International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Improving Access to Labour market Information for migrants and employers
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whether they succeed in enabling migrants to respond to the shortages emerging in
the Polish labour market, although evidence from such programmes will be able to
be utilized in the future.
4. Conclusions and recommendations
Despite the increased scale of the migrant inflow, Poland still records a definite
prevalence of emigration over immigration. As a result, state institutions focus on
the provision of information to Poles seeking employment in other Member States of
the European Union and on procedures facilitating their return. At the same time,
the growth in the share of migrants in the Polish labour market urges one to address
this issue to a greater extent. Presently we deal with the following issues related to the
provision of information to third-country nationals seeking employment in Poland
and the provision of intermediary services between foreign workers and employers:
• Poland lacks a coherent system informing migrants about the possibilities for
seeking and undertaking employment in Poland. Nonetheless, some progress in
this regard was brought about by the launch of the public employment services
portal www.zielonalinia.pl. It is necessary, however, to create a Ukrainian
version of the portal and to disseminate information about it both in Poland
and in the countries from where migrants come to Poland. Moreover the
information contained therein should be written in a more colloquial language
to be friendlier for the reader. Knowledge gained from its functioning may
then be used by other countries in a situation similar to that of Poland.
• There is no formal channel of public intermediary services between migrant
workers and employers in Poland. This concerns both migrants who are
planning to come to Poland and those already residing in the country. Such
a service is offered by some job agencies, sometimes fulfilling the roles of
temporary job agencies, and by some non-governmental organizations. The
interest in using formal recruitment channels, though, is very small and mainly
limited to professions requiring high qualifications. A well-developed channel
of private intermediary services has now been established in Poland. However,
in practice it provides zero security both to employees and employers, and
using it usually entails remaining in a grey economy. In this situation, it is
necessary for public employment services to initiate a pilot project whose
implementation would identify how willing employees and employers are
to use formal recruitment channels. One of its elements should comprise
the signing of a bilateral agreement with Ukraine, from which a significant
majority of employees come. Moreover, formal channels to be established in
the near future should be mainly targeted at seasonal employees.
• There is a fundamental difference in types of access to information about
employees willing to undertake employment in Poland between microbusinesses
and small enterprises on the one hand, and large companies on the
other. While large companies recruit via formal channels, other enterprises