Anti-Ukrainian sentiment rising in Poland, affecting even long-term residents: report

A new report finds nearly all Ukrainian migrants and refugees surveyed in Poland have noticed rising hostility toward them, including those who have lived in the country for over a decade or hold Polish citizenship.

FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian and European flags fly, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in central Kyiv, Ukraine August 11, 2025. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich/File Photo

The report, „We Are Not at Home: Ukrainian Migrants and Refugees on Relations with Poles”, was published by Polish NGO Instytut Krytyki Politycznej and prepared by migration researcher Olena Babakova and Przemysław Sadura, a professor at the University of Warsaw.

It is based on in-depth interviews with 25 Ukrainian migrants and refugees, varied by gender, age, marital status, employment and migration plans. Fourteen respondents were war refugees who arrived after 2022, while 11 were labor migrants who came before the war.

„Almost all interviewees register a rise in anti-Ukrainian sentiment, including people who have lived in Poland for over a decade or hold Polish citizenship”, the report’s authors wrote, noting that even the most well-integrated Ukrainians in Poland reported noticing cooling relations.

Most respondents identified Poland’s 2025 presidential campaign as the turning point when anti-Ukrainian sentiment became increasingly visible, according to the institute. However, some pre-war migrants offered a different view, suggesting that Polish-Ukrainian relations had never been particularly good and that the solidarity of 2022 and 2023 had simply been an exception.

The authors stressed that the hostility reported since early 2025 is not confined to the internet, even though respondents described social media and online forums as the most burdensome and discriminatory venues. Anti-Ukrainian sentiment now spans several areas of daily life, they said. Respondents described discrimination in the workplace, housing and schools, but most incidents occurred in public spaces, particularly on public transit.

According to the respondents, the Ukrainian language itself or a Ukrainian accent often triggers aggression — with people who hear it reacting with hostility that can take the form of verbal abuse or intimidating behavior.

The report found that the typical response to such incidents is silence: of the 25 interviewees, only one engaged with an aggressor and began recording the encounter. „Preventive measures are often employed — withdrawing one’s own language from public space”, the authors wrote, noting that speaking unaccented Polish was another common protective strategy.

The report also described a broader set of experiences that respondents themselves characterized as „neutral”, including landlords refusing to rent to Ukrainians, hostile remarks from doctors unrelated to treatment, and double standards applied by academic staff in evaluating Polish and Ukrainian students.

„Insults encountered at bus stops were waved off by interviewees with remarks like 'that’s just how life is’ — rarely expressing outrage or grief. Ukrainians simply suppress negative experiences rooted in nationality”, the authors wrote.

(jh)

Source: PAP

Radio Poland