Poland is welcoming these foreign workers
At the same time, in central Poland, a tiny village with only 200 residents is preparing for the arrival of 6,000 workers from Asia at a vast, newly built housing compound. The workers are needed by a petroleum company controlled by Morawiecki's right-wing government. State-controlled oil company PKN Orlen needs them to build a new petrochemical plant that is vital for its expansion plans.
About 100 have already arrived, and the rest will follow soon, vastly outnumbering residents of the village, Biala. «Some people say this is a bit too much and are worried,» said Krzysztof Szczawinski, the elected head of Biala and one of five local farmers who agreed to lease their land for the new housing compound and construction storage. But because the workers are expected to leave when their work is finished, he added, «there is no real negative feeling,» even though voters in Biala mostly support Poland's conservative governing party, Law and Justice.
That populist political force came to power in 2015 by taking a tough stand against foreign migrants seeking work. The gulf between the government's diatribes against unwanted migrants and the open-armed approach to foreign workers reflects a wide chasm separating the imperatives of politics and economics in Poland and many other European countries. Jakub Zgorzelski, a manager overseeing the sprawling camp for foreign laborers, said he had no trouble persuading local farmers to give up their crops and lease their land for the workers compound.
One initially demanded more money and refused but, fearful of missing out on the cash, finally came around. «Money talks loudest,» Zgorzelski said. Rejecting the EU's efforts to get member states to take in some of the migrants arriving in
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