The Fastest Migration Revolution Ever

My father and his sapper group need a car, two mine detectors, a drone and good binoculars”, reads a post on the Facebook group ‘Aid for Ukraine’. It stands out from other posts. Most concern requests from refugees looking for apartments, clothing, or work in Poland. Ever since the start of the Russian invasion, more than 3 million people have crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border. Most have stayed.

The war that broke out on 24 February accelerated the demographic processes that have been taking place in Poland for a few years now. “In the world history of migrations of the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries, Poland changed its status from an emigrating to a host country for immigrants the fastest. In the entire EU, Poland issues the highest number of permits for seasonal work to foreigners,” says Professor Maciej Duszczyk of Warsaw University.