Authors

Discussion

In the past decade, Poland has made itself known to foreign observers a country spearheading highly restrictive immigration policy. This drive took off in 2015, which saw a burst of forcible anti-immigration rhetoric, border closure and the outright refusal to accept EU relocation of quotas of refugees. What may be less well known, however, is that in concert with his direction, Poland has also launched an immigration programme for a select group of de-facto foreign nationals. This initiative, known as ‘repatriation’ has not only facilitated, but even strongly encouraged immigration, though only for the select few. This chapter sets its sight on this issue, examining the duality in the Polish migration politics, and the dynamic of migrant exclusion with the simultaneous and equally high inclusionary aspects. While it lays out some of the legislation on the two issues, the main focus of the analysis is on comparing the political and media discourse on migration in large vis-à-vis that on repatriation. This is to show not least how different groups of migrants have been constructed, but also how important the discourse has been in shaping the different groups’ deservingness of accessing Poland.