Poland Wants To Take In More Immigrant Labour From The Philippines

Poland Wants To Take In More Immigrant Labour From The Philippines - Because Of Their Catholic Faith

Poland is considering taking in more immigrant labour. The ruling right-wing Law and Justice party, however, wants to open up the country only to Christian workers.

Poland is one of Europe's most anti-immigrant countries. A survey released last December by the Polish Centre for Public Opinion Research (CBOS) showed that 63% of respondents did not want to receive refugees, while only 33% were in favour. The Polish government has refused to accept any refugees under the quota system set by the European Commission. The anti-immigration sentiment of the majority of the Polish population is directed mostly against Muslims.

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Although it refuses to take in refugees, Poland suffers from a severe labour shortage and is in desperate need of foreign workers to sustain economic development. According to a survey conducted in January by Work Service SA, half of Polish companies cannot fill vacancies, and almost two-thirds of public-sector employers are seeking new employees.

Over the past few years around 1.5 million people from Ukraine have moved to Poland. They have relieved labour market shortages, but last year domestic vacancies surged nearly 40 percent.

In December 2017 incoming Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that his dream was to "re-Christianize the EU." A few days later he told Radio Poland that his government would "not be receiving migrants from the Middle East and Northern Africa".

As a result, the far-right Polish government, in an attempt to safeguard what it perceives as the country's identity, has turned to the Philippines to ease labour shortage.

More than 86 percent of the population of the Philippines are Roman Catholic, while 8 percent belong to other Christian confessions. The country also has a small Muslim minority, amounting to 4 percent of the population, most of whom live on the southern islands of Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan.

On July 28 Stanislaw Szwed, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy, told news agency PAP that Warsaw is negotiating an agreement with the Philippines which would allow Filipino citizens to work in Poland.

He referred to the "cultural closeness" of the two nations, especially due to their common "Catholic confession", as the reason why the Polish government welcomes Filipino workers.

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