Indians and Colombians now third and fourth largest foreign worker groups in Poland

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Indians are now the third-largest group of foreign workers in Poland, followed by Colombians, according to new data from the country’s Social Insurance Institute (ZUS). Ukrainians remain by far the largest immigrant group, followed by Belarusians.

The figures also show that the overall number of registered foreign workers has risen more than 8% over the last year, a faster rate of growth than in recent years.

However, the government official responsible for migration strategy says this is because stricter government measures have pushed some employers to register previously uninsured workers.

The ZUS data, reported by Dziennik Gazeta Prawna (DGP), a leading daily, show that there were 1.34 million foreign workers registered in ZUS at the end of June, up from 1.24 million at the same point last year.

That 8.2% increase is larger than the growth rate of around 6% seen in each of the previous two years, notes the newspaper.

Maciej Duszczyk, the deputy interior minister responsible for migration, commented that the rise actually reflects the government’s tougher migration strategy, which he said “forces employers to report for insurance those who arrived earlier” but were working unregistered

The official pointed to recent data showing that, in fact, in the first half of this year, Poland issued 50% fewer work permits to foreigners than in the same period of 2025.

Dane ZUS pokazują dokładnie to co zakładaliśmy w Strategi Migracyjnej.

Radykalny spadek liczby wydawanych, nowych zezwoleń na pracę (ponad 50% rok do roku) wymusza na pracodawcach zgłaszanie do ubezpieczenia, tych którzy przyjechali wcześniej.

Tylko w pełni legalne zatrudnienie!

— Maciek Duszczyk (@MaciekDuszczyk) August 11, 2026

Ukrainians remain by far the largest group of registered foreign workers, with 901,000 now in the system, a 10.1% rise from a year earlier. Belarusians (144,000, up 4.9%) remain in second.

But two non-European migrant groups whose numbers have been growing rapidly in recent years now occupy third and fourth place: Indians (25,500, up 4.9%) and Colombians (23,000, up 31%, which was the fastest growth of any national group).

Georgians , who had previously been the third-largest group, saw their number fall by 17% to 22,000, meaning they are now in fifth, ahead of Filipinos (15,400, down 2%), Moldovans (14,200, down 1%), Nepalis (13,400, up 8.3%), Vietnamese (12,200, up 6.1%), and Russians (11,800, down 2.5%).

Latin American migration to Poland is booming, with 45,000 work permits issued last year, five times more than in 2022 @Gosia_Tomczak looks at what is driving this trend and what challenges and opportunities it has created for both the migrants and Poland https://t.co/tl1wUTCaC0

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) October 15, 2025

ZUS’s data also show that foreign workers are increasingly establishing their own businesses in Poland, which Dziennik Gazeta Prawna notes is a sign that they are establishing longer-term ties with the country but also a result of an easier online system for registering businesses.

In 2021, only 22,700 foreigners had a registered business in Poland, a figure that now is now almost five times higher, at 102,000. The rise has been driven in particular by Ukrainians, many of whom are legally entitled to establish companies in Poland under the same terms as Polish citizens.

As a result, 7.6% of foreign workers now run their own business, up from 6.7% a year ago and from 2.7% before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which led to a wave of Ukrainian refugees settling in Poland.

Ukrainian refugees boosted Poland’s GDP by 2.7% last year while not raising unemployment or lowering wages, finds a report by the UN @Refugees agency and @Deloitte

"Whoever thinks refugees are a burden on the economy should think again," says @UNHCRPoland https://t.co/rOvtOvBNwG

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) June 12, 2025

Over the last decade, even before the war in Ukraine, Poland has experienced a wave of migration unprecedented in its history and among the largest anywhere in Europe.

For six years running, between 2017 and 2022, it issued more first residence permits to immigrants from outside the European Union than did any other member state.

Much of the surge in immigration came during the rule of the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government from 2015 to 2023, despite its strong anti-migrant rhetoric.

The current government, a more liberal coalition led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, came to power pledging to reduce immigration, which it said had got out of control under PiS .

Under Tusk’s government, in 2024, Poland issued the lowest number of residence permits to non-EU immigrants in a decade. In 2025, the government introduced tougher entry requirements for foreign workers and students. It has also stepped up deportations of foreigners who have broken the law.

However, Duszczyk notes that the current government still sees “selective and responsible migration” as a way to “maintain the competitiveness of the economy without limiting wage growth”.

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Slawomir Kaminski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl