Strangers at our door: migrant effects on the labour market, security and crime

The demographic situation of European countries essentially forces them to be open to migrants. More than 22 million migrants live in the "old" EU countries , people who already constitute a dozen or so percent of the population. In Poland, this percentage is around 1.7% and therefore is a country with extremely low migration experience but which also has a high demand for foreign labour. However, as studies of Work Service SA show, almost half (48.1%) of Poles are afraid of the influx of immigrants to their country, the main reason being the fear of job losses . Another reason is the fear of crimes committed by foreigners. Therefore, the aim and even the obligation of a host state should be to create, according to the needs and to ensure the efficient operation of integration institutions, so that immigrants are not marginalized, alienated from society, and therefore, as a result, criminal acts threatening security and public order are avoided. It is marginalization that fosters separatism, the radicalization of views, and the building of extreme ideologies. Integration, therefore, is a kind of investment in a "normal", secure future of society, with the proper and effective use of the hands that are so needed by the economy to work and the paid revenues to social security systems. To what extent immigrants are a real threat to state security and to what extent they are myths and populism, the author will try to answer in the article below.