Emigrants do harm to Polish economy?
AGERON as an author of the research concerning image of Poland abroad for the Ministry of Economy comments on article devoted to the question of Polish emigrants’ image.
What do you have against Poles? Good car insurance! Germans and Americans joke about Poles, the Dutch and Brits accuse us of stealing jobs and the rumour has it in the whole world that we drink like a fish.
Zealous Catholics, conservatives, troublemakers, cheap workforce and thieves. Research carried out in 2011 within the project „Promoting Polish economy on the international markets” for the Ministry of Economy showed that not only does Poland not have clear and coherent image abroad, but what is more, it is still seen through stereotypes. It turns out that Polish emigrants have quite a big influence on the image of our country abroad.
– In last couple of years Poles migrated mainly because of financial reasons, image of Poland as a country was based on these immigrants’ behaviour. Italian praise Polish caretakers and nurses for being hard-working, similarly Dutch people see Poles as eager to take up hard work. In many countries with big Polish minority there are various stereotypes concerning Poland (for example Pole-drunk in the Netherlands, Pole-car thief in Germany, Pole-plumber in France) – says Aleksandra Balkiewicz-Zerek from Ageron, co-author of the Polish image research.
(…) Negative image of the country is strengthened by immigrants, who taken out from their familiar environment, experience lack of norms and limits whatsoever. Luckily this is not a majority. More and more often emigrants contribute to eradicating negative thinking about Poles and Poland.
– It would be false to claim that there are no negative stereotypes. But these kind of stereotypical images do not dominate when it comes to image of Poland abroad, they are often excessively exposed and boosted by the media. Presence of Poles abroad and their hard work contribute to improving Polish image. Research clearly showed that human capital is perceived better in those countries where there are many Polish immigrants, such as the Netherlands, France, Italy and in the United States. What is more, Poland is often perceived positively though Poles themselves – it is them who work for this positive image of the country – says Aleksandra Balkiewicz-Zerek from Ageron, co-author of the research.
Pawel Wisniewski, expert from consulting company HLB Sarnowski & Wisniewski. – When European labour market opened for us, many Poles decided to leave the country to seek better income abroad. Various stereotypes about Poles were created, many of them unfair, taking into account that perceiving whole nation in a negative light often resulted from individual acts of our citizens. Do stereotypes influence in any way decisions of foreign investors? Not at all. They still find Poland attractive, despite continuously deteriorating economic situation in Europe – he says.
Source: Onet Biznes, 17/04/2013
