The Challenges of Immigrant Incorporation in the Context of Multiple Transition Processes: The Case of Poland

This paper analyzes Poland’s response to immigration as well as changes in and challenges faced by the Polish immigration and integration policy. This is discussed in the context of multiple transition processes related to transformation of the Poland’s geo-political position and changes in its migration profile after the EU accession in 2004. Poland is a country in which the consequences of systemic transition overlap with the intensive processes of modernization, and the EU integration. It has also been facing a dynamic change of its migration status over recent years. Referring to the concept of “migration cycle,” which explains the complex relationship between migration and the state, Poland is in the transition phase from an emigration state into an emigration-immigration one. The main research questions this paper addresses are: how does a state with a long history of emigration and a highly homogenous (in ethno-national terms) society react to immigration; what approach has been adopted to integrate immigrants into state and society, and what legal and political institutional infrastructure has been developed to incorporate newcomers?