Demographic and labour-market impacts of migration on Poland

Coping with Emigration in Baltic and East European Countries

“…In contrast, marked differences were noted with respect to education -the difference between migrants and return migrants was greatest with regard to vocational education (in favour of returnees). Interestingly, among returnees there was a clear overrepresentation of those originating from villages and small towns, which is not necessarily in line with commonly expressed expectations concerning potential return migrants who were supposed to target rather large cities with efficient labour markets (Kaczmarczyk and Okólski, 2008). On the other hand, selectivity indexes for destination countries (countries of residence before return) reveal the highest propensity to return among migrants to countries such as Italy, France or Germany, suggesting that recently observed return migration is mostly a product of pre-2004 migratory waves and does not involve the most recent outflows.…”

“…The question of return migration and its effects is closely linked to the "crowding-out hypothesis" proposed by Kaczmarczyk and Okólski (2008). Accession to the European Union and post-accession mass migration facilitated -for the very first time in contemporary history -the outflow of the "economically redundant" population from economically backward regions.…”

Making the Labour Market Work Better in Poland

“…Although significant, this increase in emigration flows had only a mild short-to-medium-term impact on the Polish labour market (see, among others, Budnik, 2008, Ingham and Ingham, 2011, Kaczmarczyk and Okolski, 2008, and Kaczmarczyk, 2012. It is true that during the 2004-08 period the unemployment rate decreased sharply (Figure 1, Panel D).…”

European Union: expansion and migration

“…The post-accession migration from EU-8 embodied a new profile of migrant, marking a change in typical characteristics of people leaving the region in the 1990s (EC 2008;Kaczmarczyk & Okolski 2008;Kahanec & Zimmermann 2010). While the preenlargement migrants were typically middle-aged with vocational education and previous work experience, the post-accession migrants were predominantly young and with tertiary education.…”

“…These A most marked impact of the post-accession migration has revealed itself in the sending countries' labor markets. While the exact share of outmigration on the macrolevel outcomes is difficult to quantify, in the countries that experienced large outflows, two phenomena occurred (Kaczmarczyk & Okolski 2008;Galgoczi et al 2009;Kahanec & Zimmermann 2009;Meardi 2010). First, a significant decline in unemployment rates across the region took place that was partly caused by significant outflows of migrants.…”