“…heard all sorts of deterrents to get professional jobs from my friends (sic). They range from language fluency, educational and cultural mismatch. However, I have not seen such deterrence in my place. Ehh ehh…in fact, am not defending my workplace. I do not know about others, but my workplace is welcoming but…ehh…sometimes, I have seen that those who speak the local language are a little bit appreciated. Of course, this also applies everywhere including in my country”.
The above is an excerpt from an interview with John[1], a Bangladeshi student and labour migrant in Wroclaw, Poland. The interview focused on the everyday lived experiences, memories, and structural opportunities for John. John’s lived experiences are in large part representative of those of most labour migrants in Wroclaw, Poland, who, in most cases experience deskilling, culture shock, and downward mobility when they migrate to other countries, particularly in the Global North. The following discussion (based on the interview with John) focuses on the structural opportunities of labour migrants in Wroclaw, Poland.
John decided to travel to Poland for work and study when he was 27 years of age. He applied for student jobs in different organizations and companies soon after he arrived in Wroclaw. Of the five organizations to which he submitted applications for employment, only the McDonald’s restaurant offered him an employment opportunity. Before signing the formal employment agreement, he went through medical examinations and fulfilled other requirements. McDonald offered him a contract that allows him to work five days a week while he studies at the university. He agreed to work eight hours per day and gets paid 13 złoty (approximately £4) per hour.
John’s salary was 1000 American dollars per month in Bangladesh. He was comfortable with the salary and the position he held in Bangladesh, but he decided to travel to study and work in Europe. The living costs are relatively cheaper than other cities in Poland and the availability of the program of study primarily led him to move and stay in Wroclaw. He works so that he can cover tuition and other living expenses. As a new employee, he was hired in the lowest position in the McDonald’s restaurant. He decided to work in this sector because of the following reasons:
“I came here to study, but at the same time, I must cover tuition and living expenses. Life is difficult if you are not working. I was searching for a job that suits my experience, but it is difficult to get jobs that match my training. Finally, I decided to work at McDonald’s on a part-time basis.”
I also asked him about the challenges and opportunities he has encountered as a labour migrant in Poland. He said that this is a very sensitive question because there are some cultural differences between his birthplace and Poland. He explained further:
“I faced communication problems and culture shock when I first arrived here. The way we communicate back home is different from the norm here in Wroclaw. I sometimes worried about how to communicate with, and approach guests. It was a little bit confusing for me because of cultural differences. Beyond appropriately associating with people, the language barrier has hugely deterred me from moving on and looking for relatively well-paying jobs.”
John also does not hide the fact that there is a difference in terms of commitment to work as well as relationships between colleagues/coworkers and supervisors. He explained that in Bangladesh, one will work like they are in a family environment with close friends but not in Wroclaw: “Workers are lounging and talking at workplace back in Bangladesh, but this does not happen often in Poland. In Wroclaw, people commit themselves to work. The trend here is you have to work; get paid and go home”.
I asked him about the availability of equal opportunities for work promotion and upward mobility for migrant workers against native workers. He said that there are hierarchies in his current job position. As such, unlike his professional experience from Bangladesh, John is working in the lowest position in the McDonalds restaurant. He claims that he used to work as an operations manager in a tourism company with a net salary of 1000 American dollars per month. He also submitted applications to different organizations to get jobs that correspond to his previous experience and competencies before he accepted his current job offer. However, none of those organizations offered him a job.
Considering the above, one can argue that John experienced downward mobility in the job hierarchy because of the following reasons. First, his current job does not correspond with his previous work experience and training. Second, he is receiving a salary which is significantly lower than the previous job. In the long run, it could cause deskilling, which is very often experienced by migrant workers when they are obliged to work below their professional qualification and training.
John also highlighted in the epigraph above that migrant who speaks the Polish language appear to be well-received than those who cannot. One can argue that those who can speak the local language and culturally proxime immigrants tend to be integrated well into the labour market than linguistically and culturally different immigrants. Therefore, it is no wonder that culturally and linguistically proximal immigrants are favored by employers over those culturally and linguistically different categories of immigrants.
In summation, positive changes in the economic and political situation in Poland in the last decade have made Poland an attractive country for immigrants, especially those outside of the European Union. The Polish labour market continues to be the major destination for Ukrainian labour migrants after its accession to the EU in 2004 (Filipek and Polkowska, 2019)[2]. However, non-European foreign workers are deterred by regulatory policies because the priority is given to native workers (Jaskułowski, 2017)[3]. Studies by migration scholars elsewhere have also revealed that cultural closeness is crucial for the successful integration of foreign workers in the Polish labour market. This is true in the case of Ukrainian labour migrants. However, there is an exception in the case of labour migrants from Asia or Africa (Koss, Goryszewska, and Pawlak, 2018)[4]. It may be because Ukrainian labour immigrants are culturally and linguistically closer to Poland as compared to Asian or African Labour immigrants.
[1] A pseudonym
[2] Filipek, K. and Polkowska, D. (2019). The Latent Precariousness of Migrant Workers: A Study of Ukrainians Legally Employed in Poland. Journal of International Migration and Integration. 21:205–220.
[3] Jaskubowski, K. (2017). Indian middling migrants in Wrocbaw: A study of migration experiences and strategies. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, Vol. 26(2) 262–273. DOI: 10.1177/0117196817705777.
[4] Koss-Goryszewska, M., Pawlak, M. (2018) Integration of migrants in Poland: Contradictions and imaginations. In: Kucharczyk, J., Mesežnikov, G. (eds.), Phantom Menace: The Politics and Policies of Migration in Central Europe. Bratislava: Institute for Public Affairs, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, pp. 169-184.
Mastewal Bitew is studying the Erasmus Mondus joint MITRA-Masters (Transnational Migration) in three European Universities (Université libre de Bruxelles, University of Wrocław, and University of Szeged) since September 2019. He was formerly a full-time lecturer in the Department of Psychology of the University of Gondar, Ethiopia. He published scholarly articles and participating in different leadership positions along with his teaching duty at the University of Gondar.