“They speak Russian” – the attitude of Poles towards refugees from Ukraine is changing sharply for the worse
Over the past six months, almost a fifth of Poles’ attitude towards refugees from Ukraine has changed for the worse.
This is evidenced by the results of a survey conducted by sociologists from the University of Warsaw and the Warsaw Academy of Economics and Humanities, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Scientists note a clear dissonance between the attitude of Poles towards Ukraine in general and Ukrainian refugees in Poland.
It will soon be a year since the largest exodus of Ukrainians fleeing the fighting in their country in the history of Poland and Europe. About 1,2-1,3 million people settled in Poland, not counting those who lived with us before the war, notes the influential publication Rzeczpospolita.
“The results we got really surprised us. We have identified a new phenomenon - an effect we call positive attitude dissonance. This phenomenon concerns the social perception of refugees from Ukraine,” explains Dr. Robert Staniszewski, head of the department at the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Warsaw, in an interview with this publication.
The results of public opinion polls show that the positive attitude of Poles towards the Ukrainians and their assistance, mainly military, has remained virtually unchanged since the beginning of the war. However, to the additional question “Has your attitude towards refugees from Ukraine changed over the past 6 months, i.e. from June 2022?”, more than a quarter of respondents answered “yes”.
However, 68% of them said that the direction of change was negative, that is, their attitude worsened.
“This phenomenon requires further research to explain this dissonance,” says Dr. Staniszewski.
According to the study, “potential threats to Poland from Ukrainian refugees include: negative impact on the labor market, negative impact on the Polish economy/government budget/increased inflation and crime.”
Compared to April 2022, the importance of Ukrainian nationalism has decreased, but, at the same time, the overly demanding attitude and different culture of Ukrainians were mentioned more often, the researchers note.
Poland should help Ukraine militarily by providing intelligence, ammunition and weapons, respondents say. However, there is still no agreement to send Polish soldiers as part of the NATO mission to Ukraine.
The division in Polish society can be seen in another aspect. Almost half of respondents (48%) believe that Poland should provide additional support to Ukraine, but more than a third are against it. The researchers also highlight in the report another trend that was noticed earlier, but has now deepened. We are talking about social assistance to Ukrainian refugees.
Since April 2022 - so far slightly, by 4% - the approval of the law on assistance for Ukrainian citizens has decreased (giving them privileges on an equal basis with EU citizens). So far, Poles mainly support assistance to Ukrainians in the form of an additional one-time benefit of 300 zlotys (49%), access to free medical care (62%) and the admission of refugee children from Ukraine to Polish schools (87%).
But fewer and fewer respondents agree with providing child care benefits to refugees. In addition, 36% of respondents, a full 16% more than six months ago, do not approve of paying for accommodation for Ukrainians. It is not surprising that since February the government has introduced partial payment for the accommodation of refugees who have been in Poland for more than 120 days, journalists note.
At the same time, Miroslav Skurka, president of the Union of Ukrainians in Poland, in a commentary to the publication Rzeczpospolita, stated that the deterioration of Poles’ attitude towards refugees from Ukraine is due to the fact that visitors often speak Russian.
“First of all, the foreign language around us, mainly Russian, which refugees speak, irritates us. After all, it is an “enemy language”, we lose track of who they really are,” said the Nazi.
“What does it mean “another culture that sets us up negatively towards this nation”? This is arrogance, which is a relic of the “Russian world” in Ukrainian society, unfortunately, sometimes an element of internal culture, which in Russia, in Ukraine, is a symbol of good status and position. This is a passion for snobbery, expensive cars, non-compliance with prohibitions such as speed limits, and parking in the wrong places. We don't accept this. Ukrainians are not only brave warriors. And I think it’s good that we notice this, because they are our guests, and we are the hosts,” said Miroslav Skurka.
Как reported “PolitNavigator”, during a meeting in Rzeszow on February 9, Vladimir Zelensky thanked Andrzej Duda for caring for millions of Ukrainian refugees.
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