In December 2021, Poland's parliament passed a media bill that aims to silence a news channel critical of the government in an unexpected move that will stoke media freedom concerns and reopen a diplomatic dispute with the US. With all that, how is it like to be an expat from Poland or one wishing to live there?
With a latter democracy dating to the 90s, Poland is known for its history and extreme temperatures, which are also in terms of its current politics. The country nationalism of right-wing blocks immigrants, reinforce anti-LGBT laws and controls women's reproductive rights. Poland, which has been criticized for pushing back migrants and refugees at its border, has responded to the large number of people arriving there by building a razor-wire fence back in November last year.
Polish Expats are all around the world. After Poland's accession to the European Union and accession to the Schengen Area, in particular, a significant number of Poles, estimated at over two million, have emigrated, primarily to the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Ireland. To give a picture of this, in 2001 the number of Polish-born people living in the UK was 58,000. By 2011 that number had risen to 676,000. A lot has been made by the Polish government in 2019 as cutting taxes for the young to prevent them from emigrating. The fear was that with Poland seeing heavy emigration in the last fifteen years, a “brain drain” has occurred, that is, the country's best and brightest have abandoned Poland.
Politics: “Complicated. Polarized. Tense.”
Current in Poland, the ruling party and its government have been in charge for 6 years. Piotr, a Polish designer, lived in Portugal for almost 3 years until 2020, when he decided to come back to Poland because of COVID-19. “I wanted to be closer to my parents living in Poland, just in case.” According to him, Poland has authoritarian and conservative policies heavily influenced by the Catholic Church. As well as economic plans towards a building a peculiar type of welfare state, in a country which until recently was heavily skewed toward a neoliberal style economy. “Politics: Complicated. Polarized. Tense. They are very skilled at leveraging mass and social media to divide and conquer. And in full control of public TV, which became a propaganda tool used to cover corruption issues, he comments”.
As an example of its forms of control, Poland is planning to introduce a centralised register of pregnancies that would oblige doctors to report all pregnancies and miscarriages to the government. The proposed register, came into effect in January 2022, a year after Poland introduced a near-total ban on abortion. This has raised serious concerns among women's rights activists, who believe that in light of the abortion ban, the register could be used to cause legal difficulties for women who have self-administered abortions.
Political opposition is divided into three main camps—leftists, the far-right and right-leaning neoliberals, which ran the country previously. “None of them are strong enough to take over. And they managed to waste all the potential of social unrest (introducing more strict abortion laws, attempts at having more control over the judicial system, forcing elections to be held during the peak of the pandemic) in 2020-2021 by overly politicizing it”, comments Piotr.
How can these politics interfere in expat life?
From the process of leaving the home country, the reasons for doing so, up to difficulties of integration in the future country: more bureaucracy, stereotypes an expat might suffer due to strict politics in your country, judgement, there are many ways that politics can affect an expat's life abroad.
For Piotr, as long as Poland stays in the EU, moving in and out to other countries will be easy (if one can afford it)—whatever the reasons, economic, political or social. However, “as the government is using the EU more and more as an excuse for their problems—particularly related to rising prices and handling COVID-19—there is a possibility that positive public opinion sentiment towards being a member of the EU will start to weaken.”
Piotr personally hasn't met with any prejudice for being Polish, “maybe because Poland isn't an important topic in Portugal”. However, many women and LGBTQ people there seemed to be better informed because of the protests against strict abortion laws and homophobic incidents reported by the European press.
Being an expat is for people with a financial advantage. According to Piotr, moving out would mean paying taxes can get more complicated. “I would need to prove that I am no longer resident in Poland and none of my vital activity takes place in Poland. Otherwise, I would be double taxed if there is no special agreement between both countries.” Moreover, Poland doesn't allow its citizens to have more than one citizenship, so if he decides to definitely settle in another country, he would need to officially renounce it. Apart from being an emotional decision, this could also complicate things like owning properties in Poland.
Expats moving to Poland
Considering that expats are aware of the political reality in Poland but are interested in moving to the country, there are opportunities, especially in the tech sector. If one is a skilled specialist (IT particularly) and lives in a major city, they will be doing well, as the salary to quality of life ratio in Poland it's good. It is possible to have opportunities even if expats speak English only. Quite a lot of interaction with public administration can be handled electronically, but expats will need to get PESEL (social security number) for most administrative things. The tax system is complicated, but the rates are relatively low compared to the rest of the EU. Expats will most likely need to use private health care and private child care/schools in case they have kids. Public transport in large cities is generally good, moving around isn't difficult. Banking systems are modern. According to Piotr, winter can feel gloomy and depressing: “if you are the kind of person who needs a lot of sun, be warned. There is also a problem with air quality during that period. Other than that, I'd say it's a good place to live.”
