The Willingness to Employ Immigrants in Polish Organizations

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p><jats:bold>Objective:</jats:bold> For a long time Poland has been perceived as a rather homogenous society. However, cultural diversity and differences started to become visible after 1989 and have gained on importance since then. Combined with an increasing shortage of native workforce, the question of immigrants’ employment by Polish organisations becomes a burning issue. We have therefore decided to determine whether the fact of employing immigrants or the intention to do so in the foreseeable future affects the perception of foreign workers and the necessity of hiring them</jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Methodology:</jats:bold> For this purpose, we conducted a survey among 263 entrepreneurs from the Opolskie Voivodship.</jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Findings:</jats:bold> The study has demonstrated a very strong, statistically-relevant correlation between the willingness to employ immigrants and the attitude towards an employee’s country of origin. Also correlations between other analysed variables have been found statistically relevant</jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Value Added:</jats:bold> The paper is an introduction to a debate on the role of immigrants on the Polish labour-market as it presents the point-of view of employers and their willingness to employ immigrants.</jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Recommendations:</jats:bold> It is recommended for decision-makers to facilitate access of a wider group of immigrants to the Polish labour market, especially since a significant group of employees recognises the upcoming issue of workforce shortages and the necessity to reach for foreign employees in order to stay competitive.</jats:p>

Experience in Employing Immigrants and the Perception of Benefits of a Diverse Workforce

“…The literature lacks a comparative analysis of organisations having experience in employing immigrant workforce and organisations which do not have such an experience. The research conducted (so far) shows that the willingness to employ immigrants is linked to their attitude towards the immigrants' country of origin (Maj et al, 2020) and that employers' perception of immigrants may be influenced by their experience in employing immigrants or their lack of it (Kubiciel-Lodzińska and Maj, 2017). Due to the presented research gap, the necessity to conduct the presented research in order to fill the gap has been assessed as relevant.…”