Is the Resentment Against Refugees Growing in Poland?

Underfinanced and overburdened Polish social services created a very welcome opportunity for the extreme right to capitalise on the inflow of Ukrainian refugees. Will they manage to sway Polish public opinion?

When Kirill, a 17-year old refugee from Ukraine, had his birthday, Klaudia from Ząbkowice Śląskie — a small town in southern Poland, where he was staying as a guest of her family — wanted to give him a present. The boy needed a new smartphone: the one he was using was 6 years old and had a broken screen.

So Klaudia wrote a post on a local Facebook group asking people to chip in. The cheapest new phone she found was about 100 euros. 

Then the outrage started. The discussion has — at the time of writing — almost 380 comments. A lot of them are full of hatred and spite. ‘There are also poor children in Poland and they don’t have many things…’ — wrote one woman which garnered 190 likes. ‘It starts from the phones, and soon we will pay for their houses’ — added another man. ‘THIS IS TOO MUCH, HOW YOU DARE TO ASK FOR MONEY TO BUY A NEW PHONE. (…) WE NEED TO START HELPING POLES, OUR PEOPLE. THERE ARE MANY OLDER PEOPLE IN NEED AND SICK CHILDREN’ — wrote another woman  (117 likes, all caps).