ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the outcomes of the empirical analyses dedicated to asylum seekers’ and refugees’ experiences with exercising their rights attached to seeking asylum in the Polish context. This chapter focuses on the issue of requesting protection and obtaining or being denied it, as reflected on by asylum seekers and representatives of organisations and institutions involved in forced migration governance. It precedes more specific analyses focused on the economic adaptation of asylum seekers and refugees, their access to education, housing, and healthcare, as well as their aspirations for civic participation. Describing the very access to the asylum procedure and access to protection in the Polish context, we refer to statements shared with us by migrant interviewees and observations from experts involved in implementing asylum policy in Poland. This issue is presented against the more general background encompassing the reasons for forced mobility revealed by persons seeking asylum in Poland (or in the EU) and the phenomenon of onward mobility, frequently associated with the Polish asylum reality.
