Legal and Political Response to the (Unobvious) Refugee Crisis in Poland

For several years now, the EU has been experiencing the largest refugee crisis since the end of World War II, whose course and consequences have affected Member States unevenly. Although the EC proposed a comprehensive package of short-, medium- and long-term solutions at the EU-level under “The European Agenda on Migration” in May 2015, some of which were reflected in specific legal tools or (proposals of) policy reforms, they have so far been implemented with variable effectiveness. Despite the fact that Poland has not been affected by mass mobility associated with the recent refugee crisis, it has become one of the main ’advocates’ of not accepting asylum seekers. It concerns especially the EU relocation and resettlement mechanisms, which can be interpreted as a response to the crisis on international level. Simultaneously, on national level, Polish authorities either proposed or introduced changes in asylum or immigration laws and practices. It was justified by necessary reaction to migratory situation in the EU that supposedly can affect Poland, causing threats to its safety. Taking this into account, the proposed paper is aimed at interdisciplinary analysis of legal and political response of Poland to migratory phenomena that are associated with refugee crisis, despite solid empirical evidence of lack of experiencing such in Poland. Authors: Monika Szulecka (University of Warsaw), Marta Pachocka (University of Warsaw), Karolina Sobczak-Szelc (University of Warsaw)