Poles returning home

The ESRI quarterly economic commentary published earlier in October forecasts net outward emigration of 30,000 in 2009 - compared to the net inflow of 72,000 in 2006. The number of people leaving Ireland next year will outstrip those moving here for the first time in 14 years, according to the ESRI. The biggest exodus will be among the 170,000 workers who arrived the past four years from Poland and other East European states. The government's decision in 2004 to open our labour market to all EU workers resulted in a massive influx of eastern and central Europeans into Ireland, but the tide is turning. In the first half of 2008, the number of people from the "EU12" (the states that joined since May 2004) who registered to work or access public services here fell by 40% compared to the same period in 2007.

These immigrants had fed our manufacturing and building booms that helped double the size of our economy during the past ten years and made it the most dynamic in Western Europe. Now the slowdown in our construction industry along with the credit crunch has plunged us into our first recession in two decades, pushing unemployment to an 11-year high. However, economic growth remains above 5% in Poland, boosted by EU investment in roads, higher consumer spending and the building of new offices and apartment blocks. The unemployment rate over there has halved to around 9% over the last two years. The ones leaving now are simply responding to changes in our economy and theirs. In a small country like ours, where immigrants have made such a major contribution, it's far more visible than in a bigger economy such as in the U.K.

Here is an article from the Irish Times where a Polish immigrant gives her reasons for going back home.