Pauvre Pologne !

Un tiers de la population polonaise vit avec moins de 25 dollars par semaine, une situation potentiellement explosive en partie masquée par l’apathie de la société, écrit Wojciech Kosc dans Transitions Online.

Poland is experiencing “the best times in 300 years.” That at least is the view of Prime Minister Marek Belka, expressed as he reviewed Poland’s first 12 months as a member of the European Union. 

Judging by official figures, Poland’s economy is certainly doing well. Its GDP increased by 5.4 percent in 2004, and both foreign direct investment and household consumption climbed by 5.3 percent. Poland’s new shopping malls are crowded every weekend, proving Poles are out taking good advantage of the economic upturn. But far from all of them. 

In early May, the Federation of Polish Food Banks, an organization whose aim is to reduce malnutrition and prevent wasting of food by handing the food to the poor and needy, highlighted other statistics that ruling politicians are far less likely to mention in public, figures that may sound shocking, particularly when contrasted with the celebration of good times prompted by first anniversary of EU accession. 

Five million Poles officially live in extreme poverty, government statistics say. This poverty is, by West European standards, truly extreme, with just 2 euros ($2.50) a day for all expenses, including food, clothing and rent. Another 7.7 million people are near the poverty line, with just 2.50 euros a day. Incredible as it may sound, this makes a total of more than 12 million people, 33 percent of a society that appears modern and increasingly affluent to the outside world.

The official poverty line for a family of four is 295 euros a month.

Poverty goes hand in hand with living in small towns and rural areas. This also partially explains the fact how millions of people get by such pitiful sums. They often live in their own houses – no matter how run-down they are – and have got their own land patches where they grow vegetables. 

In big cities, the situation is different – you cannot get by with what you grow, but on the other hand there are more possibilities to earn extra money. The unemployed may get one-time jobs on the black market, for example at construction sites where they get some EUR 1.25 an hour. They collect and sell recyclable materials, such as cans or scrap metal. In Silesia, the coal mining hub, Polish State Railways are plagued by people who steal coal from trains so as to sell it or use it for heating in the winter.

Cities also offer a better system of support: places to eat, obtain free clothing, etc. As long as you have a place to sleep, “it’s virtually impossible not to get by one way or another,” said Marzena Zaleska, an employee of local welfare office in the city of Bialystok, north-eastern Poland.

Bialystok is capital city of one of the poorest regions in Poland. For poverty, though very widespread, also has a distinctly regional character. The poor live predominantly in the north and the east. Six Polish voivodships are on the list of EU’s ten poorest regions; all are in the north and east of the country. 

The unemployment rate in Poland is 19.3 percent (data for March 2005), but northern region of Olsztyn is nearing 30 percent, the worst rate in the country. The administrative unit, or powiat, of Bartoszyce, 120 kilometres north of Olsztyn, has the unemployment rate of nearly 40 per cent.

In such areas, a job is a luxury. With demand high and jobs in short supply, pay can be very low. A supermarket cashier, for example, takes home around $180 a month. Even so, offers of jobs like this attract plenty of candidates. 

Sociologist Jacek Wodz says such jobs are mainly taken by young people who are already aware of the need of raising their qualifications and education and who treat menial jobs as temporary.

“The real problem are 30- and 40-year olds who are jobless and poor now and will remain so for another 20 or 30 years,” Wodz argues. “So will their children who will have seen nothing but their parents’ failure.”

To read the full article, visit the Transitions Online website.