News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]


Schengen is anything but dead. Polish borders with Germany, Lithuania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are completely open without anything other than the usual random controls. Even Austria isn't controlling every border, but only the main transit routes.

More to the point, even the temporarily suspended Schengen borders are conducting mostly visual checks rather than document checks.

Genealogy / Do I look Polish? (my picture) [375]


Not at all. You need bigger muscles, less hair and whiter skin.

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]


In theory.


But that is entirely the strength of the EU. If Russia came into Poland, Germany would react simply because the Polish market is too important to be allowed to fall under Russian influence.


It has worked very well - have you been to Russia recently? They are struggling with the sanctions and Saudi/American games with the price of oil. What hasn't worked is getting rid of Putin, but Russia is definitely feeling the pain. If they weren't, they would've annexed Donetsk by now.


I think it's worth remembering that Poland also has significant influence over many EU countries.

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]


What are you on about? If they were mentally unstable, Poland would be in a far worse situation than now.


The biggest threat to Poland is the Polish people.


She screwed up. It's getting fixed, and Poland did protest loudly.


Hungarians are another lot that would be screwed without the EU. Likewise, the Greeks.

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]

Putin has so much to gain from Poland leaving the EU that it's not even funny.

Rational observers know that the only protection Poland has is from the EU, even if it's not perfect.

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]


Why?

They would no longer be EU citizens and no longer able to benefit from freedom of movement rules. The UK would never agree to give work permits to dish washers and so on - so they would be gone naturally.


Wouldn't make a huge difference if the UK left, because the UK would be almost obliged to contribute to a Norway-style agreement in order to keep favourable access to EU markets. More to the point, if the UK even thought about leaving, the EU would most likely slap on a tax on financial services to offshore destinations - in other words, the City would be in huge trouble.

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]

Wishful thinking, Ironside. They'd probably go straight to the Urzad Pracy as no-one would employ them.

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]

Plenty of chance, especially as the EU wouldn't be able to influence the UK anymore on the matter.

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]

Time to go home, then.

Good luck paying increased taxes to cover the huge cost of resettling 2 million+ unemployed Poles.

Poland leaving the EU would be an economic disaster for Poland, and she knows it. Even Samobroona (who were originally completely against the EU) suddenly changed their mind when the cash came rolling in.

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]


It's as much a feature of Polish life as excellent literature and cinema.

Nothing "superior" about Polish culture at all.

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]


What's so superior about widespread domestic violence and alcoholism?


Needed...where? They won't go back to work for Amazon for 13zl/hour. As for getting a UK passport - easier said than done these days.


Poland couldn't do anything with those people, and you know it. What use is someone without a Matura from Nowy Sącz?

As for bad governance, why did people keep leaving in the 2005-2007 period?


It depends what was built. Those aquaparks are a laughable mess in many cases, but that's just a small fraction of what was funded. A lot of vital infrastructure was partially or heavily EU funded, and you can't deny it.


That's what capitalism does to people. Poles voted for it, so they have to live with it. The gap always gets wider as a country gets richer.


For the kids? I'd like them to spend 3-4 months in Finland to benefit from their wonderful education system.

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]


Yes, it's not perfect - the problem is that each university seems to interpret the requirements for Erasmus students differently. The UK for instance expects them to study exactly the same way as the local students, while Spain has a reputation for providing ridiculously easy English courses that anyone could pass. But I'd argue that it has done wonders for mobility - people see other countries and realise that they can live there. And it's no bad thing to have a lot of educated people mixing and interacting - it might just be one of the things that stops us all killing each other (again) during our lifetimes.

My only issue with Erasmus+ is that there's still no real mechanism for establishing longer-term schoolchild exchanges. You can get funding for short term exchange trips, but my dream is to take kids for 3-4 months to another school somewhere in Europe.

As far as breaking down barriers and building links, I'd say that Erasmus has done a fantastic job, and perhaps that's the real goal, not academia.

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]


They would be entirely at the whim of the government, and would be asked to obtain residence and work permits. They might not be asked to leave, but they could find that work permits would suddenly no longer be granted, which would achieve the same result.


Everything?

A lot of stuff that the EU does is never really mentioned. Erasmus+ for instance really, really opened up Europe.

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]


Given that there's only one party that's somewhat against EU membership (Kukiz), it seems hard to imagine that elections will change anything.

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]


I don't think you understand Poland if you think that open relations with Russia are on anyone's agenda.

Law / Is it illegal in Poland / Schengen zone to transport refugees inside? [22]

Interesting question, Polonius.

What happens depends very much on the origin of the person and the circumstances. If someone turns up claiming asylum from the FSU, it's likely that they will have documents, so they will be processed (with the help of a translator, if needs be) and then allowed to continue into Poland while their claim is assessed. It's unlikely that they would be detained - but they may have to proceed to a certain area where they can be helped further.

If someone turns up from the Middle East/Africa without documents, then the story changes. I'm told that there are several detention centres available for use, where they would be kept while their claim is assessed. They wouldn't be allowed to enter Poland freely without documents, nor would they be trusted to turn up once their claim has been assessed. They would certainly get translators to help, and they seemingly do a thorough check into someone's background first. If they can't speak Arabic and don't know much about life in Syria (where they claim to be from, for instance), then it's likely that their claim would be denied. If they came across the Ukrainian border, then there's a deal with Ukraine to take them back. I'm not sure if the same deal applies with Russia and Belarus.

Claiming stolen/lost documents is very common (there are even signs in UK airports warning you not to do it or else) - but I think they essentially ask you plenty of questions until they're satisfied as to your real origin. Every Syrian could name Assad's father, but I doubt anyone else could.

If someone has documents and they're verified as being genuine, then they may be allowed to proceed onwards to somewhere that can receive them. Generally speaking, it's unknown people that are detained at the border, not known people. If you're caught in-country (say you swam across the Bug, or something) - then Westerners would be issued with a "get out in a week or else" agreement, while Africans (for instance) would probably be detained as they're likely to try and stay regardless.

It's not foolproof, but in general, it works.

Personally, I think anyone caught illegally in Poland should be detained, but I'm rather hardline on this.

Food / Smalec in a Jar - how to make it better? [19]

Polonius, why don't you post more of these recipes in a food thread?

Law / Is it illegal in Poland / Schengen zone to transport refugees inside? [22]

It's not illegal to transport people within the country without checking their documents.
Again, you're American, you don't know how Europe works. No-one is going to arrest or fine you for transporting someone in-country without checking their documents. In fact, no-one is going to fine you for transporting someone across an internal Schengen border as long as you don't attempt to conceal them.

Law / Is it illegal in Poland / Schengen zone to transport refugees inside? [22]

I don't think you understand. Most of them aren't actually illegal because they've got valid papers issued by Greece or Italy.

Do try harder.

Law / Is it illegal in Poland / Schengen zone to transport refugees inside? [22]

No, not if they're already within Schengen. If you smuggle them across the external border, it's a different story.

Law / Is it illegal in Poland / Schengen zone to transport refugees inside? [22]

Generally, no. It might be wise to not transport them across the internal Schengen borders as you might get stopped and checked thoroughly, but there's no specific law against it.

History / Time for Slavic Commonwealth around Poland as center [223]

Indeed. The only sensible place for Poland to be (if Russia is truly that scary) is with an economy that's utterly tied up with France and Germany.

Having said that, given that Russian successes usually involve beating up small and very weak neighbours, I doubt there's much to worry about for Poland.

Travel / Visiting Poland - A bit worried about social attitudes and racist inclinations.. [80]

Which country are you from?

News / Degenerate "rainbow" eyesore to disappear from Saviour Square (Plac Zbawiciela) in Warsaw [297]

Me too!

Could become a top tourist attraction, and would fit entirely in with the whole TKM philosophy.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]


It wouldn't make much sense - they were in the Austrian (since the first partition) territory before the Lemko Republic, so it would be rather odd if they spoke Russian there given the utter lack of continuity with Russian speakers. If you assume that Lemko was the first language, the second would have been Ukrainian (Ruthenian), Polish or (very far-fetched, though) Slovak. Russian wouldn't have been much use at all in the south of the country, so where they would've acquired Russian knowledge is beyond me.


That's possibly a result of religion - the Russian Orthodox lot are rather different to the others.

The only thing I can think of - maybe they understood Church Slavonic? That is often mistaken for being Russian because Russian took so much from it, but it is a separate language. That would explain the claim of speaking Russian, although as far as I know, the two aren't mutually intelligible. If they were Russian Orthodox believers, then they could well have been under the impression that Church Slavonic = Russian.

News / Degenerate "rainbow" eyesore to disappear from Saviour Square (Plac Zbawiciela) in Warsaw [297]

How on earth do you go from a rainbow to brainwashing, propaganda and STDs?

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

They wouldn't have spoken Russian, but rather Lemko and Polish. In those times, it's possible that they wouldn't even have spoken Polish fluently - Lemkos lived in the mountains, so they might well not have used Polish very much.

The pro-Russian Lemko Republic was a very strange place. I've never figured out why they were pro-Russia, but I guess they were looking for protection from Poland and Ukraine.

Law / Karta Polaka - is it possible to obtain by a Polish-American citizen? [15]


I think you need to read what you've posted.

I can't be bothered to provide an exact translation, but essentially, only citizens and "nationals" (a catch-all term used to describe legal aliens in the Baltic states) of the countries listed above may apply for it, in accordance with what Dominic and I have told you. There is no possibility for an American citizen to apply for the Karta Polaka.

What you're confusing is that citizens and nationals of the above states can apply for the Karta Polaka without speaking Polish fluently if they're involved with Polonia organisations. This is usually for those from places such as the Asian Soviet republics where there would have been barely any possibility of keeping the language alive - unlike in the near abroad where a very similar language was spoken.


The Karta Polaka also requires him to speak Polish as a native or mother language, which clearly he doesn't. Even if he was eligible for it, he would fail on the language count.

Poland, wisely, differentiates between the forcibly repatriated Polonia in the East vs those that abandoned Poland. The Karta Polaka exists to try and provide some degree of compensation for what happened - but Americans are in no need of the provisions that the Karta Polaka offers.

Law / Karta Polaka - is it possible to obtain by a Polish-American citizen? [15]

You're not eligible for it. The Karta Polaka is only for those from former Soviet Union states. Furthermore, Polish must be your native language.

What is your motivation for obtaining it?

News / Degenerate "rainbow" eyesore to disappear from Saviour Square (Plac Zbawiciela) in Warsaw [297]


Apparently the people behind it intend to prosecute anyone that attempts to damage it.