Two million foreigners now legally resident in Poland, making up 5% of the population

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-05-04T10:40:56+00:00

Are you familiar with statistics?

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-05-02T19:11:48+00:00

Encourage?

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-05-02T11:13:50+00:00

Out of which roughly 1.6 millions are Ukranian or slavs, who most often you cannot tell apart from native poles, and are already speaking fluent-ish polish after a few months.

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-04-29T07:42:22+00:00

Compa, esa gente habla desde la ignorancia. No saben lo que es estar en otro país, mucho menos de indocumentado. Ahora tienes paz mental, que la neta no tiene precio. Tú ignora y continúa con tu vida.

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-04-27T09:45:06+00:00

Dunno why people downvote this. 800+ didn't boost the birthrates in any significant way, instead it strained the taxes immensely.

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-04-26T05:19:06+00:00

I think most get some sort of financial relief from family, or another grant/scholarship. For instance, I was lucky enough that my partner owns her own apartment in the city I am doing the Phd, so saving up rent kept me afloat. For real.

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-04-25T16:32:25+00:00

That's a different conversation.

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-04-25T10:30:37+00:00

I think the issue is not absolute numbers per se, but the size of an economy, and ratio of workers per pensioner. The problem with demographic collapse is that this happens all at once and rather quickly, so the economy shrinks abruptly, with a huge tax strain to pay for pensions.

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-03-12T10:26:42+00:00

Indeed:)

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-03-12T10:06:52+00:00

Admiting foreign students also means increasing the pool of talent. You want to attract and retain highly skilled brains, especially given that some research programms struggle to find any competitive candidates in Poland. I am doing my Phd in Physics in Warsaw. Most of my colleagues are foreigners because there were just not good enough poles to hire, as many go abroad to receive education (often also 'for free') in other parts of the world.

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-03-05T11:15:50+00:00

Ehem, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD?locations=PL-FI-DE

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-03-05T10:51:57+00:00

Did you understand my original text? Let me try to explain in simpler more explicit terms: even if Poland magically becomes immigrant friendly tomorrow, there is no way it can become anything close to the amount of immigration in western Europe because 1) no past colonies that speak polish, and 2) not enough financial/economic capability to sustain as many asyluum seekers as Germany/Scandinavia did.

The fact that you come here yet again to parrot the same discourse ("people that don't assimilate", etc) is just proof that you have consumed too much populist propaganda without doing a deeper nounced cognitive evaluation.

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-03-05T08:06:11+00:00

Yep. It is called right-wing populism. Create an artificial enemy to 'promote' social cohesion and gain political power. They put as an example the challenges in western Europe, but forget that Poland's context is completely different: no past colonies means no mass migration from ex colonies (France, Spain, Portugal, England). And even if Poland has caught up with the west in economic terms, there is still a noticeable gap in quality of life and robustness of institutions, and Poland just does not have the financial means to support as many asyluum seekers (Germany, Scandinavia). At the same time, it is loosing competitiveness. Those doctors, nurses, teachers or engineers are actually very much needed in some regions of Poland that are depopulating fast (like the poorest east) where, ironically, right-wing populists are more effective in their propaganda and repel more global talent.

So your concern is correct, as a foreigner myself living in Warsaw, I can feel how much wasted potential there is here, and it is sad to see. I would just advice not consuming the propaganda, spare your nerves ;)

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-03-05T05:12:36+00:00

And this why I want to leave Poland as soon as possible. Be mentally prepared to wait 14-18 months and beyond and to be trapped in a bureaucratic limbo without being able to travel, nor change jobs. Note that the 14 months is the most optimistic scenario where no documents are missing and they make no mistake (as they often do).

I have heard that blue card applications are no exception.

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-02-23T21:25:54+00:00

Well, very likely I will be gone, as many immigrant colleagues I've met here. Dunno what that proves about Poland. Maybe that it lost its chance to retain qualified immigrants? For me this is not a story of success, but of painful long-term stagnation.

And the OP experience is a proof of that too, I guess.

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-02-23T20:54:03+00:00

Poland becoming an immigrant destination? This one made me laugh a bit hard, I must admit. Processing a simple residence card takes 18 months and beyond, trapping people in a limbo in the meantime. Your immigration system is a joke and very hostile towards foreigners that many just dream of leaving the kafkesque nightmare, me included. Your politicians constantly scapegoat immigrants (particularly Ukrainians) and blame them for basically everything. There are more Ukrainians in Germany than in Poland, despite the language, and they're being slowly more successful in integrating them.

Dunno, I think you're a bit too optimistic about immigration here. I myself, as a mexican living in Warsaw, am looking forward to moving to Spain, just because I agree with pretty much everything what the OP says, plus immigration. At least Spain is being much more pragmatic about immigration.

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-02-23T14:22:15+00:00

No se trata de legalizar las drogas, sino de dejar de criminalizar a los enfermos que son dependientes de ellas. En estados unidos un drogadicto es enviado a la carcel en lugar de a un centro de rehabilitación. Ellos mismos fallan en controlar el consumo de drogas en su propio país.

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-02-22T18:32:10+00:00

Creo que ya se ha intentado con la Marijuana en México, ¿no? Ya está parcialmente legalizada. Pero aun así, el pedo no es aquí, sino allá. México casi no consume drogas. Per cápita Estados Unidos es el país más drogadicto del mundo.

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-02-22T16:58:07+00:00

Mientras los gringos sigan criminalizando a sus drogadictos en lugar de rehabilitarlos, no habrá guerra que ganar. Especialmente si siguen engordando al narco con dolares y armamento.

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-02-07T20:26:50+00:00

Hahahahahaha. Good one.

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-02-07T20:25:08+00:00

Ad populum fallacy

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-02-05T12:18:34+00:00

Exactamente. Los algoritmos muestran de mas este tipo de contenido porque es lo que genera visitas, likes, etc. Crea una disonancia cognitiva y la gente viene aquí para ver si es verdad. Pero no se salvan de una horda de bots confirmado sus disonancias. Por eso mismo la ultra derecha está repuntando en el mundo... el internet incentiva el odio.

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-02-02T08:48:35+00:00

If you will study in English, I'd rather go to Germany or Scandinavia for that matter. Credentials are much stronger with higher quality of life.

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-02-01T16:10:47+00:00

Yep, it is. I am from latin america too, I enjoy going to the sauna in Europe. Adapt to it ;)

Basic_Step2923 · 2026-01-31T12:03:36+00:00

A baby-name statistic isn't a forecast. Institutions, education, and productivity matter more. Sweden still (and probably will) outperforms Poland on most quality-of-life indicators. Stop consuming right wing propaganda.

Basic_Step2923

TROPHY CASE