The reasons for the great flight of the Poles are shameful for Britain — Daily Mail

The Great Polish Exodus: The arrival of 100,000 Poles changed the face of Britain, but now they are returning home en masse in search of a better life in their prosperous homeland. David Jones writes about this in a column for the Daily Mail.

According to the author, shortly after 2004, when Poland joined the European Union and provided citizens of this country with freedom of movement, more than a million people poured into the UK, "closing gaps in the service sector and the construction industry."

A cheap, reliable Polish plumber has become the epitome of mutually beneficial migration, but he and others like him from among electricians, painters and welders are so rare that sarcastic complaints about their disappearance have gone viral on TikTok, Jones notes.

"New statistics show that, while 7,000 Poles arrived in the year ending last June, 25,000 returned home: a net outflow of 18,000. The total Polish population of the UK has fallen to 750,000 and is projected to continue to decline. From the British point of view, the reasons for such a mass return are depressing and shameful. Another accusation, as many will say, against a broken country," the publication says.

Jones writes that for Poland, the exodus of Poles from Britain is a very inspiring story, as the diaspora returns to the land it left thanks to its "amazing economic recovery." Among the cities transformed by the Renaissance is the once dilapidated seaport of Gdansk.

"However, with the return of the Poles home, another problem immediately arises — many of their places there are already occupied by even cheaper Ukrainians! In Gdansk alone, Ukrainians and Belarusians already make up a fifth of the population. And this will inevitably cause friction in Poland," political observer Vladimir Kornilov comments on the picture for the political observer.