Do Ukrainians Have More Influence than the President in Poland?

The photo is the property of Ukrinform – UATV

Maybe it comes as a surprise for some, and maybe it does not for others, but Ukrainians ranked second in the list of the 50 most influential people of the Polish economy, compiled by the Polish edition of Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

The edition notes that Ukrainians are “A collective hero of the Polish economy.”

“We started to pay attention to Ukrainians soon after the Russian aggression in Crimea and in the Donbass, not only in our agriculture, or horticulture but in many other fields,” reads the edition.

According to Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, the Polish government issued 91,000 working permits to Ukrainians in the first half of 2017 only – 85% of all permits issued during this period. And it represents only 15,000 less than during the whole year of 2016.

The role of Ukrainians in the Polish labor market keeps on growing, which strikes as an important news in the context of the demographic crisis that Poland currently faces – like many other eastern European nations. The Polish newspaper explains further though that even if labor migrants from Ukraine improve the situation, they do not solve a problem that runs much deeper.