The number of foreign workers registered in Poland’s social insurance system last year passed one million for the first time. It follows years of mass immigration that has been among the largest in Europe, as well as the recent influx of refugees from Ukraine.
By the end of December 2022, there were 1.06 million foreigners registered with the state Social Insurance Institution (ZUS), notes its president, Gertruda Uścińska. That represents 6.5% of all those insured, she adds.
The figure was around 192,000 higher than at the start of January 2022, meaning the figure rose 22% over the year.
“Our data show that the Polish labour market is becoming more and more attractive to foreigners,” said Uścińska, quoted by the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
“Everything indicates that in the coming months the number of employees who do not have Polish citizenship will grow [further],” she added. “This, in turn, will translate into a better condition of the Social Insurance Fund.”
Families and social policy minister Marlena Maląg also welcomed the contribution of immigrant workers, who “supply our labour market, fill staffing gaps, and contribute to the development of the Polish economy”.
She noted that, despite the constantly growing number of foreigners, Poland has the EU’s joint-lowest level of unemployment alongside Germany. Both had 3% unemployment in November 2022, exactly half the figure for the EU as a whole, according to the latest Eurostat data from across the bloc.
The majority of foreigners registered with ZUS come from Ukraine, said Maląg, though neither she nor Uścińska gave an exact proportion. Last month, the government’s Office for Foreigners revealed that there were 1.66 million foreigners with residence permits in Poland, with 1.36 million (81%) of them Ukrainian.
Many of those are refugees who arrived after Russia’s invasion, when Poland became the primary destination for those fleeing the war. But even before the conflict Poland was home to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian immigrants.
“Neighbors from across our eastern border found shelter in Poland and quickly found their place on the labour market,” says Maląg, noting that the government had created a streamlined process for Ukrainian refugees to obtain employment in Poland.
Poland has in recent years also attracted many Belarusians and Georgians, but also growing numbers of immigrants from Turkey, India and western Europe.
Main image credit: Ammy Singh on Unsplash
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.
