178. Seminar mBank-CASE

mBank and CASE – Center for Social and Economic Research cordially invite you to the 178th mBank-CASE Seminar entitled:

Immigration and the Labour Market in Poland

Speakers:

• Dr. Hab. Maciej Duszczyk (Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, University of Warsaw) - Factors and conditions of Poland's transformation into an immigration country.
• Dr. Hab. Paweł Kaczmarczyk (Director of the Center for Migration Research, University of Warsaw) and Dr. Hab. Agata Górny (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw) - Migrants and war refugees from Ukraine in the Polish labour market: opportunities and challenges.
• Aleksandra Perczyńska (CARE International) and Dr. Jan Bazyli Klakla (CASE – Center for Social and Economic Research) - Foreign domestic workers in Poland: threats, needs, and empowerment.

The seminar will take place ONLINE on Thursday, October 19, 2023, from 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM. The event will be conducted in Polish.

Register

About the Seminar:

Poland belongs to the group of European Union countries whose population is decreasing rapidly. According to forecasts from the Ministry of Finance in 2022, by 2030 Poland's population may decrease from the current 37.75 million to 36.6 million, and by 2050 to 34.1 million. At the same time, the percentage of people of post-working age will increase, while the number of people in pre-working age groups will decrease. If the retirement age is not raised, Poland's ranking in terms of the percentage of working population in the EU will drop from 15th to 24th place by 2050. One in four workers will leave the labour market. About one-third of this decrease is attributed to the lowering of the retirement age.

Can immigration to Poland improve the situation, and to what extent? From Belarus, for political reasons, approximately 100,000 people came to Poland in 2022, and most of them are employed. Currently, there are 1.2 million Ukrainians in Poland, mainly women and children, who came in a massive wave after Russia's attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022. How many of them will stay in Poland and join the labour market, and how many will move westward? It is also known that companies in Poland seeking employees, due to the lack of suitable supply in Poland, are looking for workers outside the country, often through specialized employment agencies. This has been in the news recently in connection with the so-called visa scandal.

To retain forced immigrants (political and economic refugees) in Poland and accept immigrant workers, a long-term immigration policy, as well as educational and social policies, are needed. What does the current policy look like, and what should it be like?