While millions of Poles have long travelled west to find better work, the same has been true of many Ukrainians. They have seen Poland as a land of opportunity, especially now their own country has been hit by the economic crisis.

In the 1990s many Ukrainians went to work in Poland because visas were not needed, the fast-growing Polish economy needed workers and Ukraine could not provide enough well-paying jobs. The flow of migrants dried up a couple of years ago, when Poland joined the EU and then the Schengen visa-free zone, which made it more difficult for Ukrainians to enter at a time when their own economy was finally beginning to grow.