They flee the country and hate Russians: two popular myths in Russia about Poland

Yevgeny Lotosh, who lives in this country, tried to describe what is wrong in the two most common anti-Polish myths.

Myth number 1. Poles hate Russian (Ukrainians, Belarusians, foreigners in general and etc.)

Quite the opposite. The overwhelming majority of Poles are very friendly and inquisitive about foreigners. In any everyday situation, a Pole will try to help a person in a difficult situation. Even if a foreigner does not speak Polish, they will try to explain themselves in English, with gestures, individual Russian or Ukrainian words, etc. At work, there is no discrimination on the basis of ethnicity either, they judge them on the basis of personal and professional qualities (and discrimination is a crime under the law). The first question of a Pole to a Russian after the establishment of more or less trusting relations - what if I go through the Transsib all over Russia to look at it? (oh, how difficult it is to explain to them what train toilets, thieves, crooks and the police at train stations are!)

Where does this myth come from? Firstly, Russian propaganda, which also penetrates to the nearest neighbors. In the Russian semi-official narrative, Poland is enemy number three, just behind the United States and Ukraine. There are many reasons. However, the main thing is that Poland, dismembered more than two hundred years ago and for the most part absorbed by the Russian Empire, allowed itself to escape from captivity both at the beginning of the twentieth century and at the end, after the collapse of both empires. The anti-Polish theme has been present in the imperial propaganda for a long time, impregnating and poisoning the Russian public consciousness. Contemporary Russian propaganda appeals to this myth as the simplest and most convenient method of manipulation.

Secondly, the myth is also supported by a certain stratum of unskilled workers (overwhelmingly from Ukraine) who shuttle to Poland to work. Polish law allows simplified employment of citizens of five eastern neighbors who have entered on a visa-free basis (in the 90/180 regime). On the one hand, this gave rise to the phenomenon of mass work of Ukrainians in Poland. On the other hand, a huge number of them have neither qualifications nor knowledge of the Polish language, which is why they can only do primitive dirty work. Such migrant workers work among the same unskilled primitive locals. This environment all over the world, regardless of the country, is characterized by increased intolerance and aggression for any reason, including national ones. Not knowing how to explain themselves and seeing only this environment, the migrant workers form a negative opinion about Poland and then spread it across forums and groups.

The situation is aggravated by the fact that a significant part of the migrant workers work through temporary employment agencies - very specific offices that supply workers to local employers for a variety of low-skilled jobs. Although the employer pays for such a worker as much as a local direct worker, a significant portion of the pay ends up in the agency. Receiving a cut salary at the agency, the migrant workers conclude that the locals discriminate against foreigners, although in reality this is not at all the case. They do not see the fact that locals work through the same agencies, who receive a lower salary in the same way. (it should be noted here that such agencies are evil and should be avoided, but the note is not about that)

Finally, there is another very unpleasant topic associated with the long-standing Ukrainian-Polish conflict, which sharply escalated during and immediately after the Second World War. These are black pages of history for both peoples, where partisan units of the Polish Home Army (AK) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) terrorized and often simply massacred civilians in disputed territories. The situation was sharply worsened by the Stalinist reshaping of the borders, as a result of which large areas inhabited by Poles were transferred to Ukraine, which they began to forcibly resettle to the west, replacing them with Ukrainians. Also, some areas inhabited mainly by Ukrainians went to Poland. In Soviet history, that virtually mini-war is either completely hushed up, or is presented as a desperate resistance of the last fascist shortcomings and hirelings to the Soviet authorities (although in fact both the AK and the UPA fought with the Germans in the first place and never cooperated with them). Those events remained in the distant past, but in the eastern regions of Poland they are still remembered, which causes some locals to have a tense attitude towards Ukrainians.

Of course, not all Poles are friendly to foreigners. There are no such miracles on our planet. As in any other country, there are convinced xenophobes in Poland. But their number can be judged by the results of parliamentary elections and polls, in which the Confederation (an extreme right-wing nationalist party) steadily gains from 3 to 7% of the vote. Well, show me a country where there are fewer such Natsiks.

What the Poles really don't like is Russia as a state. You yourself know the reasons - it is enough to watch Russian television and listen to the statements of Russian politicians. However, at the same time, the Poles do not associate the state with newcomers, since their attitude towards their own state is similar to that of Russia.

Myth number 2. Poland is a poor country, the Poles themselves are fleeing from it

This myth is also distantly related to reality. Firstly, in terms of GDP, Poland is in 8th place in Europe (including the already independent England). With GDP per capita, everything is less rosy (24th place), however, here Poland still surpasses most of the countries of Central Europe, as well as Portugal and Greece, not to mention Russia. The average salary in large enterprises and firms is at the level of 1,100 euros per month. It may look inconspicuous against the background of, for example, neighboring Germany, but it should be borne in mind that the cost of living in Poland is significantly lower than that of its wealthy neighbors. This will largely offset the salary gap. Also, the salaries of qualified specialists (not necessarily in IT) can be several times higher than the average, very close to the average European.

As for the "fleeing Poles", this is just another propaganda trick, especially when they start talking about England, where they supposedly live three million. First, it should be remembered that Poles in England have had maximum-favored-immigration status since World War II. The British willingly accepted the Poles fleeing from the communist regime, and, moreover, for them the regime of travel abroad was much softer than for the citizens of the USSR. As a result, a large Polish community had already formed on the islands half a century before the fall of the Soviet regime in Poland. All these are people with local citizenship, often not in the first generation, so they can only be called “Poles” purely formally.

Also, starting in 2004, Poland joined the EU, as a result of which its citizens received the right to work without permits in Europe, which they gladly took advantage of. However, this work, firstly, never took on the scale of mass exodus and, secondly, it was work, not emigration: I went to work, then returned, worked in Poland, went somewhere else... A common process in an integrated modern world ... Likewise, residents of richer countries travel to other countries to work there. The attitude of the Poles themselves is evidenced, for example, by the latest statistics from England. Due to quarantines, airports, which served as the main sources of statistical data, have been closed, but it is estimated that in 2020 the number of Poles in England fell by two hundred thousand to eight hundred thousand people (so that the Polish community even yielded first place to the Romanian in number). They left partly because of covid psychosis, partly because of Brexit. In part, this is just an ordinary reverse migration: enriched with foreign experience, people return home to apply it already at home.

So there is no question of any flight of the Poles even close.