“Vietnamese people are not guests in Poland. We are part of Polish society,” Karol Hoang, spokesman for the Vietnamese Association in Poland, said in an interview with Polish state news agency PAP.
"We are Poles of Vietnamese descent," he added.
In a statement released ahead of anti-migrant demonstrations on Saturday, Hoang said that while the Vietnamese community supports border security and rule of law, it firmly opposes what he called “the language of hatred and prejudice.”
“We observe with growing concern the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment in Poland, stoked by some politicians,” wrote Hoang, who also heads the Foundation for the Support of Vietnamese Integration in Poland.
He added: “Slogans calling to ‘Stop immigration,’ whether legal or illegal, are deeply troubling. They threaten to reduce us to being seen as foreigners again, despite everything we have contributed.”
The Vietnamese community is Poland’s oldest and largest Asian minority, with roots dating back to the late 1950s, the PAP news agency reported.
Most families arrived in larger numbers during the political transition of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when students and researchers from Vietnam stayed on and settled.
Today, a third generation is growing up in Poland.
Hoang warned that public discourse around immigration is shifting in a way that affects even well-integrated communities.
“My own children were born in Poland. They speak Polish, they feel Polish, but they look different. We are already hearing of Vietnamese children being ostracized at school. These are isolated incidents, but they are worrying,” he said.
He added that the past decades were not free of discrimination, and that Vietnamese people in Poland have often faced collective judgment when individuals committed crimes.
“People don’t say, ‘someone did something wrong,’ they say, ‘a Vietnamese person did it.’ We’re more vulnerable to that kind of treatment,” he said in the interview.
The government, Hoang said, had in the past offered legal pathways to residency for people who had arrived under unclear circumstances but were working, contributing to society, and committing no crimes.
These amnesty programs helped regularize the community, and those who benefited from them, he said, are now model citizens raising children with a strong sense of responsibility toward Poland.
He acknowledged that the latest migration crisis, particularly on Poland’s border with Belarus, is challenging, but argued that it should not lead to blanket hostility.
“Of course, the border should be protected against unlawful entry. But calls to stop all immigration, legal and illegal, are unjust and dangerous,” he said.
Poland, he added, has long lacked a clear migration policy that goes beyond border controls.
“There has been no long-term thinking about how to turn immigrants into good citizens or how to make their children feel like they fully belong. That requires programs, investment and a willingness to engage," Hoang told the PAP news agency.
“We have always emphasized integration, even assimilation, but without giving up our identity,” he said. “We want our children and grandchildren to enrich Polish society with values like diligence, respect for elders, and love of learning. We tell them: if you want to be Polish, accept the responsibilities that come with it. Dance the polonaise, but also know how to do the fan dance.”
He argued that real patriotism means building a shared future based on respect, not fear.
“Poland gave our community a chance for a new life. In return, we contribute to its growth. We are not ‘others.’ We are home," he said.
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Source: PAP
Click on the audio player icons above to listen to two separate reports by Ada Janiszewska and Michał Owczarek.