2 results
14 - Ready to Move: Liquid Return to Poland
- Edited by Birgit Glorius, Izabela Grabowska-Lusinska, Aimee Kuvik
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- Book:
- Mobility in Transition
- Published by:
- Amsterdam University Press
- Published online:
- 12 December 2020
- Print publication:
- 17 June 2013, pp 277-308
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Summary
Introduction
The accession of CEE countries to the European Union in 2004 had significant influence on migration processes in this geographical area. A main reason for the shift in mobility patterns was the EU policy on free movement of persons and services, which opened the labour markets of some member states, as well as the large migration potential among the ‘new Europeans’. The latter was a result of labour force surpluses and delays in economic modernisation. Undoubtedly, regardless of the size of the population, Poland represented the biggest migration potential. In the opinion of some experts one to four million people emigrated from Poland after 1 May 2004. The most credible estimation was presented by Grabowska-Lusińska and Okólski (2009), according to whom the net outflow of people was about 1.1 million between 2004 and 2006. Polish post-accession migrants preferred emigrating to countries where labour markets were open for EU citizens, like the United Kingdom and Ireland. In the case of the latter, though, it is not the numbers that are the most striking but the dynamics of the flow.
Despite the transition periods that delayed full access to some labour markets, those countries that received the largest pre-accession migration flows remained important migration destinations for Poles. These included Germany, Italy and, independent of EU policies, transcontinental migrations to the United States (see Map 14.1).
Moreover, the post-accession outflow from Poland was lower than the observed increase of the number of Poles staying abroad (Grabowska-Lusińska & Okólski 2009). One possible interpretation of this phenomenon is that the change in institutional conditions enabled legalisation of stays abroad. Therefore, we may further estimate that the number of migrants already living abroad was much larger than the post-accession outflow alone.
As migration research indicates, significant emigration waves may lead to return migration as time passes (Ravenstein 1889). distinguish three phases of return migration to Poland in the twentieth century (Slany & Małek 2002). The first phase, starting in 1938, embraced traditional return migration, which was a result of massive outflows of Poles to the United States, the so-called ‘migration for bread’ between 1918 and 1938. The next phase of returns was the homecoming of political and labour migrants during the period of socialism (1961-1989). In light of research and available statistical data, these two stages of remigration were not significant in scale, though.
7 - Direct Demographic Consequences of Post-Accession Migration for Poland
- Edited by Richard Black, Godfried Engbersen, Marek Okólski, Cristina Panţîru
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- Book:
- A Continent Moving West?
- Published by:
- Amsterdam University Press
- Published online:
- 03 February 2021
- Print publication:
- 15 July 2012, pp 141-164
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Summary
Introduction
This chapter is devoted to demographic consequences of the post-accession migration for Poland. Based on official data published by the Central Statistical Office (CSO), it is estimated that between 1 May 2004 – the day when eight Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries joined the European Union – and 31 December 2006, the stock of temporary Polish migrants increased by over one million. That probably represents the most intense outflow ever from Poland during peacetime. Drawing from the Labour Force Survey data, we examine how this enormous post-accession out-migration from Poland has been distributed across Polish regions and various categories of the resident population, and attempt to establish the direct quantitative effect of the outflow on particular regions and major population categories.
Making use of the Selectivity Index, we argue that the post-accession outflow was not only highly selective, but significantly more selective than the outflow in the immediately preceding period, especially with respect to such characteristics of the population as sex, age and education. Finally, on the basis of migrant selectivity analysis, we suggest that migration-conducive factors specific to the post-accession period, such as liberalisation of the access to labour markets in destination countries, particularly in the United Kingdom, have brought about a wider participation of various groups of the Polish population in these out-movements. This might have undermined the traditionally dominant role of social networks in migration from Poland.
Background
Poland has for a long time been a net migration loser (Frejka, Okólski & Sword 1998; Iglicka 2001). Let us focus on the last quarter of a century. According to official records, between 1 January 1980 and 1 January 2007, the number of ‘permanent residents’ increased by 2.7 million, whereas the total natural increase was 3.7 million. Therefore, around 1 million (net) additional ‘permanent residents’ (27 per cent of natural increase) were lost due to emigration (Table 7.1).
In that period, however, many ‘permanent residents’, who as such have maintained an entry in Poland's population registers, have also become emigrants and have de facto ceased to live in Poland. In official statistical sources, however, the de facto emigrants are included in the estimates of Poland's population as long as they figure in the registers as ‘permanent residents’.