The discourse on immigration to Europe is dominated by the migrants from Middle East and Africa in countries such as France, Britain or Germany.

At the same time, a very different dynamic exhibits in Poland, yet it is often implicitly waved away as just another case of the same thing. This lazy “think big and abstract, ignore the pesky on-the-ground details” attitude serves no one's interests, least of all Europe's.

In August of that year, Belarussian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko began offering “tourist” visas to huge numbers of African and Middle Eastern migrants, allowing them to enter Belarus, before forcing them to cross the Polish border. Lukashenko wanted to push “migrants and drugs” on EU member states that had opposed his domestic political crackdown. Suddenly, tens of thousands of migrants with no connection to Poland were pouring over the border, which at that time had no physical barrier and was [...]

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First published:
September 8th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/PEuCkgD93rcnTYNrP/immigration-to-poland

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

Graph showing German political party positions on immigration policy in 2013.

Bar graph showing German political parties' views on immigration policy (2017).

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“Immigration to Poland” by Martin Sustrik

LessWrong (30+ Karma)