International, Permanent, Voluntary Migration - Poland International, Permanent, Voluntary

History On the 1st April 2004, Poland was admitted to the EU. Any resident of an EU nation has the right of free movement amongst all other EU nations. It was expected that the new nations would lead to an increase of 15,000 migrants. However, by July 2006 447,000 people had applied to work in the UK, 62% of which where Polish. As of 2016 there are over 911,000 Polish migrants living in the UK distributed in both rural and urban areas.

Causes Push Factors; Pull Factors; High unemployment rate in Poland (18.5%). Around 40% of youth unemployment. Pull Factors; Low unemployment rate in the UK (5.1%) Skill shortages for semi-skilled workers Vacancies in the UK are in October to December 2007 where 607,900 Better standard of living. The GDP for Poland was $12,700 per capita whereas the UK’s was $30,900 Better opportunity for families.

Consequences Exploitation of low skilled workers Tension/Conflicts between communities High amount of migrants therefore more stress on the NHS and education centres. As demand for housing increases so do the price of houses. High proportion of wages are being returned to Poland.