Europe's migrant workers head home to build on their savings

Warsaw/Edinburgh: Four years after Polish graphic designer Chris Rychter headed to Britain to find work and study as a citizen of the European Union (EU), he and his wife have returned home.

Part of a swelling tide of migration back east, they are having a house built in a suburb of the Polish capital.

"It took me just three days to find a job back in Warsaw," Rychter, 27, told Reuters. "We never saw Britain as home... We went for the adventure and to get some professional experience."

Their move highlights strong economic growth in the new EU member states and an accelerating slowdown in Britain - but also how quickly a pragmatic younger European generation has adapted to working in the 21st-century globalised economy.

Rychter's wife Sabina has brought her job with a British-based credit insurance company with her.

"You could say I am tele-commuting," she said. "In today's world, with computers and mobile phones, my presence in head office is not required as before. I can sit here in Warsaw and have the flexibility to do my job irrespective of time zones."

Helped by cheap travel as flights between Warsaw and London grew almost tenfold since Poland joined the EU in 2004, the Rychters show how Europe has shrunk and that - contrary to a popular view -migrant flows are not all one-way.

Pendulum effect

Economists now see a turnstile or pendulum effect of people moving between countries after quite short stints, in search of better conditions.

Statistics on migration within the 27-nation EU are not precise, but around half of an estimated one million people from eastern Europe who moved to Britain since 2004 have already returned home, according to a recent report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a British think-tank.

Work applications from the eight east European countries that joined the EU in 2004 were down 13 per cent in the January to March period from last year, British government data show.

The trend is also positive for the wider Polish economy. Warsaw real estate broker Malgorzata Czerwinska said around 20 per cent of the apartments she sells now go to such returnees, who generally pay cash with savings made abroad.

Only Britain, Ireland and Sweden opened their job markets to the easterners in 2004. France will open its labour market in July.

Poland, with 38 million people, is by far the largest of the 2004 eastern entrants. Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007.

Economic factors are the main lure bringing Poles home.

"The Polish zloty has appreciated by about 40 per cent against the British pound since 2004, so people should be heading back," said Michael Dembinski, head of policy at the British-Polish Chamber of Commerce in Warsaw.

"Given the cost-of-living differential between the two countries it makes little sense to be an economic migrant now in the UK," he said.

The zloty is also up 30 per cent against the euro since 2004.

Poles saving up to send money home find their hard-earned cash doesn't go as far as in the past.

Resurgence in Poland

Poland's economy grew by 6.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2008, Slovakia's by 8.7 per cent and the Czech Republic's by 5.4 per cent. Britain, battered by a global credit crunch and tumbling house prices, is expected to grow by just 1.8 per cent in 2008.

Also, many east Europeans in Britain and Ireland have been employed in construction and related sectors which have been particularly hard hit by the economic slowdown.

Increasing the appeal of home, wages in eastern Europe have soared: Polish corporate sector wages were up 12.6 per cent in April from a year before, partly because of tighter supply due to migration.

East Europeans can still earn much more in a mature economy such as Britain than they can back home, but that advantage fades when the higher cost of living in Britain is considered.

"I went to London hoping to save up some money. I had a great time but never managed to save a penny," said Marcin Kikut, who teaches English in Warsaw after returning from London a few months ago.

"When I got back I was offered three jobs almost straight away. But I have a Polish friend still in London who wants to return but is scared he won't find a job here."

Many Poles left for Britain when unemployment in Poland ran at about 20 per cent. It is now 10.5 per cent.