this issue being raised, like women or other groups, that they were treated in any particular way

compared with others, I can’t remember that.” (P2)

From this one and the following statement we may infer that addressing the needs and problems of female

immigrants, even acknowledging their agency is not amongst the priorities of Polish migration legislation

and its implementation. One of the respondents sums the existing situation up in the following way:

“In Poland there are no programmes for women, because I think no one cares about their problems.” (P1)

Regulations concerning the protection of women – victims of human trafficking, who choose to cooperate

with the judicial organs, are the only regulations in the migration legislation addressing women directly.

The biggest problem with legal norms in this respect is, according to the informants, the lack of possibility

to provide protection for people choosing to cooperate with the law enforcement authorities, as well as

mistakes in classifying people – victims of trafficking, as illegal immigrants.

The respondent representing the La Strada, which provides assistance for such women, points to

significant procedural errors resulting in unfavorable consequences for women.

“(…) it is often believed that they have come, haven’t they, they’ve become prostitutes, so they wanted it

themselves and in fact the most common and the easiest way for the police and the Border Guard is to

deport the girl. And this is not an appropriate identification. And it is mainly the Police, the Border Guard.

And I think that much more women would use the assistance or fight for their rights if they were

appropriately identified. Or it happens sometimes – and this is very difficult for me – that a victim of human

trafficking is identified as a person who is trying to illegally cross the border, for example with a false

passport, and nobody reads up till the end to find the reason why it’s happened.” (O2)

It seems that policy makers, not encountering the problem directly and observing implementation of

initiatives from the perspective of their office (institution), cannot see systemic obstacles.

“(…) only there were always these types of guidelines, even if there was no implementation, then all

Voivodship Offices had instructions what to do if a woman reports and says that she’s a victim of human

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trafficking, how to legalize her and some stay, to prevent her from becoming a victim of the system, I mean

from being deported, registered, trashed, etc. So this arrangement was functioning here, and now it’s

complete.” (P2)

The opinions about the process of creating legislation and the participation and consultations

by non-governmental institutions and experts are symptomatic. The representative of the organ

responsible directly for presenting the projects of specific legal acts described this stage as open for all

interested parties; he emphasized the opportunity for presenting motions and suggestions, a common

creation of the law. The respondents from non-governmental and governmental organizations saw

themselves rather as consultants.

“in reality, the Minister of Interior and Administration is at present responsible for the creation of the

migration policy, whereas all legal acts which are in any way connected with the issues, for which the

ministry is responsible, are consulted with us, so in fact we have influence, but...well...it is not really that

everything depends on us.” (P1)

“maybe it’s too much to say that [we had influence] on creating the law, but we had and we were active. (...)

it turned out at some point that all countries in which La Strada functions have a national programme, and

we don’t. And we familiarized the MSWiA with this problem and initiatives to implement this programme

lasted until it started to function as a legal act.” (O2)

There are clearly expressed expectations to intensify cooperation in the process of creation of the law.

“I was never asked this question. I think also that there are slightly too few such questions from the officials

deciding about certain things simply to people working in the field. (...) Because it is one thing to read some

publication, e.g. translated from some Western source, and it’s another thing to refer to our conditions here.”

(O1)

Also the immigrants emphasize the relevance of consulting the immigrants’ themselves, using

their experiences and listening to their “voice”. It seems that both parties have different expectations

and ideas about the process of creating the law. The government listens to and considers postulates

presented out of the interested party’s own initiative, but fails to see itself as the side , which invites others

to participate in the discussion. On the other hand, representatives of non-governmental organizations and

the immigrants themselves expect a clear message from the policy makers, encouraging them to

cooperate.

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3.2. The situation of immigrants

The most common problems faced by immigrants, identified by the respondents, are:

finding legal employment

finding accommodation

language barrier

The respondents classified them as typical for all immigrants, irrespective of gender:

“problems…problems I think are classic, because they concern the residence law, problems referring to the

legalization of documents, problems concerning the work permit, but these are universal problems for both

sexes.” (O2)

“these are the same problems. There is no difference.” (I2)

Respondents encountered significant difficulties when asked to answer a question about the specificity of

female migrations, and to indicate problems faced women. Mentioned were:

• traumas and disorders

• difficulty to reconcile family responsibilities and professional work.

Some of the informants were sceptical about the chances of considering women’s needs in the migration

legislation in view of the fact that Poland has rather a policy towards immigration (rules regulating the

influx of immigrants), whereas the policy towards immigrants (rules regulating the status and rights of

immigrants, and issues connected with integration) is pushed to the margin:

“it is a well-known fact that women are in fact…well it is a different specificity, different problems, and

there should be such initiatives. But in the absence of initiatives towards immigrants as such in general, I

think it will take some time.” (P1)

Finding legal employment is definitely the most significant barrier to overcome for immigrants in

Poland. Vague regulations, complicated procedures, insufficient information, poor knowledge of the rights

they have result in the exclusion from the labour market and undertaking of illegal employment, often

below qualifications. Immigrants complained especially about incomprehensible impediments to obtaining

a permit for establishing a business. A serious obstacle for immigrants is also finding a flat and registering

in it, whereas these are necessary conditions for undertaking legal employment. On the other hand, it

seems that problems of female immigrants other that those concerning their economic situation is not

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socially recognized or identified. The questions of health insurance, education, security, family and

personal relations were not raised in the narratives. These are the core issues for understanding the

specificity of female migratory processes.

“It seems to me that the biggest problem for all Armenians is to legalize their stay and obtain the work

permit. Women take care of children so it is twice as difficult for them. I know a lot of women with higher

education who weren’t working for ten years only taking care of the house and children, and their husbands

were working. This is a tragedy, that there are people who stay at home and can’t do anything. For example

a music teacher, she graduated from a conservatory, she’s a concertmaster, she could work at an academy

but she can’t, because she doesn’t have a work permit.” (I1)

“their [immigrants] unfavourable situation is attributable mostly to an inappropriate migration policy and

inadequate legislation, preventing correction of regulations. Bureaucracy, as I have already mentioned, is

huge and blocks changes.” (P1)

The informants pointed to a lack of knowledge of the Polish language among immigrants. On the

part of the representatives of non-governmental organizations proposals were advanced to introduce

obligatory language instruction for people applying for the refugee status. Also women immigrants

admitted that problems with communication are one of the most serious obstacles in the adaptation

process. Without knowledge of the language an immigrant has minimum chances finding legal

employment in Poland, commensurate with his/her qualifications.

“it is language in the first place, the majority doesn’t know the language and can’t communicate.” (I2)

Among problems affecting mostly women, the informants emphasized in the first place difficulties

connected with simultaneous fulfillment of family responsibilities, childcare and professional work.

Women more often turn for psychological help, for advice. It should, however, be strongly emphasized

that most informants were very general in their comments, few clear proposals were put forward how to

improve the existing regulations or apply new solutions.

“It is particularly difficult also for single mothers, because not only do they have to take care of them, they

have the problem of what to do with the child, how to handle everything, how to manage financially, and of

course arrange all these formal matters, so they have a big problem right there.” (O1)

“we have such initiatives directed towards women, I mean we offer psychological help, because often these

are women they...women with children...they reveal these problems, they talk about it. They come and they

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really say that the situation is bad, that she has such and such symptoms, that the child has such and such

symptoms.” (O1)

Little attention is paid by the informants to the problems of women employed in the domestic

services sector, exposed – owing to the character of the job and being somewhat “kept out of sight” – to

the risk of physical and psychological violence. It seems that this problem is completely ignored and

treated in purely theoretical terms, especially on the level of state administration.

“on the other hand, perhaps it is not so common, because no complaints can be heard from these categories

of women, they don’t reach the media, or non-governmental organizations, or the courts, or the

administration, at least I haven’t heard about such cases (...) but I think that it is possible that this

phenomenon exists, although...you know, from the experiences of the non-governmental organizations that I

know, if some phenomenon is really significant, then it’s going to be publicized. It is not really that

everyone will be quiet about it, so...I don’t rule this out, what happens behind closed doors, starting with

domestic violence, child and wife battering and many other things, there are good things happening and bad.

The same may be happening with these Ukrainian women. But I don’t think it’s a very common

phenomenon, because if it was really common, or if it really affected these women in a very painful way,

then at some point (...) we would in fact hear something about it, somewhere.” (P2)

The approach towards the problems of immigrants is best expressed in the words of the informant-expert:

„[because] of a still really small number of immigrants on the Polish territory, that is why this phenomenon

is disregarded, but I also think that more or less the same as with everything that happens in Poland, until

somebody doesn’t go out in the street and start shouting then...then simply, well, no one can see any

problem, no one wants to see this problem.” (E1)

4. The organizations in the eyes of their representatives

4.1. Knowledge about the history of the organization

One of the purposes of the interviews was to examine the knowledge about the organization

possessed by our respondents – employees or members of these organizations/institutions. At the

beginning of every interview the respondents were asked to provide basic information about the history of

their institutions – upon whose initiative were they created and for how long have they been functioning.

It turned out that the representatives of non-governmental organizations: the psychologist working in the

Centre for Assistance for Refugees and Migrants [CPUiM] of Caritas in Lublin and the project manager

from the Foundation against the Trafficking in Women La Strada Poland had relatively the most detailed

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knowledge in these areas. Both interviewees were able to provide precise times of creation of their

organizations. However, the respondent from the CPiUM had some problems with indicating exactly

upon whose initiative the institution, in which she was employed, was established.

“Grass-roots [initiative ] … I mean, I know that in fact you would have to ask rather somewhere at the

church authorities, because from what I have heard, in the Vatican there was, and probably still is, a kind of

an institution, agency, where, I mean, that its name…it was called I think the Office of Wanderers and

Migrants, some kind of a funny name it was, it was called I think the same as in the Vatican, but you would

have to browse, search, because I won’t answer this question.” (O1)

On the other hand, the respondent from La Strada was involved in the creation of her own organization on

the territory of Poland, hence her knowledge was very detailed.

“The Foundation has been functioning as a registered non-governmental organization since 1996, since

September. And since 1995, also since September or since October, the programme of preventing the

trafficking in women from Central and Eastern Europe was being realized. It was a year-long programme,

financed from the PHARE funds. In fact the foundation was established upon the initiative of the women

employees, the employees of the programme, even though establishing of an independent organization was

one of the objectives also of this project La Strada, this year-long project. And the very idea of the project

was Dutch, it was the idea of the STV foundation [Dutch Foundation Against the Trafficking in Women],

foundation against the trafficking in women, functioning in the Netherlands, in Utrecht, since 1987.” (O2)

The immigrants had a much poorer knowledge about their organizations, and while the Armenian,

representing the Armenian Cultural Association had at least a very general knowledge about the

institutionalization of the Association, the Vietnamese was not sure about any of the information about the

Association of Vietnamese in Poland, of which she is, in fact, a member. It is important to emphasize here,

that the member of the Vietnamese Association was an only female member of its board whilst the

Armenian was offered a place on the board of the Armenian Cultural Association after she alone had

organized a weekend school for Armenian children.

“[…] When help is needed, they call me. But I don’t know for how long has the Association has been

working. I think it has been working for about 6 – 7 years [...]. I think it was created upon the initiative of

the Vietnamese from Warsaw.” (I2)

The knowledge about the beginnings of the organizations differed in case of the two policy makers

interviewed. The President of the Office for Repatriation and Aliens [URiC] was both the initiator and co-

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founder of this Office by the Ministry of Interior and Administration, hence his exhaustive answers. He

explains the need for creating the Office in the following way:

“The Office has been functioning since 2001 and was created on the basis of an amendment to the act on

aliens from the same year. The idea for establishing it was a result of reflections from the end of the 90s and

in 2000 - mine and of a few people heading the Ministry’s Department [Ministry of Interior and

Administration] at that time. [...] these reflections were based on the observations of how these types of

things were settled in the European Union countries, during the negotiations continuing at that time we were

analyzing also this element, so what was being considered were maybe not orders, because such orders

could not be given, but suggestions on the part of the European Commission during the course of the

negotiations. It seems that such a model, where there is an independent office dealing with it is a slightly

better model, although of course the European solutions vary, the one we have, I think is the most common,

but there are also others.” (P2)

The person employed for a year and a half in the position of a specialist in the Department of Social

Assistance and Integration [DPiI], within the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, was unable to provide

any information about the beginnings and history of her institution.

“Frankly speaking I don’t know [when and upon whose initiative was the Department created], I have been

working here for a short time, I was employed to deal strictly with the issues connected with foreigners, so I

am not familiar with the history, to be honest.” (P1)

Already on the basis of the several interviews carried out it can be observed that in the institutions

in which there is staff or members rotation, the “institutional memory” and knowledge about the tradition

of the organization is rather poor. People who were not involved in the creation of a given organization

have very limited information about its past activity. This observation turns out to be crucial if we assume

that knowledge about one’s own organization is connected with the degree to which its members identify

with it, which degree may, in turn, fundamentally influence the effectiveness of this institution.

4.2. Knowledge about the goals and activities of the organization

Further on, the respondents were asked to indicate basic objectives and activities of the

organization to which they belong.

The psychologist employed in the CPUiM Caritas in Lublin, mentions providing extensive

assistance to foreigners staying in Poland as one of the organization’s objectives:

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“The basic objective is […] extensive assistance, both social [...] and psychological, and legal, for all

foreigners in fact, because we don’t divide here, we don’t treat rigidly these legal divisions.” (O1)

She goes on to say that this inclusive approach towards foreigners changed when the CPUiM started to

apply for the funds from the European Union budget for various programmes; participation in a given

project entails commitment to activities targeted at specific groups, and this limits the possibilities of

catering to other categories of foreigners, who therefore are often helped on a voluntary basis:

“Yes, with these Union programmes coming in it is a bit different, because if we apply for instance for

people who live in the Centers and they have for example the tolerated stay, then we can include only them,

whereas from other sources and on our own time, when we are not doing the project, as we have it in the

agreements, then in fact we help other people as volunteers, with our own time. But generally it is that we

don’t send anyone away empty-handed, it is always possible to obtain at least this piece of advice from us,

because we can’t help everyone materially. Although from the Caritas resources, is it some second-hand

clothes or is it medicines, if it is some kind of a critical situation then people who are in fact well... migrants,

or some people from Ukraine, Belarus, some accidental means, then we also try to help them, even in some

material way.” (O1)

In general, material help is provided by the CPUiM only in exceptional situations, which the respondent

justifies with the fear of encouraging a demanding attitude in the people receiving such support:

“But it is very occasional, this type of [material] support, we try not to provide it, because there are no

financial resources, and besides, people get used to it, that you come for money in great numbers, and later

on... one gets used to it, so that’s not the way.” (O1)

The second representative of the non-governmental organization interviewed, the project manager in La

Strada Poland, defines the objectives of the organization in the following way:

“[…] preventing human trafficking, and especially deceitful recruitment of women into the sex business

and exploitation by the sex business. [...] The La Strada programme was established as a project addressing

human trafficking in all its aspects, except for the purely commercial one. [...] three campaigns were carried

out: information and lobbying campaign, educational and prevention campaign, and a campaign of help and

support for the victims of trafficking. So we are involved before, after and in the middle.” (O2)

The two associations of immigrants studied differ in their activities and statutory goals. The

Armenian organization is a Cultural Association, therefore, its basic statutory goal is to popularize

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Armenian culture in Poland. This is how the respondent belonging to this organization, originator and co-

founder of a weekend school for Armenian children in Poland, functioning in Cracow for two years, put it:

“The school is a part of the Association, although one language teacher is employed from the Ministry,

because the Ministry couldn’t employ other teachers, because according to the law emigrants may teach

only their own language, and we needed music classes, dance classes and history classes, to familiarize

children with the Armenian culture. We organize exhibitions, meetings, [...]. Concerts, Armenian Days, and

now we’ve been trying recently, over the last month, to extend this group and encourage rather the people of

the new emigration to be more active in the OTK days.” (I1)

Recently, however, the Association has been focusing more on providing legal assistance for immigrants

from Armenia. Armenian immigrants describe their legal situation as very difficult and unstable:

“We’ve been trying recently, over the last month, to extend this group and encourage rather the people of

the new emigration to be more active in the OTK days, we’re trying to implement some programme so as to

encourage these people, because for the most part Armenians have a very unstable situation of residence in

Poland and the conditions for the legalization are very difficult [...] we want to implement this kind of a

programme and most of the recent meetings have been devoted to it, how to arrange legal counseling, how

to solve administration problems.” (I1)

The respondent belonging to the Association of Vietnamese in Poland did not have any knowledge about

the goals written in the statute of her organization. She described the actions implemented in reality in a

very short way:

“In the first place it is to help our folks, to live and work. We organize for example various relief actions

also for Poles [...] We also help orphanages in Cracow.” (I2)

The President of the URiC, asked about the goals and activities of his institution, emphasized that

the creation of the migration policy per se is not among its tasks, but rather its role is to advise the

Minister of Interior and Administration on issues connected with its creation:

“The goal of the Office is…it’s a central body, therefore, the goal of the Office is neither to create great

policy, maybe to support the Minister in creating or implementing the policy, the objectives of the Office

are very mundane – expeditious arrangement of administrative issues required from the Office by the law,

ensuring observation of the law in this field, ensuring preparation of new legal arrangements, based mostly

on...and implementing appropriate, timely implementation of appropriate European Union directives [...]”

(P2)

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The respondent emphasized that the objective of the Office is not the integration of immigrants, but

clarification of their legal situation in Poland. In his opinion, these issues are often the cause of

misunderstanding.

“The Office brings the immigrant’s or the refugee’s case to the level of the decision whether she or he has,

and if yes – what kind of residence permit does she or he have in Poland, and from this point onwards the

interested party passes under the authority of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and there there are

agencies which should, although they don’t always do that, deal with his or her integration. The truth is that

Poland doesn’t have integration programmes, apart from the integration programme for the recognized

refugees, it doesn’t have any other programme. [...] But the integration issues are not the issues of the

Office.” (P2)

The specialist employed in the DPiI of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy - an agency responsible

for the integration of immigrants (as mentioned by the policy maker from the URiC quoted above) - had

some problem listing all activities carried out by her Department:

“The Department is responsible for the broadly understood social integration…and activities concerning

foreigners are only one of its elements […]. [Among the tasks of the Department there is] ...conducting...I

mean coordinating of individual integration programmes for refugees, apart from that we also have a few

projects financed by the European Union, for example a project concerning the pro-integrational activities in

the centre in Czerwony Bór. Another project is [a project] in cooperation with the IOM, concerning the

integration of immigrants....the next project is evaluation of the integration programmes...probably....there

must be something else...” (P1)

4.3. Opinions about problems and assessment of the effectiveness of activities

Respondents were asked to list the most important problems and obstacles which are encountered

by “their” institutions and were asked about the effectiveness of these institutions in their opinion. In

general, the interviewees talked little and reluctantly about problems, and approached the question about

the assessment of the effectiveness of activities with certain reserve. The number of interviews conducted

is insufficient for drawing conclusions about problems and effectiveness of institutions in Poland in

general, therefore, the respondents’ opinions should be treated as material for individual case studies.

The respondent from the CPUiM Caritas in Lublin emphasized that her organization always

manages to meet the adopted objectives and that no significant obstacles, hindering their realization, come

to her mind.

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“Well, it’s difficult to assess oneself like that, isn’t it? [...] We do manage, we always manage to do this [to

meet the adopted objectives – KK]. Well, we have some problems for example with such help that the

refugees would expect, simply…well, we’re unable to provide housing, we’re sometimes unable to, but this

is the biggest problem, every organization, everyone will tell you the same, that the problem with housing

and with work are the basic problems faced by refugees. But generally what we have in the statute, the goals

which we are supposed to meet, we’ve always carried them out. [...] I can’t think of any such obstacles.

Sometimes […] a kind of a lack of information. Both in the society, and in various offices of various people.

Well we had for example some problem one day also with...people simply don’t read legal regulations, legal

acts, and if somebody comes to them with a foreign accent, or not speaking Polish fluently, or with a name,

even having a different name, which is often the case of repatriates...”(O1)

We can clearly draw the conclusion, from the interview quoted above, that such obstacles exist,

for example an animosity of Polish clerks towards foreigners mentioned by the respondent, although not

named explicitly.

The representative of the La Strada Foundation mentions the following obstacles encountered by

her institution:

“In preventive actions the problem is in the first place that it’s connected with sex first of all, and secondly,

with the sex-business. School-prostitution – it doesn’t always go together […]. On the other hand, we

haven’t had any significant problems over the past 10 years to organize lectures in schools or present

materials. If they were not interested, they would simply refuse, but it happens very rarely. [...] I think that

sometimes people are simply afraid.” (O2)

The immigrant from Armenia, representing the Armenian Cultural Association, considers imprecise legal

regulations and their unfavourable interpretation by the Polish officials to be the biggest problem for the

organization:

“It was a problem to found the school and employ teachers. There is a problem with treating the act in a

way that is efficient for people who apply rather than for the state. Because there is a section in the law that

a person with a temporary stay may get a job, but when they call and say that if there is an Armenian citizen

and with temporary stay, then no. And they agree with it, because it’s written in this section that a person

with temporary stay may obtain the work permit and there are subsections, and they won’t listen to you on

the phone, whether you are from this subsection or from another. They say that you can’t set up a business

and that’s it.” (I1)

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The immigrant from the Association of Vietnamese in Poland did not want to talk about the

problems encountered by her organization. Asked about the goals of the Association that could not be

achieved, she gave a very short answer: “There was nothing like that.” (I2)

The President of the URiC does not mention any obstacles that he encounters in his work in the

interview, and only talks in general about the problems with implementing the migration policy. He points

to the fact that immigrants are not an object of interest of the average Pole, whose knowledge is based

mostly on negative stereotypes or myths, but his words may be treated rather as an indifferent diagnosis of

the situation than an expression of regret.

The specialist from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy mentioned problems connected with

carrying out Individual Integration Programmes for refugees. The source of these problems, according to

the interviewee, are the extensive bureaucratic system and staff shortages. She described the effectiveness

of her Department as “medium.” (P1)

“Anyway, the integration programmes started in 2001. These are individual integration programmes, so we

should talk here about each programme separately. There are about 300, 350 of them a year, and the truth is

that majority of them is interrupted because of the refugee, because...well, because he simply leaves. And it

definitely isn’t a success. But I think that if they don’t want to integrate themselves, then they shouldn’t be

forced. The unemployment is high enough in Poland, it is not like that that there are labour shortages and

these refugees are indispensable for us. If they don’t want it themselves then I think they shouldn’t be

pressed. It is [an obstacle in achieving the adopted goals] mostly the gigantic bureaucracy and huge staff

shortages. Definitely too few people work here. It takes me a few hours every day to only answer e-mails,

deal with meaningless correspondence. Apart from that, the ministers and authorities keep changing, instead

of acting, we produce piles of reports for the minister, who doesn’t probably even have time to look through

them. It takes at least half of the working time and doesn’t lead anywhere.” (P1)

4.4. Cooperation with other organizations and institutions

Respondents representing state institutions and non-governmental organizations did not have any

problem listing partners with which they cooperate. The significantly large numbers enumerated

organizations and institutions, both Polish and European, seem to demonstrate that basically participation

in such networks is already a standard which started to develop even before the formal accession of

Poland to the EU structures. However, certain differences between institutions can be traced in the

interviews.

The psychologist employed in the CPUiM, listing institutions with which her organization

cooperates, mentioned mostly governmental Centres for Refugees:

27

“Yes, these are governmental Centres, yes, well, we cooperate, we support these institutions. [...] At the

moment, for example, we have a project which we are implementing from the European Fund, so we have

additionally, apart from psychological counseling, legal counseling and social help, like welfare,

additionally we have also Polish classes, English classes, delivered by a lady who is fluent in the Russian

language and in Ukrainian, [...] she also helps children do their homework, because parents often can’t help

them with English classes. [...] We come regularly to these centres.” (O1)

The respondent from the La Strada Poland Foundation, which belongs to an international network

of similar organizations, provided a very long list of organizations cooperating with her foundation in the

interview, from both Poland and from abroad, especially from Germany and from Italy:

“As a foundation we are an organization functioning in Poland, operating on the whole Polish territory, but

we are a part of the La Strada International network, in which 9 countries are associated... [We cooperate

with such organizations as:] Helsinki Foundation of Human Rights, Nobody’s Children Foundation, Polish

Federation for Women and Family Planning from Warsaw, Women’s Rights Centre – both in Warsaw and

in Cracow, and generally speaking, Centre for the Advancement of Women here in the Equal project [...]

many organizations from Germany [...] Koofra, Phoenix from Hanover, it is Hydra Berlin, it is the Polish

Social Council of Berlin, it is InVia Berlin – it is connected with Caritas, but sensible, Casa dei Diritti

Sociali from Rome, Comitato...I won’t tell you, I must have a look at...I’ll give you a leaflet [the

organization is: Comitato per i Diritti Civili delle Prostitute].” (O2)

Representatives of the governmental institutions listed numerous cooperating institutions,

however, in the context of their answer to other questions it can be concluded that in practice, this

cooperation is rather vertical than horizontal (it results from the superiority of these institutions over other

state agencies). There is also an impression that cooperation with some of the listed institutions is only

occasional, formal or prestigious in character.

The policy maker from the URiC, asked about cooperation, answered in the following way:

“When it comes to cooperation with state agencies then it is regular, both required by legal acts, and

imposed by the problems involved – cooperation with the Border Guard [...], with Voivodship Offices [...],

with the MSZ [Ministry of Foreign Affairs] structures, and mostly with the Consular Department, and with

Polish diplomatic and consular establishments abroad [...]. There is cooperation, although it is....sometimes

it’s closer, sometimes it’s weaker, with the Ministry of Labour. [...] The Police – it’s rather an occasional

cooperation, they have certain responsibilities arising from the Act on Aliens [...] And apart from the

government administration? It is mostly cooperation with the Office of the UNHCR in Warsaw, I mean I

don’t even mention the Council on Refugees, which is, on the other hand, which is an organ of appeal from

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us on the refugee issues [...] with the IOM office in Warsaw, and of the non-governmental organizations

mostly with the FH [Helsinki Foundation.], with PAH [Polish Humanitarian Organization], with Doctors

without Borders, such organizations. With a few, there are different organizations, with centres or clinics of

law, run by various universities [...] So much I think in general, the organizations cooperating the most with

us.” (P2)

Also the specialist from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy provides a long list of institutions with

which her Department cooperates:

“Voivodships are subordinate to us, […] we supervise poviat centres of assistance through voivods, centres

for family assistance, centres for social welfare, so it is the gmina [commune] level. When it comes to non-

governmental organizations, [...] it is for instance the Polish Red Cross, Ocalenie Foundation, Institute of

Social Affairs, Polish Association of Legal Intervention, Polish Humanitarian Organization, what else...in

fact all non-governmental organizations...association of refugees of the Republic of Poland – we have

it...When it comes to international – Organization on Migrations, UNHCR of course, INGP from time to

time, and moreover member states, and not only, because sometimes we cooperate with the United States,

with Canadians sometimes...in fact a vast array.” (P1)

A much more modest picture of cooperation was painted by the representatives of immigrant

organizations. The member of the Armenian Cultural Association mentions only that the Association from

Cracow cooperates with its Warsaw counterpart, and that members of the organization are planning to get

involved in projects financed from the European Union budget.

“[…] it is cooperation with the Warsaw [Armenian Cultural Association], there is an interest group of

Armenians. We are also cooperating to create an organization associating Armenian youth. [...] OTK needs

people who will be applying for grants.” (I1)

On the other hand, the representative of the Association of Vietnamese in Poland could not at all answer

the question, whether her organization cooperates with other institutions, she explained that she “doesn’t

know about these things.” (I2)

5. Conclusions and recommendations for improving policies

It can be concluded from the interviews that immigration policy and policy towards

immigrants are important and should be an essential field of policy. Immigration policy can be

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understood as everything that the state does for immigrants and what non-governmental secular and

church organizations do, as well as the immigrants’ and ethnic organizations.

Every informant emphasized these aspects of policy which fall within his/her sphere of activity

and interest (formal and non-formal).

Characterizing prescriptions for conducting a better immigration policy in Poland – pertaining to

policy designed both towards immigration and towards immigrants, and with particular emphasis on the

policy regarding the relatively new, clearly visible subject of international movements, namely women

migrants – we should place them within four key dimensions:

1) a qualitatively and formally new immigration space which Poland constitutes;

2) the time of emergence of this space, especially after accession to the EU structures;

3) character of the policy on the macro, micro and individual level;

4) instruments of this policy.

After accession to the EU in 2004 Poland is, on the one hand, a member of the European and

world migration system, on the other hand though, we can observe a creation of a new migration space

with specific economic, social and cultural characteristics. The migration policy is formally conducted on

all levels of the social structure, with legally defined (although limited) instruments.

Analyzing the collected data it must be concluded that the interview with the president of the

URiC, the government representative, has dominated the general content obtained from other informants

(including the expert on migrations). Therefore, it can be said without doubt that the administrative and

state regulations and activities are an important, although not the only and not the most crucial context

influencing the immigrants’ life. This is only one aspect of immigration policy. The second one which

should be highlighted is the everyday life of immigrants about which we don’t learn very much. Formally,

integration programmes are implemented by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy through the

Municipal and Communal Centres of Social Welfare and Centres for Family Assistance, operating on the

local level. Basically, the integration programme is directed towards refugees and repatriates (Act on

Social Welfare of 2004). Therefore, the Polish policy should focus on other categories of immigrants, e.g.

labour immigrants, legal and illegal, whose period of stay is extending.

The non-governmental organizations working for immigrants or combating human trafficking are

weak, and their activities, however spectacular (vide La Strada), do not bring about solutions on the group

level; instead, they are effective on the individual level. Their sources are definitely more exogenous

than endogenous, namely they result from the implementation of international or European Union

programmes. Opening towards internal, national initiatives should be promoted, which is possible

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provided that the society is educated about and open towards cultural diversity and that there is an

understanding that the appearance in the society of the so-called global tribes (the oldest diasporas)

is a sign of the economic development of the country and of its prosperity.

From the interviews with the representatives of the immigrant communities in Poland (Armenians

and Vietnamese) it can be concluded that these organizations function “somewhat in the underground”,

they create self-supporting groups, in the absence of activities visible on a broader platform, namely in a

given community or even in the life of the whole country. Therefore, an educational policy promoting

groups of other culture and religion is absent. There are no social campaigns (except for the campaign

about refugees), or programmes informing about the “others” and about their culture. These groups live

their own lives, for themselves, and often even in dispersion, which prevents the articulation of their

interests. It can be said that in the new Polish reality we can witness a double “migratory” inertia. It has,

on the one hand, a normative character, which means that the state does not encourage the manifestation

of the cultural capital by the “aliens”, and, on the other hand, it is of “internal” character – it results from

the weakness of these groups and, therefore, implies their small social and cultural visibility.

In recent years, the Polish policy regarding immigration has remained basically under the

influence of the EU jurisdiction (the phenomenon of the Europeanization of the Polish policy discussed in

the previous report). From the interviews it can be inferred that despite certain symptoms of inertia with

respect to legislation, there is a growing awareness in the public institutions and non-governmental

organizations of the possibility and necessity to develop an integration migration policy, stemming from

the tradition of multiculturalism in Poland and rich emigration experiences of Poles, and directed towards

the fulfillment of goals specific for Poland.

A factor stimulating the construction of such policy may be seen in the growing demand for

foreigners on the Polish labour market, e.g. in the health service sector, construction, agriculture (the ideas

to educate nurses from abroad or politicians’ initiatives to liberalize the entry policy may be deemed an

announcement of changes in the migration policy).

However, this policy cannot be effective if it is run mostly by state administrative and self-

governmental bodies. It is our opinion that the policy towards immigrants should focus on the policy

of life (encompassing the sphere of work, housing, equal chances, preventing discrimination). Poland is

far from this type of policy. As it has already been emphasized, promotion of endogenous activities is

unquestionably important for building integration programmes. Poland should establish an expert

team for designing policy towards immigrants and integration programmes as soon as possible, consisting

of policy makers, experts, civil servants and representatives of non-governmental organizations, various

social forces and bodies, immigrant communities.

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Gender aspects of the policy towards immigrants, especially women, should be of key

importance. However, the present political situation of Poland and the strong position of the Catholic

Church, are not conducive to changes in this field – gender issues are marginalized, even disparaged. Our

research demonstrates that the problem of female migrants is absent from Polish policy, and also there is

nothing for them, even though their problems, as demonstrated in the interviews with non-

governmental and immigrant organizations, are the most serious ones. This is possibly the greatest

challenge of the Polish immigration legislation: the necessity to take the specific needs of female

immigrants under consideration. The integration programmes should therefore acknowledge those

specific needs, the diversity of situations, namely – they should recognize the gender perspective in

the migration.

From women’s words (Armenians and Vietnamese) it can be concluded that programmes

facilitating reconciliation of the professional life with the fulfilment of family tasks – as well as for the

Polish women - would be invaluable. The image of the immigrant woman is an image of an overworked

woman with many problems resulting, clearly, not only from the “immigrant status”, but also from the

patterns of social roles present in their culture. Problems of immigrant women are connected with

difficulties in finding employment and housing, domestic violence, destitution, linguistic and educational

barriers, human trafficking, prostitution. Non-governmental organizations, such as La Strada, Caritas or

the UNHCR branches, fight contemporary slavery, manifesting itself in coercion, exploitation, giving

false promises and human trafficking. Despite objective difficulties in activities promoting immigrant

integration and the fight for their rights, based on the example of our non-governmental organizations, we

can see gradual publicizing of the problem and building of migrant awareness.

All institutions and organizations working for migrants must answer the questions: 1) how to act,

how to encourage female immigrants to fight for their rights in a situation where the majority of “service”

migrations are of illegal character and an “invisible population” appears in the society; 2) Do the non-

governmental organizations respond to the needs of the increasingly numerous category of immigrants?;

3) What are the consequences of the actions taken and do they result in the activity of female immigrants?

Therefore, the appearance of women-migrants leads to the necessity to create a so-called responsive

policy, responding to their needs. There is no doubt that migrations are one of the key processes

influencing the lives of millions of women from poorer countries. It affects their social status, leads to

their undertaking of new social roles, and changes identity; and also has bearing on the family structure.

The most important structural determinants of female migrations are:

1) the level of economic development in the sending country;

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2) migration policy which is usually not diversified by gender (this pertains mainly to the host country).

Accordingly, a responsive policy which recognizes the socio-economic needs of women is proposed;

3) institutional factors (e.g. labor market inequality) which preserve gender inequality and therefore

function to expel;

4) socio-cultural norms and values tied to gender on the one hand, and to migration on the other.

Within Polish policy the weak link between the Office for Repatriation and Aliens, governmental

and non-governmental and immigrant organizations should be brought to attention. The research

demonstrated that constructing of the norms and regulations has been left to the EU, whereas the Polish

reality is seemingly devoid of immigrants, devoid of their participation in our everyday life. Polish policy

should be analyzed within a new social, political, economic and normative framework; analyzed against

the background of the changes of the whole society (after transformation) in the political sphere, changes

in the labour market, huge outflow of human capital, which doubtlessly has a reflexive impact on this field

of politics.

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doświadczenia Polski w odniesieniu do dyrektyw Komisji Europejskiej, Warsaw: CSM: Fundacja

ISP UW

Iglicka K. (ed.) (2003b) Integracja czy dyskryminacja? Polskie wyzwania i dylematy u progu

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Internet Sources Armenian Cultural Association: http://otk.armenia.pl/new/ La Strada Foundation against Trafficking in Women: www.strada.pl Caritas Poland: www.caritas.pl Caritas Lublin Archdiocese: www.lublin.caritas.pl Office for Repatriation and Aliens: http://www.uric.gov.pl Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Department of Social Assistance and Integration: http://www.mps.gov.pl/index.php?gid=896