By AFP and Kontur | 2025-10-07

Warsaw's central business district is booming alongside Poland's economy, but those teaching yoga and taking coffee orders in bustling premises under the glass and steel office towers are often Ukrainian.

Economists and entrepreneurs agree that refugees from the Russian invasion of Ukraine have proven a huge boost to Poland's economy -- but their contribution was recently at risk.

A law governing Ukrainians' protected status was set to expire at the end of September, and President Karol Nawrocki initially refused to sign off on a bill to renew it, threatening a million people with legal limbo.

Economic success story

At the ElFlex yoga and fitness center, the young women stretching and balancing in complicated poses under the colored lights maintained their poise, but concern rippled through the community.

Gym owner Lisa Kolesnikova, 28, grew up in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, but she built her business in Poland. She now owns two yoga studios and has franchised two more. Two years ago most of the customers and all of her staff were from Ukraine or Belarus. Now, that's changing.

"Polish clients come to us, and the girls now conduct training in Polish. They like us and, in fact, I have never encountered any negativity," she told AFP.

For Kolesnikova, who employs eight people, the idea that Poland might call into question the residency rights of hundreds of thousands of hard-working Ukrainians was absurd -- but not for nationalist politicians like Nawrocki.

In March 2022, in the immediate aftermath of Russia's full-scale invasion, Poland's parliament passed a law granting protected status to Ukrainians. It has since been amended and extended. Last month the newly-elected nationalist president refused to approve the latest version, demanding it be changed to prevent unemployed Ukrainians from receiving Poland's 800-zloty (€190) per child monthly benefit.

A new draft was prepared, and on September 26 Nawrocki's office confirmed that he had signed it. The new law extends temporary protection to Ukrainian refugees but limits some support.

Real concern

Poland has welcomed more than one million Ukrainian refugees since 2022, most of them women and children. Warsaw is a staunch ally of Kyiv and is also the main transit country for Western arms and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

The government said the changes in the new text will "eliminate abuses related to the payment of family benefits," particularly for Ukrainian nationals not living in Poland, and address "the question of residence of Ukrainian war refugees in Poland."

Still, uncertainty has left its mark.

"As someone who understands how much the Ukrainian community spends investing in the Polish market, these are very illogical steps being taken. It is simply something political, populist," said entrepreneur Oleg Yarovi, a 37-year-old Ukrainian who owns a chain of coffee shops.

"The Ukrainians who came here invested millions in Poland. We are currently selling one of our premises and every day if I take seven calls from people who are interested, six are Ukrainians."

In June, consultants Deloitte estimated in a report to the UN refugee agency that the work of Ukrainian refugees accounts for 2.7 percent of Poland's GDP. Ukrainians are more likely to be employed than Poles, and native workers are moving into higher-paid roles. Unemployment in July was just 3.1 percent, the fourth lowest in the European Union.

"They integrated into the labour market in Poland very quickly. They managed, found work," said Nadia Winiarska, an employment expert from the Lewiatan Confederation business association. "It is not true that Ukrainian citizens in Poland primarily rely on welfare."

But anti-refugee politicians insist they are voicing ordinary Polish concerns.

"I don't agree that they are well integrated," said lawmaker Michal Wawer of the right-wing Confederation party. "There is a problem of building entire companies, an entire society that does not require its citizens to use Polish language or to accept Polish cultural norms."

Some business leaders accuse Russia's online propaganda networks of boosting anti-refugee sentiment.

"I hope the Polish people won't buy it," said Andrzej Korkus, CEO of the EWL Group, a major employment agency.