‘Guarded welcome’ A Review of New Legislation and Institutions Dealing with Migration and Foreigners

Abstract

The beginning of the 1990s was a decisive moment for the process of migration in Poland, as in the other countries of east-central Europe (Salt, 1996; Golinowska, Marek, 1994a; 1994b; de Weydenthal, 1994; Szonert, 1994a; 1994b). The democratic political changes led to the opening of Polish borders and the lifting of restrictions on entry and exit, both for Polish citizens and for foreigners. This created a qualitatively new migration situation in Poland: by comparison with the 1980s the number of people arriving in, and departing from, Poland increased several times over; there arose the problem of refugees — until then unknown in Poland, asylum-seekers and foreigners attempting to cross the state frontiers illegally in order to reach their ‘promised land’ in western Europe; the Polish labour market opened up to foreigners; and foreigners remaining in the country have rapidly become a permanent element of the social scene in many Polish cities. The number of foreigners arriving in Poland is rising continually through economic and trade links with other countries, academic and cultural exchanges and tourism. Finally the political changes taking place in the countries of the former USSR created an interest in the problems of Poles living in those states and the possibilities of their return (repatriation) to Poland. Generally speaking, Poland, which had been, until the late 1980s, a typical emigration country, became in the 1990s a country of both emigration and immigration.

The quotation in the title of this chapter is linked to an exchange which took place in the Sejm (lower house of parliament) during work on the new Aliens Law in the first half of 1997. In the course of one of the sittings, a government representative used this expression in trying to define the character of the new Law and of state migration policy generally (Lentowicz, 1997).