Context: The European Commission proposed that Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, Austria and Poland apply to be fully or partially exempted from the obligation to accept migrants over the coming year. The commission believes these countries have borne a significant share of the migration burden in recent years. Warsaw filed that request immediately.
On the November 24, 2025, broadcast of the “Evening Political Channel,” host Victoria Kirichenko claimed that migrants from Ukraine and Belarus who arrived in Poland by the hundreds and thousands in 2020 and 2022 supposedly cause Poles all kinds of problems: “Every week, without fail, either a fleeing Belarusian or a Ukrainian ends up in the crime reports.” She went on to say that some get into scandals so serious they face deportation — which is why, she argued, “Poland wants to say goodbye to migrants.”
“And now, some sad news for the ‘exiled’ Belarusians. So, the państwo (Polish for “state”) has begun taking steps to cleanse the population and prepare newcomers for expulsion. They casually conducted a survey among Poles about migration policy, and the results showed that 40% of the population see it as a threat and demand tough measures. Another 35% see it as inevitable, and only 17% don’t view migrants as a problem. The remaining 8% are dandelions who don’t know what to answer,” Kirichenko said as she presented the results.
Poland did publish the results of a major survey in November on how Poles view migration. The results showed that 40% of respondents see migration as a threat, 35% view it as “a fact of life that requires an appropriate response from the state,” and 17% consider it “an opportunity Poland should make use of.”In other words, more than half of those surveyed do not see migrants as a threat. At the same time, the same poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Poles describe their personal encounters with migrants as positive. Nearly 70% rate their interactions with foreign service providers — doctors, shopkeepers, hairdressers — favorably. Even more say they are satisfied with their contact with a migrant coworker or neighbor.
The survey did not mention expelling migrants at all. Every other respondent said the state should do more to integrate migrants into Polish society. What’s more, the study found that a growing number of Poles believe politicians go too far in migration debates by relying on offensive stereotypes about foreigners.
