Non-salary employment conditions as a factor shaping migration decision-making: an example of workers from Ukraine in Poland

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59670/ml.v19i6.2162

Keywords:

Migration, decision-making, non-salary conditions, Poland, Ukrainians

Abstract

The paper studies non-salary employment conditions as a factor affecting labour migrants’ choice the host country and a particular employer. It argues that the extant literature, focusing mainly on wage levels offered by employers, is insufficient to understand the decisions taken by migrants, especially if there is persistently low unemployment and high demand for foreign labour in a given market. A secondary analysis of the results of two empirical studies conducted in Poland in the period 2017–2019, focusing on various categories of Ukrainian workers, was used to shed a light on the role of non-salary employment conditions in the migration decision-making process. At that time, Poland encountered both low levels of unemployment and persistent demand for foreign workers, as well as liberal immigration regulations for labour immigration from selected Eastern European countries. Therefore, it met the conditions of the so-called migration laboratory.

Author Biographies

Maciej Duszczyk, University of Warsaw

For ten years he headed the Migration Policy Unit at the Centre of Migration Research of the University of Warsaw. He has been the Principal Investigator of research projects financed by Polish and European institutions. His research areas are migration, integration policy, social policy and European integration. In 2003-2007 he was Deputy Director in the Department of Economic and Social Analyses – Office of the Committee for European Integration (Ministry for European Affairs); 2008-2011 – Member of the Board of Strategic Advisers to the Prime Minister of Poland; 2011-2013 – Head of Task Force for Migration Policy in the Chancellery of the President of Poland; 2014-2016 Member and between October 2015 and March 2016 President of Scientific Policy Committee (Ministry of Science and Higher Education); 2014-2015 – Visiting Professor at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg and Friedrich Schiller University of Jena. He is a member of the Transatlantic Forum on Migration and Integration and collaborator of the International Labour Organization, European Commission and International Organization for Migration. He received scholarships granted by the Jean Monnet Project, Carl Duisburg Gesellschaft, the Polish Committee for Scientific Research.

Kamil Matuszczyk, University of Warsaw

PhD in social sciences (political science and administration, Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, UW), associated with OBM UW since 2014. Principal investigator of two research grants funded by the National Science Centre (Preludium and Etiuda), co-author and researcher in several national and international research projects. In 2019-2020 he held two research fellowships in Budapest (Central European University) and Berlin (Humboldt University), related to the problems of his PhD thesis (policy in the area of international migration to the home care sector). Author and co-author of more than 30 works, published as peer-reviewed articles, monographs, reports or working papers. His interests focus on issues of contemporary labour mobility (posting of workers, seasonal workers), the migration industry, migration policies, ageing society and long-term care.

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Published

2022-11-12

How to Cite

Duszczyk, M., & Matuszczyk, K. (2022). Non-salary employment conditions as a factor shaping migration decision-making: an example of workers from Ukraine in Poland. Migration Letters, 19(6), 933 –. https://doi.org/10.59670/ml.v19i6.2162

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 6 (2022)

Section

Articles

License

CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0