International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Improving Access to Labour market Information for migrants and employers
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unions also barely display any interest in foreigners employed in Poland and do not
carry out any programmes targeted at this employee group.
Lack of interest on the part of government administration and social partners
is taken advantage of by private employment agencies, which both carry out
recruitment activities commissioned by employers and provide employers with
necessary information. Unfortunately, an absence of effective control over
employment agencies may be abused by some of them in order to exploit foreign
employees and collect fees from them, which is against Polish law.
In a decisive majority of cases the recruitment of foreign workers is carried out
by means of informal channels, based on migration networks. Research results
demonstrate that informal channels are used mostly by households and SMEs. Large
businesses much more frequently use formal channels, which in Polish circumstances
signifies the use of specialized employment agencies.
The present situation might be improved by the conclusion of a bilateral agreement
on labour migration, which would contain, among others, rules for labour
intermediation activities. It would, moreover, be advisable to make information
about the employment opportunities in Poland also available in the Ukrainian
language. In addition, we recommend that the government initiates actions aimed
at establishing, in partnership with NGOs and trade unions, specialized services
for both the provision of information to employers and the protection of employee
rights of foreigners employed in Poland.
1. Introduction
Poland is universally perceived as an emigration country. This image was reinforced
after the accession to the European Union, when from 2004 to 2007 a mass-scale
outflow was recorded for Poles seeking employment in other Member States and
taking advantage of the free movement of workers. However, in the early 1990s,
foreigners began arriving in Poland to take employment or for other economic
activities.
An analysis of the recent statistical data concerning the scale of employment
immigration certainly proves that Poland is in the first stage of transforming from a
typical emigration country into an emigration-immigration one. The most noticeable
developments include a rise in seasonal immigration from Ukraine and a constantly
growing number of foreigners obtaining work permits for periods exceeding six
months. At the same time, comparative research performed by World Bank or
OECD puts Poland in one of the last places among EU Member States in terms of
foreigners’ participation in society and the labour market.
The growth in the number of migrants in the Polish labour market results both from
the rise in income levels and the sustaining positive economic growth rate on the one
hand, and from the liberalization of legislation relating to third-country nationals
carried out from 2006 to 2009 on the other. Although the inflow of immigrants