World map of the Polish labor market. This is where we “import” hundreds of thousands of workers from

One million forty-five thousand one hundred and thirty-nine. Exactly that number of foreigners were in the register of paying contributions to the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) on September 30, 2022. They came from at least 162 countries of the world (this is how many nations can be identified; in the case of 5.5 thousand, the category “other” was added – ed.). They are both citizens of neighboring countries, EU countries, and much more distant, such as Australia, Chile, Bangladesh, Benin and Suriname.

For comparison, exactly 10 years earlier. On September 30, 2012, there were 92,000 in the register of foreigners paying contributions in Poland. 786 people. Over eleven times less than in 2022

– At the end of September, the number of foreigners in retirement insurance amounted to 1.05 million i increased by 44 thousand. compared to August and by as much as 402 thousand. compared to February 2020, the last pre-pandemic month. It is also a sixteen-fold increase since 2008. About two thirds of foreigners in insurance are men – said the president of ZUS, prof. Gertruda Uścińska.

Over a million foreign payers of contributions constitute 5 percent. all insured in the Social Insurance Institution register. At the same time, foreigners collect less than a percentage of expenses from the Social Insurance Fund (FUS) for pensions and approx. 1.5 percent. amounts allocated to benefits. Most of the foreigners are people employed under an employment contract.

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Not only Ukraine

The gigantic increase in the number of foreigners on the Polish labor market is mainly the result of the influx of workers from Ukraine, but not only.

In 2012, Ukrainians accounted for almost exactly one third of all foreigners paying contributions in Poland. Two years later, this percentage jumped slightly to 38%. The Russian annexation of Crimea and the triggering of the war in Donbas in 2014 accelerated this trend, and already in 2015 Ukrainian citizens accounted for over half of all foreign workers in Poland. The jump was also recorded in absolute terms – the number of employees has doubled. Since 2017, Ukrainian citizens account for over 70 percent. contribution-paying foreigners registered with the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS).

At the same time, however, 300 thousand. 791 foreigners from countries other than Ukraine paying contributions in Poland is more than the total number of foreigners working in Poland until 2016. That is why we looked at the ZUS data to see where in the last decade foreign workers came from, if we omit Ukraine in this list.

And so in 2012 there were Belarusians, Vietnamese and Russians. In further places there were several thousand Chinese, Germans and Bulgarians. France, Italy and Armenia are also in the TOP10.

In 2015, the number of Belarusians was five times higher and amounted to over 20,000. The Vietnamese and Russians were unchanged behind their backs, but changes began to appear further afield. The citizens of Armenia and India began to play an increasingly important role. In 2017, Georgians entered the stage, ahead of all nations in 2018, except for Ukrainians and Belarusians. Also in 2017, the citizens of Nepal appeared in the top fifteen.

The next four years brought another small reshuffle, which put Indian citizens in fourth place in 2022, behind whose backs are Moldovans. In TOP15 we also have, in addition to the “traditional” countries that have been present in the ranking for the entire decade, also Indonesia, the Philippines and Uzbekistan.

World map of the Polish labor market

But ZUS data on the Polish labor market includes not only hundreds and thousands of employees. Registers also record units, which allowed us to create a world map of the places where people active on the Polish labor market come from.

Marcin Lis, journalist at Business Insider Polska

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