Poland vs. Germany: which is better?

Taking a closer look at the data to ask whether Warsaw's conservative politics or Berlin's more liberal direction is more successful.

Photo by Iwona Castiello d'Antonio on Unsplash

A friend recently sent me an outtake of a speech by an MEP for Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party in which he made the argument that Poland is a much safer, better-functioning country than its western European neighbours thanks to the fact that it doesn't have any illegal immigration.

“The EU state with the lowest unemployment is Poland, the highest GDP after Covid in the EU is Poland, one of lowest debts is Poland’s. So don't give us this rubbish about the need for educated immigration. We don't need your doctors, we don't need your engineers, take them all and pay for them. You know why? Because there are zero terrorist attacks in Poland. You know why? Because there is no illegal immigration in Poland,” said conservative MEP Dominik Tarczyński.

The speech picked up on two dominant themes in the highly emotional debate around migration that has re-emerged in recent weeks. 

The first one is the claim that migration makes countries less saf…