But just for clarity, this is completely legal, isn't it? Polish people have the right to work in the EU, like all the other EU residents, or not?

Yes, but it may not bring enough goodwill for regulators to ignore other things they are doing which may be illegal which was the suggestion up-thread.

Yes, this is one of the freedoms [0] of the European Single Market, in particular this one [1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Single_Market#%22Four...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Single_Market#Free_mo...

The playbook in the US is to argue that a factory will create US jobs. State and local governments are willing to play ball with the expectation of increased activity and taxes.

Building a plant on the US-Mexico border will not be seen as kindly if it's perceived that they are not using US labor.

The article that you linked mentions Polish _construction_ workers. I honestly doubt the areas next to the border would get you enough workforce to get you a mostly Polish staff - the border is 50min away and the closest cities are relatively tiny.

Or maybe the math somehow works out, but I doubt it.

The math works very well when you know Polish wages, just like people living close to Switzerland (ie <2h commute) still go there en masse, doubling or tripling your salary is very attractive for most people.

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/digpub/eumove/bloc-2c.ht...

> In 2019, the largest number of cross-border workers among the Member States were for those living in Poland and working in Germany (122 000 people)

I am in no way a Musk apologist but the polish workforce you are refering to is the construction workers.

Yes, for now, because that's all they need, but when they start looking for low/middle skilled workers I wouldn't be surprised if the mast majority of them will be Polish workers