Crossing Continents: Poland’s New Immigrants, Radio 4

Poland has been traditionally known to be a poor country with a scrambled government and an infrastructure that made other European countries appear as if they were paradise. However, there have been some revolutionary changes in Poland, in these past few years. Poland is becoming a new thriving economy, which is attracting many immigrants to this country. Furthermore, Poland is one of the few known European countries that have actually experienced economic growth during the recession, unlike many of its neighbours.

When one thinks of a financially thriving city, one imagines the diverse and wonderful streets of New York or the exotic and beautiful locations of Singapore, but never Poland, an economy which had been transitioning from Soviet control in the 70s and 80s to a democratic approach. However, that is all changing, with many investment banks deciding to place their banks in Poland, such as Credit Suisse, one of the biggest investment banks in the world.

On the other hand there is a darker side to these astounding changes and that is people’s opinions and feelings often take much longer to change than law, as was demonstrated during the Civil Rights Campaigns in USA in the 1960s. This is apparent, as some local Polish people, hold racist views to this new wave of immigrants. Therefore, Poland needs to quickly learn how to become a multi-cultural nation, rather than the mono-cultural nation it has been throughout much of its history.

However, economists and politicians say that Poland needs immigrants and would suffer without them. This is so, as during the transition period after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Poland lost many thousands of citizens through the course of many years. They moved to countries with better economies and living standards such as the UK. So, Poland needs these immigrants to ‘replace’ those Polish people who left. This is quite ironic as many other European countries had to deal with Polish immigrants and now Poland has to deal with this new wave of immigrants.

To conclude, Poland now has one of the most significant economies in Europe and this has caused a substantial increase in the amount of immigrants who wish to live in Poland and become official Polish citizens. It is now up to Poland to ensure that they adapt quickly to this new atmosphere that has been created, to continue to thrive and succeed economically and eventually as a whole country.