WHILE SEEKING the EU membership, Poland couldn’t have imagined that it would lose on a large part of its population to the bloc. But that’s what happened, since joining the bloc in May 2004 around 2 million Poles have migrated to other EU member states. Most of the Poles migrated to Ireland and Britain where the labour markets were unrestricted. A recently conducted research has revealed that population of Poland has decreased from 38 million to 36 million in the last seven years, with most planning not to return to their homeland.

A demographer at the Warsaw Centre for International Relations claims that the greed for better jobs, salaries and lifestyle will prompt most of these migrants (around 1 million) to permanently settle abroad.

Compared to 2004, when there were only 95,000 Polish-born people living in the UK, the figures have now increased to 521,000, putting Poland second on the list after India. Despite the deteriorating economic situation of the country, Poles wish to stay on because they know that the situation in their homeland is even worse.

Although Poland is coping well with increasing migrate at the moment, the economy could suffer in long term. With most of the young population seeking job opportunities abroad, tax revenue will decrease and the economy will suffer a big loss.