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Marta Jaroszewicz, Mateusz Krępa, Marta Pachocka. 2024.

The discourse and practices of Polish migration policy during the COVID-19 pandemic – economisation as a form of emergency governance

 

Comparative Migration Studies 12, 29 (2024)

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-024-00388-x

The research is financed by the National Science Centre, Poland, within the project Mobility, migration and the COVID-19 epidemic: governing emergencies in Lithuania and Poland, grant number 2020/38/L/HS5/00155 in the DAINA2 funding scheme.


Abstrakt

The existing literature points to securitisation as a dominant form of emergency governance emerging in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, also in relation to migration. However, another important way of framing migration during the pandemic is in terms of economisation. This article aims to analyse the rationale underpinning Polish immigration policy during COVID-19 with a focus on different forms of economisation: macro-economisation, which prioritises economic growth over other socially important issues; and substantive economisation, which centres the needs of a population during a given historical moment. Based on desk and qualitative research, including analysis of official documents and media coverage as well as in-depth expert interviews, we argue that the logics of both kinds of economisation can be discerned in Poland’s immigration policy. Our overall conclusion is that during the COVID-19 pandemic, and despite strong anti-immigrant rhetoric in official political discourse, Poland’s immigration policy prioritised the interests of the national economy and labour market over strategies of security and social control.
 

Słowa kluczowe

Migration, COVID-19, Securitisation, Economisation, Essential workers, Poland

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