What's next with the Poles in the United States? “Maybe this will sound bad, what I say”

• Today, with a candle to look for children born in Poland in the United States, the number of students from mixed families in which only 1 parent speaks Polish is growing.
• “I have lived in Chicago for over 20 years and witnessed a large transformation of our community. The erstwhile Polish districts are depopulating due to the fact that Polonia becomes wealthy and takes to the rich suburbs. Polish delicacies and bookstores close, says Beata Milkowski, owner of schools for driving in Chicago," writes the author of the text
• Experts, including the political scientist Dominik Stecula working at Ohio State University, the author of the latest image of Polonia in the US presented in the book "Polish Americans Today", estimation that Poles surviving in the US "illegal" are now little than 50 thousand.
• More crucial information can be found on the Onetu homepage

Correspondence from the USA

The Polish government with fanfare is preparing to receive masses of Poles who live in America illegally and – threatened with deportation – will escape from it. I am looking at this with amusement, due to the fact that in these declarations I see first and foremost another proof that Poland does not know what modern American Polonia is and how it truly lives in America. If Poles return to their homeland, they will do so for another reasons than fear of expulsion.

Over the last year, 3 acquainted families left the United States, where the Polish language sounded all day. All with long regulated immigration position and in a very good material situation – naturalized citizens with American-born offspring. 1 marriage, the parents of an adult daughter, returned to Poland to take care of aging parents. The another 2 families targeted Belgium and Germany with the hope of better, and in peculiar cheaper educational prospects for their inactive underage children and more conducive socio-cultural conditions for their upbringing. They all moved out of the United States many months before Donald Trump came back to power.

We know we don't know

The proposal to compose an article on illegal Polish immigrants, who will shortly start returning to their homes, accepted as a challenge. For a very long time I have not had anyone among Poles who would be in the United States illegally. The reason is most likely my place of residence – distant from the alleged historical aggregates of Polish-speaking Polish people in the US, the East Coast and Chicago.

My consciousness is shaped by broad contacts with Polish communities in many parts of America, including communities focused around Polish schools, which are undoubtedly the most vivid and current reflection of Polish life and a good field for research.

What do they show? First of all, how the emigration of Poles to the US has decreased dramatically since the beginning of the century. Today with a candle looking for children born in Poland, The number of students from mixed families in which only 1 parent speaks Polish is increasing.. At the same time, the wealth of Polish parents increases. How many children travel not only to Poland but besides to the world, but besides to reflect on the fact that the number of parents "without papers" has fallen equally dramatically in Polish circles.

How small investigation we have would show American Polonia in its full modern dimension, and the reasons for this state of affairs I have written many times. What we know is mostly the consequence of the work of the American government, which conducts a general census all 10 years. The last one, from 2020, showed that Polonia, or Polish Americans, is simply a nine-million-dollar group, but Polish-speaking people are only somewhat over 400 thousand.

Maciej Zieliński / PAP

We besides completely decision in terms of the number of those on which the Polish Ministry of abroad Affairs is prepared. due to the fact that the national press, infected with emotions increasing around the subject of American deportations, has already spoken rather extensively – we know estimates. possibly it'll be 15,000 or possibly 100,000 people! It is hard to believe that, with the current technological and communication capabilities, examining what data we are truly talking about is more than an issue of organisation, funds and will. But, well, with the Sarmatian tug as always, we like to analyse alternatively than trust on facts.

The opinions on what it is and how the American Polonia lives are thus shaped by our brother-in-law from fresh Jersey and the content of Polish social platforms mastered by Trump supporters. The subject of "hunting" illegal compatriots is loud. The best proof that Poles at hazard of deportation is simply a lot, isn't it? Let's see what reality looks like.

Where are those illegals?

People are scared. It will be very hard for you to find individual to talk to – I was warned by friends from the East Coast and from Chicago, to whom I asked for aid in contacting people surviving “without papers”. Most of them immediately admitted that they knew no specified person, so it would take time to ask around. Cleaning companies? Buildable? – I myself suggested ideas, based on stereotypes concerning the profession of illegal immigrants, not only from Poland, but besides from another parts of the world.

– The Mexicans have been coming to us for a long time to clean this up," explained Beata Milkowski, owner of driving schools in Chicago. – present Polish companies in specified companies are employers. Like Poles in construction companies. I've been surviving in Chicago for over 20 years, and I've witnessed the large transformation of our community. The erstwhile Polish districts are depopulating due to the fact that Polonia becomes wealthy and takes to the rich suburbs. Polish delicatesses and bookstores close. The symposmatic is the disappearance of Polish taxation advisory companies and insurers, for whom the service of Polish clients "without paper" was an crucial part of the business. Those who can compete on the marketplace with American companies survived – says Milkowski. He adds: – Poles from my surroundings who were expected to leave America due to the fact that they did not live here did so a long time ago.

There's fear, but it'll most likely pass.

From a journalistic point of view, however, I was fortunate. At first 1 of the mothers from the Polish school in fresh York spoke to me, asking on behalf of a friend if I had any clear information about granting citizenship to children. erstwhile I asked for an explanation of precisely the situation of a friend, I heard: "She and her husband have no permanent residence, but they live normally, they account for taxes, they bought a home last year. And no beef with the law is simply a normal, loving and respectful family. They made a life here. Now they're waiting for the baby to be born. But it is heard that Trump is to change the law and that illegal children will no longer be granted citizenship. Can he even do it? Isn't that constitutional law? She asked.

Two days later, I managed to get a direct message from Polka, besides “without papers”, surviving in the area of fresh York.

– We're not taking any drastic steps right now, but there's a thought in the back of the head that individual might come in, ask something, and it'll come out. If it's truly bad, we'll most likely go back to Poland. We're watching what's happening. There are expected to be mass deportations, but they say only criminals. What's it truly like? No 1 knows. This may sound bad, but I don't think Poles are the first target. And in general, people like us who are laying low should not be the first to shoot," he adds.

When I ask for an explanation of what “such as us” means, I hear: “My husband and I came here 20 years ago, my husband had the promised green card for work. Years passed and nothing happened, and then we got so hung up that there was no reason to return to Poland. Especially erstwhile we had a baby. Contrary to appearances, life can be very average here, even if it is illegal. And pay taxes. But evidently that's not the point. We've tried to get papers in different ways, but it's very difficult. And I think the most annoying thing is why people who want to live and work honestly have their feet thrown. possibly Trump should take care of that, not scare the deportations and repeat that America is the best in the world. I don't think she is, if that's what it looks like," she says.

PAP/EP/WILL OLIVER

Donald Trump

A broken law that can be set

These stories confirmed what I had heard for a long time. A crucial percent of Poles surviving in America present illegally are the parents of children born here – American citizens who acquired citizenship under the alleged land law enshrined in the Constitution. So they are people who break the law, but they do it due to the fact that the same law opens up the anticipation of legalising their status, telling them to wait a small longer. That's why they're waiting.

– Under the law, a kid who is an American citizen can sponsor parents at the age of 21," explains Ewa Brożek, an immigration lawyer from Kurczaba & Brozek Law Offices, Chicago. – Unfortunately, In addition to matrimony to an American citizen, this is at the minute the only way to legalize your stay. For the last time, illegal immigrants in the US were given the chance to regulate their position under a peculiar law in 2001.

But the decision to "wait" – since American government at the same time allows a individual to live a average life, to pay taxes, to usage banking and mortgage services, to run his own business, and in many states besides to have a driving licence – makes sense for 1 more reason.

– Having a kid who is simply a citizen can aid if the parent gets into the hands of the service and has a designated deportation hearing. As long as he proves to the court that he has been in America for more than 10 years, he was not punished at the time, paid taxes and is simply a moral man, the court may let him to proceed his stay through the alleged cancellation of removal. specified a conviction is not a way to open the way to getting a green card, but it protects from deportation and allows you to easy wait for those yearned 21st birthday of the child," says Brozek.

When we come down on Donald Trump's celebrated executive order cancelling the law of the land today, emotions appear in the voice of the expert. The document, as we know, was immediately challenged as unconstitutional, and there is no uncertainty that the court will besides give an opinion. However, the legal community is profoundly outraged and shocked by the fact that Trump's lawyers have prepared something like this for him. It is said that they may be held liable for this and even lose their professional license. It's a board. The Brown presently has for all illegal immigrants, the word is: don't panic and don't be afraid to come for legal advice.

The lawyer knows that specified a step can truly change everything due to the fact that she herself had an unregulated position for a while and wondered how to legalize her stay. “A lot of people don’t know that if they utilized to go to school here and had a student visa, it’s valid unless we get an authoritative notification that she was withdrawn, it doesn’t expire. This in turn means that even if education was completed decades ago, it is possible to apply for sponsorship by the workplace – he explains.

Although on a regular basis Poles represent only half of the clients of Kurczaba & Brozek, since deportations began, they call most often. Are they considering going back to Poland?

– No, definitely not – immediately responds the counselor. – They're looking for a way to avoid that return.

Who's coming to the deportation gift?

ICE data (Immigration and Customs Forcement) shows that the deportation order presently has just over 2.3 1000 Poles. Experts, including Dominik Stecul's political scientist working at Ohio State University, author of the latest image of Polonia in the US presented in the book "Polish Americans Today", estimation that Poles surviving in the U.S. “illegal” are now little than 50 thousand.

Personal contacts with Poles without regulated position prompt Stecula, as well as me, to reflect that most of specified people would most likely besides sign the words of my earlier interlocutors, those who have lived in the US for over 20 years and will be able to legalize their stay thanks to their son/daughter any day. Their conclusions were as follows: – It is not known what will happen, but on the another hand we have already been through all this. There's a scare, but nobody truly cares about getting free of illegals. America doesn't be without the illegal doing the worst jobs for half-free. Everybody knows Trump rented 1 himself to build Trump Tower.

In a minute, this will all calm down and go back to normal.

What is the importance of this for Polish aid plans for mediocre people deported from the US? First of all, specified that estimates of Polish consulates, on the basis of which Deputy Minister Mościcka-Dendys received information that 30 1000 Poles could be expelled from the USA, should be inserted among fairy tales. Especially since only 2 weeks after the start of the deportation plan, we have reports that any of the detainees are being released, due to the fact that the ICE, which was besides discussed from the beginning, there is no means or local capacity to complete deportation procedures according to regulations.

If the Guantanamo prison, which can accommodate up to 30,000 people, is opened, the worst criminals will be placed there, as indicated by the White House. And even if all Poles from the ICE list were among them, there is simply a different question. Should Poland make a red carpet in front of them? To finance a fresh life start on the Vistula with the Polish taxpayer's money? I'll leave it to reflection.

Polonia may return, but of her own free will

At the minute erstwhile I compose this text, i.e. at the turn of January and February, it is improbable that the mass return of the American Polonia – even this section of it, which lives in the US “without papers”. However, this does not mean that specified a script cannot happen.

From the first days of his re-presidential presidency, Donald Trump seems to be doing everything to shake the order of the planet and take distant the American sense of stability, predictability. Where there was to be an economical miracle, we have so far raises and announcements to prepare for a “strip tighten”. Where there was to be a return to “truth and regulation of law”, we have many acts of violation of the Constitution and governments drawn from the hat of the 4th oligarch power, with full acceptance of the conservative part of the political scene and society. The plans for the close future include the dismantling of public education and major cuts in basic social safety systems, which are inactive scarce and inadequate in America.

Americans of Polish origin, not only migrants from Poland, but all who, through contacts with the birthplace of ancestors, know what life is like today, in Poland and Europe, They may come to the conclusion that America has stopped gathering their expectations. After the presidential election, the number of U.S. residents curious in obtaining a second passport increased by 400 percent compared to the last week before the election. On an yearly basis we talk about an increase in interest of 30% (Henley & Partners, 4-10 November 2024).

Weekly Review

However, as reported in the latest study by Harvey Law Group (HLG), the online search of emigration news from the US increased by over 1500 percent after the election (HLG, Top Reasons Why More Americans Are Leaving the US in 2025, 23 January 2025). This does not surprise me, due to the fact that the subject of possible moving out of the USA for respective weeks has besides sounded powerfully in the ellipse of my closest Polish and European friends. I would add that Europeans and their descendants have been remigrating to the Old Continent for any time now. They are guided by household considerations, but increasingly besides social and educational aspects, as with my friends mentioned at the beginning of the text.

There is reason to believe that the combination of Trump's immigration policy and the shrinking competitiveness of America in terms of the comfort of everyday life of the average man can indeed reverse the centuries-old inflow of human masses. A Chinese curse is famous: may you live in interesting times – America became so interesting in times that at least half of its inhabitants were terrible.