Poland, a transition country
Series produced by Anton Foek
For more than a century, Poland has been one of the largest sending areas in Central and Eastern Europe and a vast reservoir of labor for many countries in Western Europe and North America.
Poland's geographical and political location predestined it to struggle amidst the interplay between the West and the East, in both historical and cultural perspectives as well as economic and social contexts.
In the second half of the 1990s, researchers predicted that Poland would gradually shift from being a major migrant-sending country to a country of transit migration and net immigration. But the country's accession to the European Union in May 2004, coupled with unrestricted entry to EU Member States the United Kingdom and Ireland, caused one of the biggest emigration flows in Poland's postwar history, and the country became one of the largest exporters of labor within the enlarged European Union. In addition to a decreasing birth rate, migration accounted for a real reduction in Poland's population over the past decade. Immigrants from outside the European Union generally do not view Poland as an attractive destination because the Polish economy did not need large numbers of new... Show full description
1 Piece
- Added: Jun 17, 2013
- Length: 17:42