When the Left Embraces Racist Politics

 On October 17, 2024, the „Left” (Lewica in Polish) made an astounding announcement. Minister of Education from „the Left”, Dariusz Wieczorak, together two other prominent members of „the Left” - Minister on Equality (!) Katarzyna Kotula and Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk held a press conference in the Parliament where they proudly announced that they would like to introduce a rule that Polish institutions of higher education would not be able to have more than 50% foreign students.

This is just the latest in the racist campaigns run by the ruling Civic Platform and its coalition partners. Right-wing Prime Minister Donald Tush, grossly misrepresented by many European journalists as „liberal”, ran his election campaign using some of the most agressive racist rhetoric, at times surpassing the racists of the more conservative Law and Justice Party.

On October 12, Tusk announced that he would like to suspend asylum rights in Poland. Although he later spun this to claim this was mostly about Belarussian and Russian asylum seekers, it is clear that these moves are pander politically to generally racist sentiments against immigrants and asylum seekers.

Not to be outdone by the Prime Minister, prominent members of the „Left” [sic] announced their intentions to impose quotas for foreign students.This reminds us very clearly of the Numerus Clausus when Poland imposed limits on the number of Jews who could study at universities. What a disgusting idea from the so-called left, who never cease to embrace right-wing ideology.

This press conference in fact was mostly to send signals to the xenophobes in the population that the Left also will be „tough” on foreigners, the eternal scapegoat for racists around the world. However, a little exploration of the facts will also show how incredibly stupid our „left” Ministers really are.

In the 2023/2024 academic year, we saw an increase in the number of foreign students in Polish universities. The very largest group of people who are responsible for the increase are in fact Ukrainians and the reasons why should be clear for everybody. According to reports of the Polish government, there were 1,245,000 students in Poland and 107 thousand of them were foreigners. This is 8.5 procent of the student population.

If we look at the most recent report published by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in 2022, they publish an interesting graphic made by the OECD based on statistics from 2020.

This graphic represents the percentage of foreign students in various countries.In 2020, Poland was near the bottom of the charts, with only 4.5 percent of foreign students.

Clearly, this means that there has been a dramatic increase in foreign students since 2020 but why should this be a problem?

The answer is that it clearly is not a problem. Almost all foreign students pay for their education, with only some small percent given scholarships by their government. (For example, the government of Saudi Arabia sends women abroad to medical school.) Higher education is mostly a capitalist enterprise in Poland. The goals of Polish higher education since the transformation have been more and more to aim for self-financing. Foreign students play an important role in generating income for Polish institutions of higher education.

I have worked in three universities in Warsaw. When speaking to foreign students who come to Poland, many cite the lower cost of studying here as a reason they chose this country, as compared to places like Germany, Great Britain, etc. Polish universities have been proud of the fact that they can offer degree programs in English as well as Polish in order to attract more foreign students. These foreign students also include many Erasmus students.

The press conference of the Minister is pure populism, trying to score points with xenophobes because, with only 8.5 percent of the student population being foreign, there are practically no universities that have a majority of foreign students. As it turns out, I work in one of the very rare universities with more than 50% foreign students. (The last figures were 56.5% of foreigners.) My university is one of the only ones that could be affected by this idea. However, this year, the Polish embassies abroad started to limit the amount of visas issued to foreign students. Many students from Ukraine are affected by this and I have spoken to them online while they wait in limbo for their visas.

I work in two departments, including one that mostly has foreign students. This year, the intake of students is less than half than in 2023-2024. Nine colleagues lost their jobs completely and the rest of us had dramatic cuts in our hours. Most of us will struggle to make minimum wage because of the cuts resulting in the policies of the government and we are forced to look for other work.

From an economic standpoint, we wonder how this benefits anybody. We also wonder how blocking the entrance of foreign students to this country increases the number of Polish students? It only can increase the percentage of Polish students and this is only a concern for racists and xenophobes. The number of Polish students in Polish universities will be decreasing in the future, as studies show that fewer high school students are interested in going to university now.

I should say a few words about my students. The great majority of them come from places which have been either devasted by war, suffer from oppressive governments or have problems making it difficult to study. I have taught thousands of students from places like Ukraine but from regimes such as Belarus or Turkey, from places like Yemen, Mali and Congo … the list goes on. Some students also come from the European Union (Spain, Greece, Germany) and from places like Brazil, Haiti or China. They come from all over. For some, studying in their countries is not possible or life there is very precarious. For others, they just want to experience a different culture, a study abroad experience and Poland was an option that was affordable and with a large number of programs in English.

Following this topic, we can see how the Polish educational business has been trying for many years to attract more foreign students. This is a good form of revenue for them and also can increase the prestige of some private universities. From this point of view, we can say that the increase of foreign students has been a success, albeit often due to the real tragedies faced in some countries.

The „Left” completely ignores the real problems in higher education. The fact is that since its commercialization, more and more Polish students have to pay for their education and the costs are rising. Many students have to work hard during their studies. The price of housing in many cities is not affordable and in some places like Warsaw, student housing is more expensive than regular housing. Then, after obtaining a degree, the graduate is not guaranteed a good job. Investing in higher education seems for many young working-class people to be more and more of a burden.

It would seem that a „leftist” agenda should concentrate on making education more accessible to working class families and closing the education gap between wealthier primary and secondary school students from larger cities and the rest of Poland's youth. This very real gap actually means that young people with educational privelege have more chances to enter good universities and be eligible for tuition-free programs.

Instead of this, the „Left” [sic] addresses a „problem” that is not a problem at all as it concerns perhaps a handul of universities in the whole country. The press conference thus had one main purpose: to show that „the Left” is willing to scapegoat foreigners just as much as the right wing.

This is obviously disgusting. For many years, „the Left” was marginalized in elections due to the fact that most leftists cannot stand it. With the excesses of the former conservative government, this formation gained some support but it is showing its electorate that it is back to trying to prove its place in the center right. This „Left” needs to be shown that its correct place is in the dustbin of history.