Public policy towards immigrants in poland’s shrinking cities – The case study of the city of Lomza
| Published date | 01 February 2023 |
| Author | Justyna Szalanska,Justyna Gac,Ewa Jastrzebska,Joanna Zuzanna Poplawska,Melissa Moralli |
| Date | 01 February 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13013 |
256
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International Migration. 2023;61:256–272.
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
INTRODUCTION
In less t han two decade s after joining the European Unio n in 2004, P oland is following the path of the older EU
Member States concerni ng both de population pro cesses and immigration t rends. The country's population de-
cline directly resul ts from two phenomena: outflow of populati on abroad and decreasing birth rates. The forme r is
Received: 25 May 20 21
|
Revised: 28 March 20 22
|
Accepted: 5 April 2 022
DOI: 10.1111/imig.13013
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Public policy towards immigrants in poland’s
shrinking cities – The case study of the city of
Lomza
Justyna Szalanska| Justyna Gac1| Ewa Jastrzebska1|
Joanna Zuzanna Poplawska1| Melissa Moralli2
© 2022 The Auth ors. International Migration published by John W iley & Sons Ltd on behalf o f International Or ganization for
Migration.
1SGH Warsaw Sch ool of Economics,
Warszawa, Pol and
2Universit y of Bologna, Bologn a, Italy
Correspondence
Justyna Sz alanska, SGH Wars aw School of
Economics, C ollegium of Socio- Economics,
al. Niepodle glosci 162, 02- 554 Warszawa,
Poland.
Email: justyna.szalanska@sgh.waw.pl
Funding information
Horizon 2020 Fra mework Programme ,
Grant/Award Num ber: 870952
Abstract
Some regions and cities in Poland face challenges due to an
accelerating depopulation. Simultaneously, Poland is host to
more than 2 million immigrants who mitigate the negative
consequences of the population outflow and ageing. While
bigger Polish cities adopted particular local strategies and
measures addressed to migrants, the situation of smaller cities
and towns, especially the shrinking ones, has not yet been ex-
plored. Therefore, we took a closer look at Lomza, a downscaled
middle- sized city in the east of Poland where two phenomena
occur: the accelerating depopulation caused mainly by the out-
flow of its residents and an inflow of foreign migrants, both
asylum seekers predominantly coming from Russia (Chechnya)
and economic migrants mainly from Ukraine. We explored the
state of the public policy towards immigrants in Lomza in order
to see what a shrinking city can offer its newcomers when it
cannot count on national strategy in this regard.
This is an open ac cess article und er the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which
permits us e and distributio n in any medium, provid ed the original wor k is properly cited , the use is non-comme rcial and no
modificat ions or adaptatio ns are made.
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257
PUBLIC POLICY TOWARDS IMMIGRANTS
closely related to the emigratio n of Poles to other EU countries, pre dominantly the United Kingdom, Germa ny, the
Netherlands , and Ireland, which i s a consequence of accessi on to the EU and freeing t heir labour markets fo r the
citizens of the new member state s. More than 2 milli on Polish citizens are estimated to reside either temporaril y
(for at leas t three months) or permanently in other EU countries (as of 2019) (Statistics Poland, 2020a). The va st
majority of them left Poland af ter the accession in May 2004. Currently, among all EU member count ries, Poland
has the highest n umber of its citizens livin g abroad.
The second cause of the co untry's depopul ation is the low r ate of natural in crease (−0.9 in 2019) which con-
tinues decre asing and, although af ter reaching a negative va lue in 2012 it has been altern ating between negati ve
and positive, since 2018 the sit uation has visibly starte d to deteriorate (Statistics Po land, 2021). A drop in fertility
rate (1.44 in 2019) and an outflow of the primarily you ng population led to a decrease in the birth rat e. Changes in
the demographic str ucture of the society have contributed to the further ageing of the society. In 2019 there were
6.9 million persons aged 65 years or over, accounting for 18 per cent of the Polish population. That situates Poland
among the thirty most rapidl y ageing countries in the world (United Nations, 2020a). The Polish population started
decreasing i n 2011 and, according to the forecast s, will be fur ther shrinking f rom 38.4 million i n 2019 (Statistics
Poland, 2020d) to 37.2 milli on in 2030 and 33.9 million in 2050 (12% dec line, Stat istics Po land, 2014a). These two
combined cau ses of population declin e are distinctive for t he whole region of Centr al and Eastern Europe , which
is considered the f astest depopulatin g region in the world (United Na tions, 2020b).
Like othe r EU countr ies experienc ing population decline, l ike Spain, Portugal or Italy, immigr ation mitigates
the negative conseq uences of this process for the economy and de velopment. In 2016, the number of immigr ants
surpassed the number of emigrant s for the first time. Since then , Poland has become an immigration country, aside
from being a country of emig ration. In addition, since 2017, Poland has been granting mo st first residence permit s
for non- EU migrants in the entire Europea n Union (Eurostat, 2020). Jus t befor e the COVI D- 19 pandem ic outb reak
the number of foreigners living in Poland was estim ated at 2,106,101 (as of 31 Decembe r 2019). Out of them 64
per cent were Ukrainians (Statis tics Poland, 2020c), followed by Belarussians and citizens of other countri es of the
former S oviet Union (Russ ia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan). A vast share of immigrant s coming from Russia accounts
for Che chens, who were granted international protection status (mainl y subsidiary protection). In addition , the
immigration of Vietname se citizens to Poland, commencing in the 1960s as part of strengt hening political relations
between the two socialist countr ies, continues. There is also an increasing inflow of migrants from China, India and
Nepal, induce d by the labour market demand s.
The e conomic depen dency on immigration of a c ountry who se government is known for it s anti- migration
(particula rly anti- refugee) rhe toric may surpris e. In fact, Poland lacks a migration strate gy on the nat ional level.1
The neg ative consequen ces of this vacuum ar e often mi tigated by other actors , like loca l governments, NGOs,
religious institutions, or the migra nt networ ks that provide foreign mi grants wit h assista nce in various forms.
The lack of a migra tion strategy, including an integration st rategy, does n ot mean there is no po licy concerning
immigrants whatsoever. This void is filled by the v arious areas of pu blic policy broa dly understood a s "a more or
less stru ctured set of meas ures and resources that are used to influence developmen t in a specific ar ea of social
life and to solve p roblems as d esired or p lanned way" (Bekkers et al., 2017). Poland's migr ation and i ntegration
policy is fragmented and disp ersed among different institu tions, legal acts, and levels of governance. Foreigne rs in
Poland have access to th e labour market, educati on, healthcare and welf are systems, although to va rying extents
depending on their legal status. Municipalities play an important role in welcoming and including migrants into the
local tiss ue in such patchwo rk governance. Big cities like Warsaw, Cracow, Wroclaw, Lublin, or Gdansk are well-
equipped with solutions addressed to foreign migrants. However, the situation changes concerning smaller cities
and towns, espe cially those affected b y depopulation.
Along wit h the absenc e of a migra tion strategy, no government- led prog ram links th e most depop ulated re-
gions with receiving or attra cting migrants. Although immi grants arrive predominantl y in the metrop olises and the
most prospero us regions of Poland, they als o reach and settle in shri nking regions. Such a situ ation applies to the
eastern border regions, namely Podlaskie, Lubelskie, and Podkarpackie Voivodeships2, which attrac t immigrants
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