The warning has raised fears that a mass exodus of migrants could further destabilize the British economy. According to estimates, Polish immigrants contribute £1.9 billion annually to the British Treasury. In addition, construction projects that relied on highly skilled Polish workers willing to work for low wages, particularly the 2012 London Olympics sites, could be hit.
The rise in the Polish zloty against the British pound means that Poles can earn as much at home as in Britain. Professor Christina Iglicka, senior adviser to the Polish government, told The Daily Telegraph that 400,000 of the 1.2 million Poles living in Britain and Ireland could lose their jobs by 2009 as economic activity slows. According to her, most will either return home or move to another country in search of work.
“The Polish economy is growing because the credit crisis has not affected the Polish banking system. Unlike Western European banks, our regulations do not allow banks to use depositors’ money for such risky operations. There is a shortage of jobs in Britain, but in Poland the prospects for finding work are better than two or three years ago,” said a representative of the Polish embassy in London.
Professor Iglicka, who is also an expert in economics and demography at the Warsaw Center for International Relations, warns that the wave of returning migrants could have a destructive effect on the Polish economy. The country will likely have to make considerable efforts to adapt to the returning workers. According to official statistics, Poland’s GDP growth in the third quarter of 2008 will drop from 5.8% to 4.1%.
According to a representative of the British Border and Immigration Agency, an estimated half of the Poles who planned to live in the UK have already returned home.
Hundreds of thousands of Poles moved to the UK after 2004, when the expansion of the European Union made it easier for Eastern Europeans to work and live there. The British National Institute of Economic and Social Research calculated that Polish migrants contributed £12 billion to the British economy.
Translated by Gzt.ru