Poles never left the UK

Tougher economic times do not mean Polish workers are returning to their homeland.

They are battling to survive in Britain Contrary to some suggestions, Poles are not escaping Britain – we are trying to survive here.

Since 2004, more than 2 million Poles – mostly young – have gone abroad in search of work. They left mainly because of the following factors: demographic (the 1980 "baby boom" generation), economic (discrepancies in salaries in Poland) and political (the opportunity to work legally thanks to Poland's entry into the EU).

According to Krystyna Iglicka, an expert in migration policy at the Centre for International Relations in Warsaw and the author of Poland's Post-War Dynamic of Migration (2001), it is very difficult to estimate how many of those two million migrated to Britain, and it is even harder to estimate the number who have returned. Different countries adopt different definitions of a "returning migrant". Sometimes people tell researchers they are thinking of returning, but in reality they try to postpone the final decision for as long as possible. Sometimes they return home and, after not being able to find a job, return to the country where they originally emigrated. Sometimes they try to move to a third country.

The most recent estimates by Poland's Central Statistical Office (CSO), based on census data, put the number of Poles who have migrated for work at 2.21 million in 2008, of whom 650,000 are in Britain.

In 2007 the figures were 2.27 million and 690,000 respectively, and in 2006 1.95 million and 580,000.

The number of Poles in Britain dropped by only 40,000 in 2008. According to the same source, 70% of Poles stay abroad for at least one year. The history of migration also teaches us that after a period of time – usually five years – migrants' loyalties and ties change from their homeland to the receiving countries, and they therefore stop sending money home. Instead, they try to persuade family members to join them abroad.

The number of dependants of Polish migrants recorded by the Home Office appears to confirm this.