Polish Migration to the UK in the 'New' European Union

After 2004

Kathy Burrell

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9780754673873
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317078937
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Since the 2004 enlargement of the European Union over half a million Polish migrants have registered to work in the United Kingdom, constituting one of the largest migration movements in contemporary Europe. Drawing on research undertaken across a wide range of disciplines - history, economics, sociology, anthropology, film studies and discourse analysis - and focusing on both the Polish and British aspects of this phenomenon - both emigration and immigration - this edited collection investigates what is actually new about this migration flow, what its causes and consequences are, and how these migrants' lives have changed by moving to the United Kingdom. As the first book to deal with Polish migration to the United Kingdom, Polish Migration to the UK in the 'New' European Union will appeal to scholars across a range of social sciences, whose work concerns migration and the migration process.

Part I Contexts, Strategies and Discourses of Emigration

1 Migration: A Threat or a Chance? Recent Migration of Poles and its Impact on the Polish Labour Market

Agnieszka Fihel and Paweł Kaczmarczyk

DOI: 10.4324/9781315601137-1

From the nineteenth century onwards, Poland has been an important sending country in the global migration system. Underdeveloped both economically and socially, it has found itself on the periphery of an increasingly dynamic developing western world, perfectly placed as a country of emigration. During the communist period, however, migratory outflows from Poland, though fuelled by a range of political and economic push and pull factors, were seriously limited.¹ It was not until the 1980s that emigration, often undertaken under the cover of tourist movements, took place on a massive scale. This pattern continued after the fall of communism with Polish nationals being allowed to travel to many west European countries through various entry/visa schemes, with others working abroad as undocumented labour. In fact, many Poles devised a strategy of ‘commuting’ between their usual residence and often irregular work in the West as a viable way of making a living. In a relatively short period of time, communities of undocumented temporary workers from Poland mushroomed in Western European cities such as Berlin, Brussels, London, Rome and Vienna. However, it is the 2004 European Union enlargement that can be identified as the milestone for migration trends in Poland. The accession of Central and Eastern European countries into the European Union and the ensuing, if gradual, opening up of labour markets in the ‘old 15’, have both tapped into an enormous potential for emigration in Poland.

1 These push and pull factors included notorious shortages in the supply of basic goods and the dramatically rising value of the dollar that made foreign employment exceptionally profitable, and, as far as pull factors are concerned, the ‘open door’ policy for political migrants from Central and Eastern Europe in Western Europe.

In the public debate which has taken place in Poland about the different consequences of the county’s EU accession, numerous hazards resulting from massive emigration have been identified and discussed. Interestingly, in the very first phase of the debate a positive approach towards this outflow predominated. The migration of Poles was perceived as a welcome ‘labour market relief’ and, potentially, a source of foreign exchange, largely through remittances. A few years on, however, more recent outflows from Poland are being increasingly described as a threat to the Polish economy and society. A long list of ascribed negative aspects includes severe labour force shortages, a ‘brain drain’ and the social costs of increased mobility. Against this background we would like to pose a few questions. What is the real impact of migration on the Polish labour market? Does the recent outflow of highly skilled workers pose a threat to the Polish economy, or should it instead be perceived as a manifestation of the more beneficial ‘brain overflow’? And, lastly, can the outflow of highly skilled people be characterized as brain drain or rather ‘brain waste’?

To answer these questions we will look at this most recent phenomenon of Polish mobility and identify its main structural features – scale, duration, destination countries, skills level, and connection to the labour market – in the most important destination countries, and particularly in the United Kingdom. This analysis will be presented in the context of past migration processes and interpreted within the framework of continuity and change with respect to migratory behaviour. In the last part of the chapter we will discuss the impacts of the recent outflow on the Polish economy and society, putting special emphasis on labour market processes.

Migration and Mobility: Methodological Challenges

Despite the rise in documented flows of people around the world, defining and assessing the scale of this international mobility has become more and more difficult. This is mainly caused by two developments. Firstly, there has been an increasing variety of migration behaviours and types of migrants. Due to both enhanced freedom of movement and technological changes, many people leave their home countries with very vague plans on how long they will be away or continue to move between their countries of origin and destination. The duration of ‘stay abroad’ is constantly redefined and migration, therefore, cannot easily be described by the ‘old-fashioned’ concepts of short-term and long-term. Nor is it possible to simply collate all these specific categories of migrants and create a single artificial one. Secondly, deficiencies in migration registration methods have led to the omission of return and short-term migrants in official statistics. For example, the Polish population register captures only those migrants who make their stay overseas permanent, which constitutes a relatively marginal proportion of all persons staying abroad.² The population census would be the best source of statistical information on Polish emigrants, but unfortunately the last one was conducted in Poland in 2002, prior to EU enlargement.

2 For example, between 1990 and 2005 around 353,000 people were registered as permanent emigrants from Poland.

In this analysis, therefore, we use the Polish Labour Force Survey (LFS), which despite only offering an approximate picture of the scale of short-term and long-term migration and the socio-demographic characteristics of migrants from Poland, is arguably the most useful statistical material available. Inevitably, there are limitations with this data set. The LFS only records adults who at the time of the survey had been living abroad for longer than two months and, at the same time, had at least one household member still living in Poland – this survey, therefore, is not considered to be representative of all persons living abroad.³ Nevertheless, this source material does shed light on the international mobility of the Polish population. The results of the analysis will be presented separately for two groups of people: those who left Poland in the period 1999–2003 (referred to as pre-accession migrants) and those who left in the period 1 May 2004–31 December 2006 (post-accession migrants). We will also present statistics derived from the Worker Registration Scheme, another data source that provides a relatively precise picture of contemporary labour migration from Poland to the United Kingdom.⁴

3 If, in a household selected for the survey, all members are abroad, there is no family member to report it. Therefore, the LFS indentifies only those migrants who have at least one family member still present in Poland and does not capture other migrants. It is necessary to note that the LFS was primary designed for the purpose of labour market analysis. However, analysis of LFS data and National Census data reveals that the data obtained from the Polish LFS can be used with regard to the structural features of migration but not the scale of mobility. 4 At least if we assume that the number and structure of applicants may serve as an indicator of ‘real’ migration to the country. As the WRS only documents registered workers it potentially underestimates the real number of workers. However, the German Economic Institute (DIW) made an evaluation of the WRS data and reached a conclusion that it overestimates the scale of inflow. It is due to the fact that each registration represents one job and not necessarily one migrant and that according to the estimates of the Home Office more than 40 per cent of registered migrants were present in the UK prior to the accession and just used the opportunity to legalize their stay abroad (Traser 2005). However, based on the Labor Force Survey data Portes and French (2005) showed that the WRS depicts the migration phenomenon quite precisely, although they do suggest that many of the newcomers left the country after a few months.

1 May 2004: The Outbreak of Mobility

As the different statistical sources illustrate, the 2004 EU enlargement has been the most important emigration stimulus in Poland’s contemporary history. According to the estimates recently made by the Central Statistical Office (2008), the number of Polish nationals staying abroad for longer than two months increased from approximately one million at the end of 2004 to 2.3 million three years later (see Table 1.1). Due to the fact that the Polish Central Statistical Office considered several sources of information on migration from Poland, including data originating from the main destination countries and LFS data, these estimates seem to be the most reliable so far.

The Polish LFS data reveals a similar picture. According to the data, since 2004 a rapid increase in the number of Polish nationals staying abroad has been observed (see Figure 1.1): in the middle of 2007 this number was double that of three years before.⁵ Not surprisingly, this outflow was closely related to labour emigration, with the share of migrants who work during their stay abroad increasing from 70–80 per cent in the 1990s to 94 per cent in the post-accession period. In addition, in 2004 the increase in the volume of outflow was almost exclusively a result of rising short-term mobility (lasting more than two but less than 12 months): the number of migrants who were staying abroad for less than 12 months more than doubled between 2000 and 2005, and the share of short-term migrants increased from 48 per cent in 1995 to 60 per cent in 2004. Since 2006, however, the proportion of long-term migrants has risen to such an extent that in 2007 the ratio of short-term to long-term migrants became 1:1, a similar situation to the 1990s.⁶ At the moment we can only speculate whether this increase in the volume of long-term outflow migration will result in settlement emigration. This, in fact, constitutes one of the most important puzzles and unresolved issues in recent debates on migration from Poland. The sheer increase in scale of the outward mobility of Polish citizens, however, is perhaps the most significant legacy of EU membership for Poland’s population structure.

5 However, in the last period of analysis, namely the third quarter of 2007, a slight decrease in the number of short-term migrants was observed. This may be a seasonal effect, but also may indicate the first returns to Poland. 6 This was the result of the fact that many migrants prolonged their stay abroad and were recorded in subsequent years as long-term migrants.

Table 1.1 The estimated number of Polish citizens (in thousands) staying abroad for longer than two months by destination country

Destination	May 2002	End of 2004	End of 2006	End of 2007
Total	786	1,000	1,950	2,270
European Union	451	750	1,550	1,860
Austria	11	15	34	39
Belgium	14	13	28	31
France	21	30	49	55
Germany	294	385	450	490
Ireland	2	15	120	200
Italy	39	59	85	87
Netherlands	10	23	55	98
Spain	14	26	44	80
Sweden	6	11	25	27
United Kingdom	24	150	580	690
Source: Central Statistic Office (2008).

Table 1.2 Percentage of Polish migrants (aged 15 and over who have been abroad for more than two months) who left in the pre-accession and post-accession periods by destination country

Destination country	Pre-accession period	Post-accession period
European Union
No labour market restrictions	12.1	42.4
Ireland	1.4	9.1
Sweden	1.0	1.9
UK	9.7	31.4
Labour market restrictions	62.6	45.3
Austria	2.9	1.5
Belgium	3.4	1.7
France	3.8	3.2
Germany	32.1	18.9
Greece	1.6	1.5
Italy	11.9	8.4
Netherlands	3.0	3.0
Norway	0.5	2.0
Spain	2.6	3.1
Non-EU	25.3	12.3
Other in Europe	1.1	1.5
Canada	1.0	0.8
US	19.3	9.1
Other	3.9	0.9
Notes: The pre-accession period is defined here as 1999–2003 and the post-accession period as 1 May 2004–31 December 2006. Source: University of Wwarsaw Centre for Migration Rresearch Migrants’ Database, based on the Polish LlFSs.

In addition, as the statistical material demonstrates, Polish accession into the EU also brought with it substantial changes in the mobility directions of Polish citizens. Almost all countries of the EU15 (or EEA) experienced an elevated inflow of people from Poland (Grabowska-Lusińska and Okólski 2008), but in most of the post-accession destinations the mass inflow of Polish migrants has been unprecedented. This is particularly true with regard to Ireland and the United Kingdom, but similar trends were also observed in Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Spain and Sweden. The United Kingdom has now, overwhelmingly, taken the position of the main and dominant destination country, a position which was occupied by Germany prior to the 2004 EU enlargement.⁷ The estimates of the Central Statistical Office indicate that 690,000 Polish nationals were staying in the UK at the end of 2007, almost a thirtyfold increase c...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Notes on Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Series Editor’s Preface
• Introduction: Migration to the UK from Poland: Continuity and Change in East–West European Mobility—Kathy Burrell
• PART I CONTEXTS, STRATEGIES AND DISCOURSES OF EMIGRATION
• PART II EXPERIENCES OF IMMIGRATION AND ‘SETTLEMENT’
• Conclusion: Polish Migration to the UK After 2004—Kathy Burrell
• Index