Post-Soviet Migration to Poland : Dynamics and Characteristics

The speech aimed to analyse migration from the post-Soviet space to the north-eastern periphery of the EU (in particular, Poland) and examined the hypothesis about this state, once country of origin, turning into a destination for migrants. A change in the socio-economic paradigm and accession to the EU sped up economic development in Poland. Despite growing welfare and income levels and a decline in the unemployment rate, further economic growth was hampered by the outflow of skilled workforce and resulting labour shortages. In response, the government of Poland drew up programmes to attract international labour. Soon it transformed from exporter of labour into importer. Unlike Western European countries, Poland is trying to attract migrants from neighbouring nations with similar cultural and linguistic backgrounds. In the long run, this strategy will facilitate migrant integration into the recipient society. The Polish government is devising measures to encourage ethnic Poles to repatriate from post-Soviet republics. To achieve the aim of the speech, the author investigated the features of migration flows, trends in migration, migration policies of recipient countries, and the evolution of diaspora policies. The trends mean that Russia has to be more active in the competition for attracting qualified labour from the European part of the post-Soviet space, especially Ukraine and Belarus, since migration from other countries to Poland is insignificant