Non-EU immigrants in the Polish labour market

Abstract

In many European countries faced with the population aging problem, immigrant labour is gaining importance as a factor contributing to the development of the labour market. One of these countries is Poland, where the proportion of the retirement age population is predicted to soon become one of the highest in Europe. Questions therefore arise whether the Polish economy needs immigrants and whether foreign citizens are employed as complementary or substitutive labour. In the last several years, the number of work permits granted to immigrants has been rising fast. The total number of work permits and employers’ declarations of intent to employ a foreign national increased between 2007 and 2017 from 34,000 to almost 234,000. As a result, stronger presence of immigrants in different branches of industry, construction and transport can be observed. This article provides an analysis of the scale of labour immigration to Poland based on the statistics on work permits and registered employers’ declarations of intent to employ a foreign citizen.