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Poles end great migration to UK
2008-08-07
The Polish research company Gemius has done a survey concerning the home-coming of Polish immigrants. Statistics show that the percentage rates of the respondents planning to return this year have doubled.
The survey was conducted during the time period of 01 – 18 February 2007 and 31 March – 4 May 2008 on a group of Polish Internet users living in Great Britain or in Ireland. The aim of the research was to reveal the intention of Polish people to return home. The respondents also indicated the reasons of the come back and presented the benefits of moving to the Isles.
Polish immigrants are more determined to come back home than in the previous year. The results of the research indicate that 12% of the respondents are going to return Poland this year. In comparison to 2007 they constituted only 6%. It is also worth noticing that the groups of people vacillating have grown: there are 15% of them this year and there were only 9% in 2007.
Although the percentage of Polish people planning to stay abroad still outweighs those coming back, the conducted scrutiny reveals a downturn in the percentage rates of the respondents who have decided to remain overseas. In 2007 84% of the respondents intended to stay on the Isles, while in 2008 only 73% of them admitted staying abroad.
The most decisive to return are younger groups of immigrants aged below 29 years old. 26.6% of them declare a home-coming, while only 7.6% of the people aged 35+ are eager to come back to Poland soon. The willingness of self-realisation and the desire to develop incline young Polish people to make such a decision. After observing the British and Irish reality, they state that there are more chances and opportunities for them to develop in Poland.
What prompts Polish people to come back? For women the most important aspect is the necessity of self-realisation (university and work). Thus men indicated a longing for their homeland. Another important reasons that make immigrants to come back to Poland are personal considerations both for women (17.30%) and men (22.50%). A financial cause such a the consolidation of the Polish zloty is on the third place. The reasons of coming back also change within the age groups in a similar way.
Migration to the UK does not only have the financial mainspring. Though the material reasons such, as the ability to find well-paid job, are important for the majority of the respondents, gaining new experience, knowing a different culture and personal reasons have begun to dominate. Especially, the most significant growth is observed in the category of willingness to gain new experience and personal considerations in comparison to the results of the previous year.
“Comparing the results of the research carried out in 2007 with the survey repeated in 2008, we can assume that the migration wave to the UK has turned. The percentage rates of people who have just came to the UK fell and appropriately increased the output of the respondents who have stayed there much longer” – sums up Filip Pieczyński, International Operations Director at Gemius SA.
About the research – the research was carried out during the time period of 01 – 18 February 2007 and 31 March – 4 May2008 with the aid of CAWI method (online questionnaires emitted randomly on the Web Pages) on the basis of 1074 respondents living in Great Britain and Ireland. Analogically, the research was also conducted in 2007 on the basis of 1593 Polish Internet users living on the Isles.
Gemius SA is the largest online research agency in Central and Eastern Europe. It is also present in Denmark, Norway, Israel and on the UK market. The company has been dedicated to Internet market research since its founding in 1999. By focusing the business on maximizing credibility, quality and accuracy the company has been able to grow into the largest online market research agency in Central and Eastern Europe in less than 5 years. Gemius SA provides a wide range of Internet research products to brand name clients throughout Eastern Europe. Gemius provides data on Internet users' behaviour (gemiusTraffic), Internet audience profiles (gemiusProfile), or online advertising campaign effectiveness (gemiusEffect). Gemius' gemiusAudience research is the online advertising currency across Europe and Israel, where by working with key joint-industry committees and other market players Gemius provides accurate, high-quality measurement of online audiences for media planners, buyers and sellers.
Download a complete version of the press release in the Word file
For more information, please contact: adriana.tailor@gemius.com