Politicisation of immigration in Poland during and between crises

Immigration, one of the most divisive issues, has recently become the subject of heated political debates in Poland and is being used strategically as a wedge issue by politicians. This paper aims to illustrate how Polish political parties have politicised immigration in Poland in the context of migration crises and during the periods in between. This will be demonstrated through an analysis of parliamentary speeches and party manifestos. The objective of this paper is to emphasise that analysing the politicisation of immigration en bloc is inadequate. Instead, it is crucial to focus on the politicisation and attempts to politicise (sometimes unsuccessfully) various types of immigration. Examining the politicisation of immigration in a disaggregated manner reveals that politicians from different parties have distinct, sometimes contradictory, positions on different types of immigration. Furthermore, this approach enables us to challenge the hypothesis of a significant gap between what politicians say and their actual actions in terms of immigration policy, at least within the Polish context during the Law and Justice (PiS) government.