In Poland, the right-wing’s anti-immigration message is gaining momentum. An upcoming August 24 protest organized in Warsaw to "stop the immigrant invasion" comes on the heels of other rallies.

Protests took place on July 19 in over 50 cities across Poland, with hateful, racist and xenophobic chants and behavior widely on display. The largest march took place in Warsaw, where an estimated 400 demonstrators chanted, "All of Poland, only white".

For Agnieszka Kosowicz, president of the Polish Migration Forum Foundation, Polish society has been "subjected to anti-immigration rhetoric for years". Yet the most recent outbreak of xenophobia stems from the open conflict between the two main political parties and online disinformation, she said. In this context, migrants are becoming scapegoats for societal problems like unemployment and mediocre social services.

With the swearing-in of nationalist Karol Nawrocki as president on August 6, the center-right prime minister, Donald Tusk, faces the prospect of a difficult working relationship. During his speech, Nawrocki attacked his rivals for the "propaganda, lies ... and contempt" which he said he was exposed to during the campaign. He said he opposed "illegal migration… and joining the euro".

With Nawrocki set on a course for collision with Tusk’s pro-European government, "we see a lot of decisions taken by Tusk and the current government taken to appeal to the right-wing," said Kosowicz. "Decisions taken about migrants are very restrictive, like the migration policy bill passed by the Polish government last fall, which was all about security and safety," she added.

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While security along the border with Belarus has been tightened, the number of work permits issued by Poland to migrants from Asia and Latin America increased fivefold over a period of five years, reaching 275,000 in 2023. The government’s flexibility was linked to a gap left in Poland’s labor market, with Ukrainian military-age men either leaving Poland to fight, or being prevented by laws from leaving Ukraine.

Compassion fatigue

According to government statistics, at least 2.5 million Ukrainians still live in Poland, making up almost 7 percent of the total population. There is "compassion fatigue", said Kosowicz. "Polish society got involved on an impressive level after the escalation of the war in Ukraine in 2022. The situation of Ukrainians would not be the same without the generous and open attitude of Polish society. Almost three years later, the situation remains unstable."

In parallel, "a lot of social issues are unaddressed," said Kosowicz. A crisis in the health care system has many people waiting for various services and treatments. "Some say access to public services has deteriorated because of Ukrainians, but I don’t think this is true. We have a lot of new people, but we also have many new Ukrainian doctors, anaesthesiologists and nurses."

"The government is not searching for solutions to complex problems [war in the region, labor gaps, integrating foreigners from other countries],” believes the expert. Instead it has often "hastily" drafted and passed bills, "ultimately creating even more problems," said Kosowicz.

The government unexpectedly decided in August 2024 to restrict Colombians who came to Poland through visa-free movement from working. "People found themselves in a limbo from day one: they came to Poland, they could not return, and they could not start jobs," according to the analyst.

"The situation [for immigrants] in Poland is deteriorating [. . .] while public attitudes are not constructive," said Kosowicz. The fatal stabbing in June of Klaudia, a 24-year-old PhD student at the city of Torun’s Nicolaus Copernicus University, by Yomeykerta R.S., a 19-year-old Venezuelan national, prompted one of the first anti-immigration marches of this summer.

Thousands of participants attended, and the undercurrents of xenophobia and hatred against foreigners quickly spilled over amid the sea of red-and-white flags. "Stop illegal immigration", declared one of the signs; elsewhere, the chant "a death for a death" was overheard.

Rumors and misinformation

Online misinformation has also contributed to the rise of anti-migrant anger. On July 14, someone in Walbrzych, southwestern Poland, called the police to report a Paraguayan man suspected of taking pictures of children on a playground.

Although police found nothing suspicious on the man's phone, he was later attacked by two Polish men. The next day, a mob of about 50 people stormed the hostel where he and other migrants were living, throwing flares inside, and forcing it to close.

"Such mechanisms are [. . .] well-known from Polish history," said Andrzej Mroczek, a specialist in organized crime, in an interview with Gazeta Wyborcza. "In Kielce in 1946, a pogrom began with a rumor that a child had been kidnapped (by Jews for ritual murder). One false report was enough to trigger a spiral of violence. Now we have the internet, which works a million times faster than word of mouth, so the effect is immediate."

"It is getting riskier to leave home at night," said Diana Ruchniewicz, a far-right politician, in a YouTube video ahead of the planned August 24 anti-immigration march. "I traveled over the long weekend to small cities -- to villages really -- and they [foreigners] were there [. . .] and it looked like they didn’t know where they had found themselves and why [...] it was visible they had been transported here," she said.

Poland is often perceived as homogeneous and unwelcoming, yet it is also becoming increasingly diverse. For Mroczek, the government must "immediately implement preventative measures [to combat xenophobia]: education in schools, a media campaign, and rapid debunking of fake news."

"However it is already too late, and the problem is mounting."