The number of foreigners with residence permits in Poland has risen to 483,000. That is an increase of 26,000 (more than 5%) since figures released in January and of 57,000 (over 13%) since the start of 2020.
In the first four months of this year, the number of applications for residence permits was 28% higher than in the same period of 2020.
The data confirm that Poland’s recent unprecedented wave of immigration – among the largest in the European Union – has continued amid the pandemic.
📊 #Kwiecień: wnioski o udzielenie zezwolenia na pobyt w Polsce złożyło 26,2 tys. cudzoziemców.
↗️ W okresie I – IV br. liczba wniosków była wyższa o ok. 28% w porównaniu do analogicznego okresu 2020 r.#cudzoziemcy #daneUdSC pic.twitter.com/ubAmoj2vox— Urząd do Spraw Cudzoziemców (@UdSC_gov_pl) May 12, 2021
Ukrainians make up by far the largest national group among those with residence permits (265,300), followed by Belarusians (31,500) and Germans (20,000), according to the data released by Poland’s Office for Foreigners (UdSC).
The next most numerous nationalities are Russians (12,700), Vietnamese (10,600), Indians (10,400), Georgians (8,600), Italians (8,500) and Chinese (6,700). In total around 80,000 citizens of other EU member states have residence permits.
The figures do not include those in the country with temporary permissions or long-term visas, nor those who have not formalised their stay. The actual number of foreigners living in Poland was estimated by the government’s statistical agency to be over two million (5% of the population) at the end of 2019.
The latest data from UdSC show that most residence permits (275,000) have been given to immigrants aged between 20 and 30. The largest number (125,500) were issued in the Mazovia Province (where Warsaw is located), followed by Małopolska (59,100) and Wielkopolska (44,200).
Separate data from Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency, show that Poland has issued more first residence permits to immigrants from outside the EU than any other member states in each of the last three years for which figures are available.
Around 780,000 foreigners were registered in Poland’s social insurance system (ZUS) at the end of last month. That is 110,000 (16.4%) more than before the pandemic.
The vast majority of those coming to Poland in recent years are from neighbouring Ukraine. Poland’s central bank estimated in 2019 that Ukrainian migrant workers had created 11% of Poland’s GDP growth since 2014.
However, there have also been significant proportional increases in the numbers of arrivals from Georgia, Turkey, parts of Asia (in particular India), as well as from some other EU countries such as Spain, Portugal and Italy.
While UdSC has previously noted that asylum requests have declined during the pandemic, the latest data show a continued rise in Belarusians seeking refugee status. April saw 132 such applicants from Belarus, the highest figure since mass protests began in the country last August.
Main image credit: Valinor Photography/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
