Introduction

Migratory movements between the EU accession states and the United Kingdom following 2004 enlargement have been described as the largest-ever migration wave to have arrived in the UK (Salt & Rees 2006), and have already generated an increasing diverse set of scientific studies. It can be argued that this interest is not just attributable to the undisputable size of these flows. Because of their legal visibility, demographers, economists and sociologists have access to an array of datasets through which the composition of these flows can be analysed. This scientific visibility, which has been the result of a legal change, should not blind us from the fact that because of this, migration is part of a longer process and therefore pre-enlargement dynamics should also be taken into account. This relates not only to the labour market situation in both origin and destination countries, but also to the formation of transnational social networks, which perpetuate migration and remittance flows.

In this chapter we focus particularly on recent migration flows from Poland to the UK, exploring pre-enlargement statistics as well as current dynamics that are sustaining migratory flows. Although conditions in the labour market have changed recently, large numbers of Central and Eastern European migrants are still arriving in the UK (Accession Monitoring Report 2008). Following very high unemployment at the time of enlargement, with a national average of around 20 per cent, unemployment rates in Poland have dropped in some areas to UK levels. Yet, in spite of the visible decrease in the numbers of migrants from Poland, many still find employment in the UK an attractive opportunity for reasons that go beyond direct differences in earnings. This reminds us that migratory movements are not solely about levelling out wage levels, but also acquire a dynamic of their own due to the other, non-financial rewards.

Some of the other factors that impinge on such movements include the role of traditional migration strategies developed due to the under urbanisation of communist states (Okólski 2001), transnational networks (Ryan, Sales, Tilki & Siara 2007), the role the migration industry plays in perpetuating a culture of migration in particular origin communities (Garapich 2008a) and migrants’ attempts to offset the negative aspects of labour market discrimination, especially in relation to the position of women positions in the labour market (Coyle 2007).