Impact of the post-accession migration on the polish labor market

Abstract

Post-2004 international mobility of Poles turned out to be one of the most spectacular population movements in the modern European history. Changes noted since the EU enlargement relate to scale, dynamics as well as structural features (socio-demographic characteristics of migrants and their strategies) of migration from Poland. Most of these changes are to be linked to selective opening of the EU15 labour markets and introduction of so-called transitory arrangements. Massive outflow of population - as observed in the Polish case - is supposed to create a supply shock and significantly impact the labour market situation in sending economy. However, the analysis provided shows that labour market effects of recent migration from Poland are moderate - the dynamics of the labour market phenomena (employment, unemployment) as observed in last few years were determined predominantly by business cycle related factors. Nevertheless, long-term effects should be also considered. As suggested, mass migration may lead to the outflow of 'economically redundant' population and through this foster the modernization process of Polish economy. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.