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Migration as an Asset? Polish Returnees at the Time of the Crisis

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Labor Migration, EU Enlargement, and the Great Recession

Abstract

In the second half of the 1990s, the European Union (EU) witnessed two important processes shaping many areas of its socio-economic reality. First, two enlargement rounds initiated in May 2004 have led to a significant change in the internal structure of the EU in terms of income structures, welfare, social conditions, etc. Second, similarly to other parts of the global economy, many member states are suffering from a severe economic crisis. These two effects are supposed to impact migration processes, both in internal and international terms. Against this background, Poland presents an interesting case study, largely due to its massive involvement in the post-enlargement migration.

The authors would like to thank the anonymous referee as well as the editors of this volume for providing a number of suggestions that helped to improve the chapter significantly. We remain responsible for any mistakes still present.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Estimates of the Polish Central Statistical Office present a unique exercise, combining data from both sending and receiving countries. The outcomes are based on census data (2002, 2011) but this information is enriched with data obtained from Labor Force Survey (Polish one) and all available data from receiving countries (LFS, WRS, NIN, etc.) (CSO 2012).

  2. 2.

    A number of empirical studies looking at position of Polish workers in the most important destinations, particularly in the UK and Ireland, point out that despite of a deteriorating situation on the domestic labor market, the position of Polish migrants is still relatively favorable (as compared to other migrants groups or even natives). This paradox can be explained in terms of both demand side (relatively low wages) and supply side factors (differences with access to welfare benefits, motivation and attitudes towards particular jobs etc.) (Barrett and Elish 2012; Dustmann et al. 2010).

  3. 3.

    For more information on Polish migrants residing in Spain and Sweden refer to chapters “Post-enlargement Migration and Adjustment in a Receiving Country: The Case of Sweden” and “Migration, Crisis and Adjustment in an Enlarged EU: The Spanish Perspective” on these two countries in this volume.

  4. 4.

    At least according to the data at our disposal. Due to data limitations, at the time of writing inclusion of 2013 data was not feasible. New datasets are expected to change the picture, mostly due to the significantly worse situation within the Polish labor market.

  5. 5.

    The highest number of return migrants was provided by the Public Opinion Research Centre survey and equaled 2.9 million persons (over 9 % of the adult population) who took job abroad in the period 1998–2007 and were present in Poland at the time of the survey (i.e. 2007) (Fiałkowska and Szczepański 2012).

  6. 6.

    These groups are ‘pulling regions’ (with SI >0.1), ‘pushing out regions’ (SI < −0.1) and ‘unspecified regions’ (−0.1< SI <0.1) (Anacka and Fihel 2012a).

  7. 7.

    See also extensive literature review presented in Mezger Kveder 2012.

  8. 8.

    Respondents are considered as employed even if they were working without any salary in the family agricultural farm or family business (e.g. not exclusively wage-employment was considered).

  9. 9.

    Alternatively, it can be provided by the authors upon request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Economics, CMR UW, Warsaw, Poland

    Pawel Kaczmarczyk, Marta Anacka & Agnieszka Fihel

Authors
  1. Pawel Kaczmarczyk
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  2. Marta Anacka
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  3. Agnieszka Fihel
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pawel Kaczmarczyk .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Policy, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

    Martin Kahanec

  2. IZA - Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn, Germany

    Klaus F. Zimmermann

Annex

Annex

Variables used in the labour market status equation

  • Region (16 levels referring to administrative regions in Poland)

  • Type of locality of residence (2 levels – urban area, rural area)

  • Sex (2 levels – male, female)

  • Age (4 levels – 15–17, 18–29, 30–44, 45 and more)

  • Relationship to the head of the household (4 levels – head, spouse, children and children-in-law, other)

  • Marital status (4 levels – single, married, divorced, widowed)

  • Education (5 levels – tertiary, secondary vocational and post-secondary, secondary, basic vocational, primary and lower secondary)

  • Disability (4 levels – certificate of severe disability, certificate of moderate disability, certificate of minor disability, without any certificate of disability)

  • Agricultural household (2 levels – agricultural household, non-agricultural household)

  • Return migrant (3 levels – non- migrant, short-term migrant, long-term migrant)

  • Interactions:

    • Return migration x Age

    • Return migration x Education

    • Return migration x Agricultural household

    • Return migration x Type of locality of residence (Tables 6 and 7)

      Table 6 Testing global null hypothesis (β = 0) in the multinomial logit for labour market status
      Full size table
      Table 7 Testing effects in the multinomial logit for labour market status
      Full size table

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Kaczmarczyk, P., Anacka, M., Fihel, A. (2016). Migration as an Asset? Polish Returnees at the Time of the Crisis. In: Kahanec, M., Zimmermann, K.F. (eds) Labor Migration, EU Enlargement, and the Great Recession. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-45320-9_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-45320-9_10

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