Poland: Immigration to UK is back for good life despite economic crisis

Migration from eastern Europe on the rise again, with return to UK ‘driven by disappointment at home’ The conventional narrative of the last three years suggested that as soon as the clouds of financial doom descended over the UK, Poles were on the first flight home. Many believed the do widzenia (Polish for “see you later”) was a permanent goodbye. The Polish delis would quietly shut down, Boddingtons would return to the shelves where the cans of Lech once stood, and it would yet again be difficult to get a reliable plumber. But things have not quite panned out that way. The UK economy may still be in the doldrums, but according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), net migration to the UK from Poland is on the up again, and Poles are now the biggest group of foreign nationals in the UK. Some 545,000 Polish passport holders now live in the UK, compared with 75,000 in 2003, the year before Poland joined the EU. The ONS reports that net migration from Poland and other east European countries increased to 43,000 in the 12

Posted by on May 27, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.