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Managing Illegal Labour Migration from Eastern Europe to the European Union. The Case of Romanian Migrant Workers
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Kepinska, Ewa (2003):“Recent trends in international migration. Centre of Migration Research, Poland.
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This paper looks at the recent major changes and amendments to migration laws in Poland. It provides data on the various types of emigration and immigration, the sex, age marital status and educational attainment where the migrants come from and where they are going to, foreigners married to Polish citizens and temporary immigrants. 2003 saw important developments in an increasingly complex set of laws on migration in Poland going back to the Aliens Act of 1963. The new act includes, principles and conditions for extending various forms of protection for foreigners, refugee status, asylum status and, a new concept, tolerated status, which deals with the large number of asylum seekers, who do not meet the requirements for refugee status, but who cannot return to their country of origin. Tolerated status gives foreigners the right to work, without a work permit and access to social assistance medical care and education in Poland. Asylum seekers in Poland are predominantly Russians of Chechen nationality. It notes that illegal migrants from the Ukraine and Moldova tend not to use the services of traffickers, while the opposite was the case with migrants from China, India, Afghanistan and Vietnam.
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Kepinska, Ewa and Okolski, Marek (2002): “Recent trends in international migration. Centre of Migration Research, Poland.
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The continuing stagnation of the economy and the renewed rise in unemployment has meant that government policies were preoccupied with strictly economic and welfare matters, leaving migrant policy as an issue of secondary importance, states this paper. The indications are that this situation will continue and that the expected rapid transition from net emigration to net immigration is not yet in sight. On 11th April 2001, parliament substantially amended the Aliens Law, which gave rise to the setting up of a government immigration agency, the Office for Repatriation and Foreigners. However, after parliamentary elections in 2001, one of the first political declarations was the plan to radically trim central administration, including the Office for Repatriation and Foreigners. The decision to liquidate it was postponed for a year, and though this time has passed it is still functioning, thus creating a climate of uncertainty. Other important pieces of legislation in this area were a bilateral agreement between Poland and Spain, which provides the possibility of mutual employment of seasonal workers, of a period not exceeding 9 months in a calendar year and subject to the requirements of the respective labour markets and an international declaration between Germany and Poland, giving Polish workers greater access to the German labour market. The slowing down of economic activity and growing unemployment has resulted in more people becoming interested in taking work abroad with a higher propensity than in earlier years for the unemployed to seek jobs outside Poland. A major country of destination of migrant workers was Germany, followed by the USA and Italy, other important target countries included the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Spain. Employment of foreigners in Poland continues to be very low, with much of the work being seasonal or irregular. Due to the concealed nature of this work it is difficult to know whether the number of irregular foreign workers was increasing or decreasing in Poland. This paper looks in some detail at trans-border mobility, destinations for emigrants and the origin of immigrants, migration for work, the repatriation of ethnic Poles, foreign labour in Poland, asylum seekers, illegal movements by foreign citizens and the expulsion of foreigners from Poland.
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Okolski, Marek (1998): “Recent trends in international migration. Centre of Migration Research, Poland.
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This paper, by the Instyut Studiow Spolecznych UW, claims that during the ten year period from 1988 to 1998 there was no co-ordination at central government level in the area of migration policy. While the Ministry of the Interior and Administration were in favour of strict control of migrants, the Government Centre for Strategic Studies pointed to losses suffered by Poland’s economy as a result of such a policy. Poland’s preparations for European Union accession raised two issues of particular importance regarding migration policy, the movements of Lithuanians and Ukrainians in view of European Union standards, and the effect of Polish migrants on the Union’s labour market. Most Polish migrant workers, irrespective of their legal status, find employment abroad in the lower end of the labour market, the duration of their contracts is short and both the skills required and wages offered are low. Many of the foreigners entering Poland are circular travellers engaged in some sort of economic activity, or are seasonal workers who escape registration. It is clear that a large number of foreign workers in Poland work in the shadow economy, and that no serious attempt has been made to establish the magnitude of that employment. Only a small part of foreign workers apply for work permits, as the application procedure is costly and time-consuming. Although the Polish rules regarding refugee status are rather liberal, most applicants simply disappear after submitting their application. 1997 saw an increase in the number of foreigners apprehended trying to illegally cross the border. The majority were heading elsewhere, however for others, predominantly from Vietnam and Armenia, Poland was the country of destination.
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Romaniszyn, Krystyna: “Current migration in Central and Eastern Europe”. Centre of Migration Research.
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This report from the Instytut Studio Spolecznych looks at the different migration situation in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, the Ukraine, Bulgaria, Albania, and Russia. The research highlights various forms of migration, including transit, legal and illegal, irregular flows of Asian nationals, short and long term labour migration, asylum seekers, refugees, trafficking of women as prostitutes and the repatriation of ethnic groups. Mass movements have become a lucrative industry and the trafficking networks have developed strategies and the financial resources to maximise their “cargo”. Potential refugees passing through central European countries tend not to apply for refugee status there, but assume that their situation would be better in the developed West. The Chinese are the most entrepreneurial migrants in the region preferring self-employment. Despite noting that there are gaps in data concerning migration this study claims that careful generalisations can be made from the available diverse information. On the whole migration flows in Central and Eastern Europe are consistent with global ones. The key factor seems to be frustration with the economic situation in the home country and the perception of high living standards in the West. A typical migrant in the region is a young, single male, either highly educated or with technical skills and is unemployed or a student.
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Okolski, Marek and Grzymała-Kazłowska, Aleksandra: “Influx and integration of migrants in Poland in the early XXI century”. Centre of Migration Research.
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Poland still lacks an immigration doctrine and long-term policy, something that can be explained by the fact that, it is a country, which has historically been host to a relatively small number of long-term or permanent residents, argues this paper. As a consequence of membership of the Soviet led Communist bloc, with its restrictions on travel, before 1990 population movements into Poland were negligible. Since then there has been a huge increase, not only in the numbers, but also, in the geographical diversity of the people coming to Poland. Many of them came to raise money and to support their livelihood by engaging in petty trade and occasional jobs as well as beggary theft, prostitution etc. Poland has also become a transit territory to massive flows of people from Eastern Europe and Asia to the West. Adding to the numbers were those repatriated ethnic Poles from former Polish territories and elsewhere, notably Kazakhstan. Since 1989, and the restoration of democracy, Poland, which since 1945 officially claimed to be a homogenous nation with one ethnicity and one religion, has dramatically changed its ethnic profile. The first immigrants who appeared in Poland at the end of the 80’s were seen as a novelty in Poland’s post-war society and the welcome was reasonably warm. Later, due to the perception of foreigners as rivals in the labour market and as people involved in illegal economic activities and serious criminality there was increasing hostility. The distribution of migrants in Poland and their impact on Polish society is very uneven, with most concentrated in the east, some in the south and west and the majority in the capital. In Warsaw Vietnamese traders cluster around large open markets where their economic activities take place. In the current stage of development the immigration phenomenon is stabilising, the influx is being controlled and a coherent immigration policy is being developed. Immigration at this transitional stage can be characterised as contradictory and unpredictable.
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Okolski, Marek: “Poland's migration: growing diversity of flows and people”, Centre of Migration Research.
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All flows of migrants either from or to Poland, may turn out to be very moderate, echoing the experience of other transitional countries, where, according to predictions millions of citizens were expected to storm the borders of the West, when in reality there were tens or at most hundreds of thousands of migrants, observe the authors of this survey. While emigration from Poland has been happening for some time, immigration, consisting almost exclusively of returning Poles, has never been of a significant scale. From 1945 until the late 1980s population movements to and from Poland were rigidly controlled by the state. The 1980s saw the revitalisation of old and the establishment of new networks of international migration. Since 1989 regulation concerning international movements of people have been modified, extended and made less arbitrary and the present laws are liberal and in accordance with major international conventions. The opening up of borders and restoration of the freedom of travel and the creation of business and employment opportunities in Poland were of crucial importance in the transformation of migration trends in the 1990s. Poland’s participation in European networks and institutions dealing with migration matters has prompted Poland to modernise her border control infrastructure and to increase the numbers of better trained border guards. From 1993 the situation with respect to illegal transit migration through Poland underwent a radical shift with the introduction of more severe asylum regulations in Germany and the tightening of control on Poland’s borders led to a significant reduction in the number of foreign nationals being apprehended. A mass circulation of people claiming to be tourists, but solely engaged in petty trade, were in fact pioneers of a new form of mobility called incomplete migration Sooner or later Poland will have to deal with the presence of undocumented but settled migrants. For Poles this form of emigration of undocumented Poles is related to employment in a foreign country, mainly in the lower sections of the labour market. The paper categorises people coming to Poland into 5 major categories, re-immigrants, immigrating non-Polish citizens, documented migrant workers, foreigners engaged in incomplete migration and illegal migrants.
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Grecic, Vladimir: “Stable population movements as a factor of economic stabilization and integration of the Western Balkans into the European Union”, Albanian Center for International Trade.
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This paper investigates various issues related to population movement in the Western Balkans as a factor influencing all aspects of regional integration including trade and direct foreign investments. Regional integration is today a universal process that encompasses not only the formation of trade arrangements and security alliances, but also numerous fields of economic and social life, political structure, internal security, the protection of national resources, culture, etc. What is involved, therefore, is a complex and multidimensional process of linkage in a region, which is not relevant only for relations among states and national administrations but also for many other social factors, such as representatives of the business world, the civil society, other factors. The paper proposes to build on existing initiatives of the Stability Pact and the EU, as well as to develop a regional initiative to manage and stabilize population movements in the Western Balkan countries, as a support of overall economic integration into the European Union.
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Sleptova, Evghenia: “Labour migration in Europa: special focus on the Republic of Moldova”. Institute for Public Policy - Moldova.
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The processes of internationalisation and economic integration stimulate people to migrate into more developed countries in search for better livelihoods or trade partners. Historically, the issue of labour migration in Europe has become increasingly important since the beginning of the process of European integration and, afterwards, since the ‘fall of Berlin wall’ and gradual establishment of trade relations between Western and Eastern Europe and CIS. At present this issue is of particular concern both at local, regional and international levels. While less developed European countries experience outflow of labour, both high-skilled and low-skilled, receiving or importing European countries implement various policies in order to optimise the influence of these labour inflows. The process of labour migration is of vital importance for Moldova. The paper evaluates labor migration in relation to Moldova and considers possible consequences of EU enlargement for Moldova as for a future neighbour country with high mobility of its labour force.
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