http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/world/americas/21iht-poles.1.16331188.html?_r=0
Here's an interesting article that talks about the rate of polish immigration and then back immigration in recent times. Well they don't have very recent datas but the article talks about fairly recent 2006-2007 datas. It says that the polish community in new york is shrinking because of their immigration back to their country. After being admitted to european union in 2004 polish migration has diminished largely which created job opportunities for them back home.there are other factors such as tighter regulations and aging of people that are here. There is a significant decline of polish people in Greenpoint, Brooklyn which was a centre for polish migration. The article gives stories about different people. Its a good read.
Personally coming from a family of a recent immigrants from Poland. I see this as no shock. I've been back to Poland 5-6 times over my lifetime for a couple of months at a time. The first time i went back i vividly remember the IMMENSE number of elderly people everywhere. To me it seemed that every young person had left the country just as my parents had. Communism really screwed up a whole generation, Poland is on the rise however there is that generation of 45-60 year olds who are still working but to many they are the ones slowing the country down. But very recently, this summer i went there for 5 weeks to spend time with my cousins and everything has changed. There were tourists from other countries there in the city center. This comes as a shock because the previous times i had been to Poland, everyone was white, including me. I have two other cousins who grew up in the States just as I have and both of them have gone to University in Poland because it's free. To them life is better over there than back here in the US.
ReplyDeleteI am confused why the author paints this return to Poland in such a bad light. They should be happy that Poland is doing better. It is good that these Polish people have somewhere to go, where they can flourish and make good money. What makes it even better is that the opportunity is in their homeland, which helps that Polish nationalism even more. I understand some businesses in the US are going under because they only cater to Polish needs, but that happens to all companies that do not change with the times. In all, we have to realize that there is still a great number of Polish people here.
ReplyDeleteI had a double sided reaction to this article. On one end it's encouraging to see the EU create job opportunities and be seen in a positive light by Polish people, enough so to be a pull factor to emigrate back home. With that said, it's apparent that the Polish communities in America are struggling which is unfortunate. Ideally these communities provide a homey feeling for immigrants, and their deterioration is discouraging everyone.
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