Q&A :: Another exodus in the making?

Polish emigration is hitting another peak since the country joined the European Union in 2004. According to the recently released data by the Central Statistics Office the total of Poles who have left since reached 2,2 mln last year. This is just 70,000 migrants less than the record year of 2007.

“I wouldn’t say there is such an increase, as annually out-migration is more or less the same, and since the economic recovery the annual outflow is around 70,000, although in cumulative terms it is a big number,” says Izabela Grabowska-Lusińska, expert from the Center of Migration Research and lecturer at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw.

“Of course there is a big number of those who left but there is still a large percentage of those in the production age, so that means that all these demagogical arguments that so many young people are not to some extent true, because who would be working for the economic growth in Poland? The economy is still growing,” she adds.