The Impact of Immigration to Poland on Hate Crimes in Recent Years

Abstract

The Republic of Poland with more than 37 million inhabitants is considered to be one of the most homogeneous states in the world,1 inhabited by about 2–3% of representatives of ethnic and national minority groups.2 Although Poland refused to accept immigrants and refugees who arrived to Europe during the European migrant crisis, for the last 3 years the number of immigrants in Poland has been consistently increasing. In 2017, Eurostat pointed out that Poland was the second European Union member state, after the UK, that in 2016 admitted the largest number of immigrants from outside the European Union. As Eurostat indicated, they were mostly the citizens of Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova, who are considered to be migrant workers.3 In fact, in 2017, the number of migrant workers only from Ukraine in this country was about 2 million.4 The main aim of the article is to outline the impact of the increased number of immigrants on their coexistence in a homogenous society, especially in the times in which the number of hate crimes has been increasing