Rumor about racism - will I be fine in Poland as a black International student from Africa?

Please guys i need your help so that i can be really be clarified.. is it possible for and international black student from Africa get to study and work part time jobs in Poland in the capital city of Warsaw ??

Studying is certainly possible. Working, on the other hand, is extremely unlikely. Don't count on it. As a matter of fact, it's safest to assume that you will definitely not find work.

No as jobs are very scarce in Poland. Stay in Africa.

Agreed. There are jobs for full-time students, however they're few and far between.

Jobs are not scarce in Poland. That's simply not true. The real unemployment rate (not the one the govt sprout) is far lower than what they want us to believe.

The unemployment rate is skewed. If you removed the % of people like stay at home mothers/fathers, the people working for cash, but registered as unemployed, you would probably see unemployment closer to 7-8%.

If unemployment stands at 4% a country is said to have full employment.


Ignore Nac, he has a track record of consistent racism & flamming on this forum.

Jon & Dom give the best advise on this thread, as a full time student you prob won't find work I'm afraid, especially if you cannot speak the language.

I was wondering if I should study there and let me just say that all the comments I have read on this has not been helpful whatsoever. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Basically, there is little reason for a non-Pole to study in Poland. Polish universities do not rank high on the list of universities on a global scale, and programs in English are generally of poor quality, with few exceptions.

The biggest problem is financing. While Polish universities may appear to be cheap, no financial aid or loans are available, and it is next to impossible for foreign students to find a job to finance their studies. Count on earning nothing at all during your stay in Poland, and on not finding work in Poland after your graduate.

With few exceptions, there are better educational opportunities to be found elsewhere, and probably even in your own country, both academically and financially.

You don't give any information about yourself, so I can't say whether any of this is true in your particular case. But, with few exceptions, it's generally true.

As for racism, there isn't generally a problem with outright racism in Poland. Violent acts are few and far between, even though they do sometimes occur. But I think there is less of a problem with this than in other European countries, mostly because there are few foreigners in Poland. You will have a problem making friends, especially if you do not speak Polish well. Many of the international students I know in Poland are loners, especially those from Africa. Students from Africa appear not to associate with other Africans in Poland, so there is little in the way of an international student community, and nothing in the way of an African non-student community.

Also,most of the international students from Africa that I have met have found the Polish winter difficult to deal with. It can be quite depressing for people from warmer climates that have never experienced it before, especially in that it lasts 24 hours a day for five months. At least two African students I knew quit their studies and returned to Africa because they could not deal with the winter. Of course, this is also true for all the other countries in northern Europe, as well.

Exactly, it's better to study somewhere else.

As Dominic says, the universities aren't the best. What he doesn't say is that choosing s university isn't just about chasing rankings, it's about studying somewhere pleasant, and Polish cities are up a nice place to be.

It's relatively easy to get a place there and you shouldn't worry about safety etc - there are people from all over the world studying there. A word of advice - choose a big city, perhaps Warsaw. Smaller places are less interesting.

Agree, that is, if you have the cash to enjoy what they have to offer. Otherwise, not all that nice.


Warsaw is probably the worst choice because of the high cost of living. And it is nowhere near as charming as Wrocław or Kraków (which are likewise rather expensive). Probably the best city in terms of balancing academics, cost of living, and attractiveness is Poznań.

There are a lot of poor and lonely foreign students in Poznan. Maybe I'm too pro-Warsaw but after all, it's the capital. Kraków I wouldn't recommend, Gdansk probably no. In Warsaw there are more chances.

Poland is relatively cheap, but a miserable place to be if you have no money. In Warsw at least, there's a chance of work.

You're probably right there. Not much of a chance, but at least a non-zero chance.

As for Warsaw, it never grew on me. I used to live in Skierniewice, and actually enjoyed spending time in £ódź more than Warsaw. But that was more than ten years ago, when Galeria £ódzka was still new and Manufaktura hadn't yet been built, so that Piotrkowska was still very much alive.

With Lodz, I like everywhere except the three places you've mentioned :-). but yes, it's got a feel of its own. Some people say they don't like Warsaw, but again, it's a multi-layered city, and for students, the infrastructure is great. A foreign student too, might find it easier to buy foods they like, meet people from their own region, get invites to their embassy etc. plus, it's the most multicultural place in the county so they'd stand out less.

Bits of work too (not usually steady or lucrative) and some foreign students go for casting for adverts, extra work, but parts simply because they look different. Plenty of service industry work for students only - generally round Nowy Swiat and the Old Town, and no problems if the person's black.

Funny you say that. After twelve years in Poland, even I woulds reflexively turn my head if a black person walked by in Wrocław. It's not something you see everyday, even at the universities.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone of color working in a service job except perhaps at a kebab shop or a Vietnamese-run "Chinese" restaurant.

It used to be like that in Warsaw, but not now. Plenty of service industry jobs - not well paid but ok for students and nowadays colour-blind.

Remember Warsaw tends to move faster than the rest of the country and the scale of the change has been dramatic.

I'll have to take your word for it. I haven't spent too much time in Warsaw in the last eight years.

It's changed incredibly fast, even over the past couple of years.

It's almost a completely different city than the one I moved to in the late '90s. Now you see people of different races literally every day.

You see some Asians in Wrocław, especially Koreans, but not many Africans. At least one of the large electronics firms is Korean, and the management seems to be largely, if not entirely, Korean there. A few Indians, and a sprinkling of Pakistanis and Iranians, almost all programmers or systems administrators. Actually, you can scratch that "almost".

Right before I left, I noticed an upturn in the number of Chinese. Again apparently from some plant. Quite a few Vietnamese as well, but these have been living here a very long time and have adapted somehow that they don't stick out.

My understanding of the Vietnamese community (having lived in Little Vietnam for years) is that they work hard at not sticking out, because the majority of them are not exactly legal residents of Poland. That and not sticking out is a good way of not getting a kicking off Polish racists who love to pick on people who are smaller than them.

Please back to the topic about students from Africa in Poland

African students who come to Poland take their own Polish food produced in their native country.
Here, Krakow sausage made in Zambia.
PS. Of course, it isn`t even a copy of the true Krakow sausage but sth completely different, probably Berliner Parówa.

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What a pathetic response to a very old post!

Poland is now getting a fair bit of immigration too....... it will be interesting to see how you cope with it...... as a UK citizen, I can tell you now, it will not be as easy as you may think........

It's very noticeable in Warsaw.

Poland will pay dearly for its open borders.
Countries can survive two nukes and an unconditional surrender but not millions of smelly migrants and LGBT perverts. That is why Japan is still Japan, not Japanistan.

Whites are morons.

It was your fave rightist rulers from PiS who opened the borders wide for foreign workers.


Yes, you have no idea whatsoever, it is visible. :):):)


You are old like me, so what`s your problem???? :):):)

You need an update. The number of foreigners in Japan already exceeds 3 million. and native Japanese are dying out (deaths/births minus 800,000) every year and have been for many years.

Why would Japan invite 3 million foreigners?

Maybe so they can learn how to make sushi? 🍱

Of course it's something completely different! Read the ingredients! Now it's kosher not Polish! :)

The label says 'halal' (muslim equivalent of kosher though the rules are a bit different).