— It's an incredible prestige for our city, for our community. The highest expression of appreciation for residents who worked hard to aid our neighbours," said president Konrad Fijolek in May 2022. In this way, the self-government commented on the title "City of the Rescuer", which was awarded by the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenski in designation of merit.
The words of acclaim were not spoken for growth. The Reichs and the crowds in the first weeks after the re-launch of the Russian-Ukrainian war proved to be an amazing fortitude and a willingness to help. At that time, 100,000 refugees were present in 200 1000 cities. The 2 permanent inhabitants of Rzeszów were so 1 escapeee from the bombs, whose crowds spontaneously and voluntarily (at the time there was no surcharge system) hosted and maintained.
After nearly 3 years, was there much of that enthusiasm left? With this question in my head, I went to Rzeszów in mid-January.
The city is under construction, but the labour marketplace inactive has “holes”
On the spot, I was amazed to see... construction cranes. Rzeszów is present a “city under construction”. In many streets you can see the construction crews, which, despite the winter, are finishing fresh residential buildings. Rzeszów is the only large city in Poland, which according to statistic in the last 4th of 2024, there was no decrease in interest in purchasing housing. The request for its own “four angles” in the capital of Podkarpacia is inactive huge.
— Unfortunately, this phenomenon has both its advantages and its disadvantages,” says Mateusz Maciejczyk, city councillor, Rzeszow activist and politician of the Polish People's Party. “There is no uncertainty that the boom in the construction company is driving the local economy, giving jobs and taxation revenues to the city. That's cool. Worse, however, that interest in his own flat in Rzeszów is inactive so immense that the prices of the property proceed to rise. Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, this has been a tremendous increase, he adds.
The councilman tells us present on the secondary marketplace for 1 sqm of flats must be paid in Rzeszów on average 10 1000 PLN 500. On the primary marketplace are prices of PLN 12-14 1000 per metre.
— That's a lot, a lot. For a 30-metre flat you gotta pay up to PLN 420 thousand. quite a few people can't afford it. But request conquers people who want to decision to Rzeszów. They are both Ukrainians and, for example, Americans. There's quite a few these in town and around. Our airport in Jasionka podrzeszkowa is the western military equipment database for Ukraine. Both US soldiers and their civilian personnel want to live here. All families, he points out.
Councilman Macian is right. Rzeszów, erstwhile a “national and provincial” became an global city today. All I needed was a 5-minute walk around the city centre (around the Revolutionary Action Monument) to meet 2 young African American women.
Teenagers already spoke Polish well. They explained to me that their families moved to Poland 2 years ago, and they go here to advanced school. “We don’t know how long we’ll stay in this place, but I like it here,” Stacy said. - Snow is cool. I utilized to live in Atlanta. There is never snow,” added Ivone, a second teenager.
More Complaints Than Positive
W Rzeszów besides lives quite a few Ukrainians. They value the closeness of their homeland. Thanks to the A4 motorway they can be in Ukraine after an hr of driving. Mateusz Maciejczyk is incapable to give the exact number of Ukrainians surviving in Rzeszów, but he says that they will surely be a "two-digit" percent of all inhabitants.
— In many cases, these are great, hardworking people. “ Anna, an worker of the company store, however, from Podkarpackie bakery located in the area of Rzeszow railway station. “I have any good Ukrainian friends.
— However, I sense that there is simply a “but” — I effort to dig.
— Right, this is Mrs. Anna. “Someone will most likely blame me for xenophobia, but watching the Ukrainians as a whole, I feel that They liked their position as victims a bit and learned to draw on the generosity of Poles as much as possible.
According to our interviewer, her employer has worked more than 30 Ukrainians and Ukrainians for the last 2 years. Mrs. Anna says they were drivers, bakers, salesmen.
— And they truly seldom worked more than 2 or 3 months. They later left for Warsaw or Germany. They did not hide that they paid better there or (in the case of Germany) there is more social. Rzeszow and the area deficiency hands to work. The Ukrainians, however, have not "saved" the labour marketplace in the region, says Anna and adds that her boy is working in a construction site and her husband is simply a driver of a city bus. Both gentlemen are to have the same opinion about refugees from Ukraine.
— If people were to re-enter the exile wave that was in the city in 2022, I think many wouldn't open their homes for them. “St. Stanislaus, a taxi driver from a halt at the Rzeszow railway station, says. — Ukrainians are not very grateful for their help. There are so many of them in Poland, and they got a lot from private people and the state itself. Meanwhile, in talks with us they inactive brag about what Ukraine is not heroic and that it has always been so, and surely in the era of Bandera. On us, people from Podkarpacie, it acts like a proverbial “blade to the bull”. Many families here utilized to have relatives in Volyn, and they know what happened there. But they proceed to praise these genocidal men.
Tomasz Mateusiak/Onet / OnetBus halt in the center of Rzeszów
"I know you can't generalize, but..."
In Rzeszów alone, I had about 20 conversations. All with average people. I asked everyone if they liked how their city changed in the last 2 or 3 years. possibly I just got in the incorrect place or the Polish love of complaining was revealed, but no 1 told me decisively: “Yes, it is great.”
I think all the interviewers were complaining. To a lesser extent, they did not like how their city had changed. The most commonly given reasons are the same as in the text above.
Increase in housing prices and overall cost of living, deficiency of hands to work, longer queues to doctors (reszow residents are more, and specialists are the same) and, of course, worldview differences.
— I got sick before Christmas. I joined the clinic the day after. There was a line. Poles waited patiently in it. During this time, the Ukrainian came. She struggled that she would enter without a queue, due to the fact that she was... a exile and her ‘belonging’. Unfortunately, this is not the first time I met with Poles' attitude towards us,” says Zofia, a 72-year-old Rzeszow pensioner. “ On the another hand, I have a Ukrainian household in a cage next door. But they've lived here for 10 years. They settled before the war. They're large people. Their teenage boy can even buy me groceries sometimes. I erstwhile saw him make Polish friends laughter at him. He told me he didn't care. So I know you can't generalize.
Jasionka — here are the positives
However, the assessment of the changes that the capital of Podkarpacia has experienced in the last 3 years changes powerfully erstwhile we leave the centre to Jasionka. It is officially a separate town, but in fact just a suburb of Rzeszów. It is in this municipality that there is simply a Podkarpackie airport, whose surroundings form the basis for American soldiers stationed in Poland. quite a few hotels here.
Tomasz Mateusiak / OnetDeparture from Rzeszów towards the S19 expressway “Via Carpatia”
— Since all this global aid has been going to Ukraine through Jasionka, business is truly moving, says the receptionist of 1 of these facilities. “ We have quite a few visitors. mostly from abroad, but not only. Many Polish entrepreneurs besides come here due to the fact that they have any business with soldiers. I mean, I think so, due to the fact that we don't ask for guest details. For the hotel manufacture in the region, the last fewer years are positive. We had a strong impact after the pandemic due to the fact that it is in Rzeszów that this logistics hub for the transport of assistance to Ukraine.
