COVID-19 and labour market adjustments: policies, foreign labour and structural shifts

ABSTRACT

The paper looks at one of the most dynamically evolving migration processes in contemporary Europe – labour migrants in Poland. Poland, until very recently a typical emigration country started receiving large numbers of migrants only after 2014. This process, however, cannot be explained in supply terms only. In fact, it was also a strong structural demand for foreign workers that played at least an equally important role. This newly established migration system has been tested during the pandemic along with policy adjustments and economic changes. We claim that despite the very fact that the ‘essential workers’ rhetoric was almost absent in the Polish public discourse, foreign workers played a significant role in securing the continuous operation of many sectors of the economy. The paper shows that the role of migration in Poland has changed along with the transition from a net-sending to a net-receiving country, but still it worked as a safety valve during the pandemic. We argue it was possible because of liberal rules regarding international movement and work abroad. By focusing on the role of exogenous shocks and by considering the very specific migration system in Poland, this paper contributes to the growing literature on the labour market-immigration nexus.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• labour migration
• labour market adjustment
• essential workers
• labour market-migration nexus

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 It should be noted that this paper refers to the situation prior to the war, i.e. to migration developments prior to the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine. The case of the massive displacement that occurred as a result of the Russian invasion and its possible impact on the labour market will be discussed in the concluding section.

2 Due to the recent controversies related to the visa issuance process in Poland (and the extent to which the data on work permits and similar documents can be considered reliable), the NII data have started to be presented as the most reliable and robust information on labour migrants in Poland.

3 The research has been completed by the Centre of Migration Research of the University of Warsaw as part of the research programme dedicated to Ukrainian migrants staying in Poland. The survey involved Ukrainian citizens living in the city of Warsaw and had a form of a longitudinal study with two waves including 1319 and 281 individuals respectively.

4 As commented above, due to the fact that it remains impossible to assess to what extent the foreign labour is included in the overall number of workers, only the total numbers are presented (and not data excluding foreign workers).

5 The available data show that the structure of employment via recruitment agencies is largely unstable and reflects the short-term labour market needs (as most of the jobs performed by migrants in Poland are low-skilled and do not demand substantial and long-term training).

6 As the data for 2021 on agriculture are not robust we would suggest to refer to the overall employment excluding this particular sector.

7 The difference was high also in the case of the last category including a variety of other sectors with a particular role of personal services (e.g. cleaning, household services).

8 In the case of Poland relatively extensive support for entrepreneurs has been provided (collectively referred to as ‘a fiscal shield’) including among others, exemptions from NII contributions, parking benefits for self-employed persons, subsidising part of the wage costs of employees and low-interest loans for micro-entrepreneurs.

Additional information

Funding

This publication was supported by the University of Warsaw under the Priority Research Area V of the “Excellence Initiative – Research University” programme.