Two sides of the coin: Exclusion and inclusion in Polish migration politics

In the past decade, Poland has made itself known to foreign observers as a country spearheading highly restrictive immigration policy. This drive took off in 2015 when the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) launched an inflammatory anti-immigration campaign, with strong rhetoric, border closures and outright refusals to accept EU relocation of quotas of refugees. What may be less well known, however, is that in parallel to this direction, Poland has also launched a generous and welcoming immigration programme for a select group of de jure foreign nationals. This initiative, known as ‘repatriation’ has not only facilitated, but even strongly encouraged immigration, for the specific group of foreign nationals. This paper examines this duality in the Polish migration politics, that is, the dynamic of migrant exclusion with the simultaneous and equally high inclusionary aspect. The analysis itself is a discourse on the two different migrant groups, repatriates and migrants in general, comparing the portrayals of the two groups and their potential migration to Poland over the past decade. This is to highlight how different groups of potential migrants have been constructed, and how important the discourse has been in shaping the treatment of different groups of de jure foreign nationals.