Kenan Hasanov* makes just under $5 dollars an hour (18 Polish zloty) an hour sorting mail in Krakow, Poland. Even though the salary is less than Polish minimum wage, 30-year-old Kenan says it is better than what he used to earn as a laborer in Azerbaijan.

“I left the country to work in Russia... A few years later, I went to Turkey and started to work in a textile factory. I have wanted to come to Poland for years,” he says. 

Kenan is just one of an estimated 13,728 Azerbaijani citizens working legally in Poland today.

Poland has the highest number of Azerbaijani labor migrants among EU destinations, according to data from Eurostat, the official statistics body for the European Union.  The Demographic Yearbook of Poland 2022 notes the number of Azerbaijanis issued work permits has increased from 1336 people in 2017 to  3782 in 2021. These figures do not reflect the number of Azerbaijani citizens working in Poland illegally.

The shift to Poland reflects a larger trend in the region as residents of post-Soviet countries move away from traditional labor markets in Russia and Turkey. Most of the Azerbaijanis who go to Poland for work lack college degrees and are attracted to Poland’s manufacturing and agriculture sectors, notes economist Farid Mehralizade.

“In Poland, there is a need for a lot of personnel in industry and agriculture. The government tries to provide a labor force through migration. Therefore, they are currently interested in attracting migrants for jobs that do not require a university degree,” he says.

The demand is partially driven by gaps in the labor market created by Polish citizens migrating to Western Europe for better-paid jobs. To address labor shortages, the Polish government has been continuously simplifying work visa requirements for non-EU nationals.

Yagub Yusifov, 29, decided to try working in Poland after he realized he could not support his family in Azerbaijan despite working 12–14-hour days as a waiter. Yagub was able to easily get a work visa but struggled to find a decent-paying job, in part due to the pandemic. 

“The factory where I intended to work stopped operating due to the pandemic, so I started to work in a rotisserie with a Turkish guy. I worked there for about one month. The working conditions were very difficult. I began to work at 12 a.m. and finished it at 11 p.m. I had just one day off,” he recalls, saying the conditions were the same as his old job in Azerbaijan so he quit.  “After that, through an Azerbaijani acquaintance, I found a job in the door-window manufacturing factory where I am currently working.”

Yagub’s salary was roughly 10 zloty per hour ($2.39 an hour) in the beginning, which is far below the minimum wage in Poland. But after about ten months, he was promoted to assistant foreman, and now earns 28-29 zloty per hour.

Chairman of the Public Council under the State Migration Service Azer Allahverenov says that labor migrants of Azerbaijan struggle to find good jobs with fair salaries and decent conditions in part because of a lack of support from the Azerbaijani government.

“The current Migration Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan mostly covers issues related to foreigners, such as work permits in Azerbaijan, maintaining their register, and applying labor quotas,” he says.

“Regulations concerning the protection of the rights of Azerbaijani migrants in foreign countries are also reflected in the Code. Here, we mean the protection of rights, their integration into the society of the country where they have gone, providing support in paperwork, etc. But in general, if any citizen of Azerbaijan wants to work in a foreign country, the state offers limited support.”

Alovsat Aliyev, a migration specialist, says Azerbaijan’s inadequate policy is to blame for emigrants facing difficulties in foreign countries. “Azerbaijani labor migrants are not protected by state organizations. The visible picture is that the government is not interested in this issue. Therefore, over time, we witness that Azerbaijani migrants work for less pay, which is a violation of their rights,” he says.  

Kenan Hasanov is a good example: he has been working abroad since 2015. “I have been traveling country-by-country due to work. At first, I worked in Russia and Turkey, and then I came here, Poland,” he says. 

"In 2018, when I planned to come here for the first time, I prepared all my documents and applied to the embassy for a work permit. At that time, I had received a job offer from Poland. However, at that time the embassy rejected my application for the reason that the job invitation sent to me was insufficient.” 

He eventually received his work permit and moved to Poland but to date, he is earning a fraction of the minimum of 22.80 zloty an hour. 

Migration specialist Alovsat Aliyev argues that several steps need to be taken to protect workers like Kenan—and decrease the number of Azerbaijanis working illegally abroad. 

“Special migration programs should be adopted,” he says. “The government should identify the countries and jobs where workers are needed in Europe and elsewhere. Then agreements should be signed with those countries and measures should be taken to send Azerbaijani labor migrants to fill those vacancies.”

For now, workers like Jabbar Aliyev, 35, are willing to take their chances if it means earning more money for their families back home. 

Jabbar is working ten-hour days for 22 zloty an hour, which is slightly less than the legal minimum wage but more than he could earn in Azerbaijan, he notes.

“When I came to Poland, I had to leave my family in Azerbaijan,” Jabbar says. “I send 20 percent of my monthly salary to my family, which is nearly 600 manats (nearly $353)…Poland is a better choice in terms of better providing for my family because of my higher salary compared with Azerbaijan, but I have to live far from them, which becomes more and more difficult as time passes.”

 * Respondent's name has been changed to protect their identities and visa status.

This feature story was prepared with support from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) South Caucasus Regional Office. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of FES.