Poland “Exporting Criminals” - European News Review

Is Poland using Western Europe as its own personal Australia?

In an article entitled “Why Polish Emigration is bad for Europe but good for Poland” an author writing for the European News Review accuses the Polish government of refusing to stop the flood of emigrants from Poland because it is helping them in the polls.

With lower unemployment there is less competition for jobs so this makes those who are actually looking for work in Poland happier. At the same time the Polish Government is able to use the lower unemployment figures to show that its policies are having a positive effect on the Polish economy.

The net result is that more of the Polish people are happy with the way the Polish government is running the country.

Many troublemakers and criminals have left Poland for Western Europe. The crime rate in Polish cities is down. See

The author cites an unavailable (just click on the link) article from the Irish Examiner to back up these claims. Regardless of the source's unavailability, from the wording of the sentence and link, it seems that rather than proving the outrageous claim that Poland is sending its worst seeds to contaminate the Western European lands, the author uses the Irish Examiner article to more back up the claim that crime in Poland is down.



Crime wave

This is true – but hardly because Poland has been “exporting its criminals”. The numbers have been turning that way for a while now: There have been more police on the streets for the past couple of years, and employment is up. Please remember that a rise in employment does not necessarily correspond to lower unemployment. As the author claims, unemployment has dropped partly as a result of the exodus. But the employment rate has also been steadily rising. Last month it was up by 3.3 percent (registration requred).

Certainly, there have been incidents of crime by recent Polish immigrants documented in Western Europe, but it's hardly the crime wave you would expect if Poland were using the UK and Ireland as its own personal penal colony. The violence against Poles since borders in the UK, Ireland and Sweden were opened in 2004 has been arguably larger in scale than crimes committed by Poles (Polish link).

Homebodies

In my experience, Poles by nature and culture are very reluctant to leave home – one of the reasons so many young, talented Poles chose to remain unemployed in small cities rather than move to Warsaw where a job (albeit low-paying) was almost sure to be found. They aren't leaving Poland because they've become bored with committing crimes here. They've left only because they're guaranteed to earn more than they could here, doing jobs they can bear.

I know an Irish recruiter personally. The men he recruits to send to Ireland for various construction and building jobs are not simply shipped off at the drop of a hat. Their backgrounds are checked – previous employers are interviewed. They are sent over to fill specific places in specific construction firms. These are semi-skilled workers that have been working most of their lives. Many are over 35. Most have families. These are hardly hardened criminals.

The youths that go tend to go on more capricious terms – but these too are hardly the criminal type. Most are university students with skills companies in Poland can't find a use for. Their skills (and yes, wage demands) are a perfect fit for the economies they have moved to contribute to. They are computer programmers, electrical engineers, nurses, young doctors, or dentists. Why lead a life of crime and risk being sent back to Poland, where little waits for them?

I wonder if the author has even visited Ireland or the UK since Poles have been allowed to work there without hindrance. They are generally considered skilled, honest and hardworking. So where are the criminals?

The crime example is the only evidence the author offers for the current wave of Polish emigration being “bad for Europe,” but the proof the author provides for it being “good for Poland” is equally as questionable.

Glass houses

For example, the author confuses the economic forces acting on the housing market here, first by saying that the exodus has put less pressure on the housing market – apparently making housing more available to Poles – thereafter citing two reasons why the housing market is so expensive as to keep flats out of the reach of the average Pole [emphasis mine]:

Once again Polish emigration is helping. By exporting Poles to the West there are fewer people who will be available to buy houses and that will take pressure off the housing market.

The housing shortage is partially due to the lack of government action to make the process of land acquisition and the obtaining of building permits easier for developers. With less of a demand for housing there is less pressure on the government to take action to make it easier to build flats. See

Western Europeans are also helping the government by buying those flats that they can find available. The demand by these European investors has increased the price of housing in Poland. See

Despite the enormous “pressure” the author sees lifted from the housing market by the loss of a few hundred thousand Poles (a great number of whom keep their residences in Poland), prices in the Polish housing market are spiraling upward with no relief in sight – partly for the reasons the author was good enough to point out. The emigration has not done a thing to make it easier for Poles to obtain housing.

Good for everybody

However, I would still agree with the author that the emigration is good for Poland, as I've argued here earlier. But not for the reasons the author cites (S/he seems to mean it's good for the Polish government). Rather, emigrees are giving the economies they go to an economic boost (those countries that have allowed in the most Poles have benefitted the most economically), which allows those economies to buy more Polish products. With the tightening of the job market, Polish businesses must raise salaries to keep skilled workers here. As Poles go abroad, they gain experience and skills that will help them in their future careers. Since the UK or Ireland are so close (getting closer every day with cheap flights cris-crossing the continent), and since Poles are so strongly tied to their homes (as I mentioned above) we can expect a large number to return, bringing those skills and know-how back to Poland one day.

The Polish emigration to Western Europe is good for Poland, good for Western Europe, good for Europe as a whole and, I would contend, good for the world economy. From the tone of the ENR article, it seems the author is simply taking the opportunity to attack the current populist government – positive developments (like lower crime) in the country be damned. While I'm no fan of the current government, I'm willing to give them their due on the crime front. Crime has dropped on their watch – but was dropping before they took office. So not even much credit can be given them.

Unpopular populists

But the author seems to think these developments have led to some magnificent swell in the government's popularity:

“The net result is that more of the Polish people are happy with the way the Polish government is running the country.” One wonders more than what exactly.

Yet again, the author errs. A poll released just today (the same date as ENR's essay) shows a full 36 percent of the country says it is “against” the Kaczyński government (Polish link), 31 percent have no opinion, with 28 percent – the lowest result – “for” the government. On top of that, some 48 percent believe the actions of Kaczyński's cabinet will not make Poland's economic situation any better.

One wonders if someone with such incomplete knowledge of Poland, its politics, and its place in Europe ought to be making inflamatory claims that the country is “exporting its criminals”. Such claims are sensationalist, dangerous, and ultimately – lies.