Intra-EU Migration & Poland

Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject Leadership and Human Resources - Miscellaneous grade: 13 University of Applied Sciences Rosenheim language: English abstract: Though there has been migration since the beginning of human life and migration within Europe is nothing new the quantitative degree and even the reasons for migration within Europe have changed. One reason for that is the right of free movement within the EU which was used by a total of 11.8 million people in 2016. However the public debate on migration in Europe is primarily focusing on international migration from non-member states. In recent years this was dominated by the topic of the refugee crisis which led to less attention for intra-EU migration. Nevertheless intra-EU migration is a main cause for the high number of new immigrants at least for Germany and the UK. In Germany it has increased noticeable in recent years while migration from non-EU countries has decreased. One of the most represented foreign communities in receiving countries are often Poles. Back in 2017 for example Germany had more immigrants coming from Poland than ever before. The enlargement of the EU in 2004 and the connected freedom to work in other EU countries was one of the most important stimuli for emigration in Poland´s latest history. Even before the EU there were high numbers of emigrants leaving. But the accession greatly enhanced migration leading Poland to be one of the largest emigration countries within the EU. Even though the peak of emigration was reached in 2007 with about 1.8 million migrants there are still many Poles going abroad to live and work there. In 2015 alone 123 thousand people have left Poland. Nevertheless the Polish economy is one of the fastest growing among EU countries and its unemployment is reducing too. In fact Poland was the only country in the EU which has avoided recession the years after the financial crisis in 2009. These issues lead to the question o