Maciej Duszczyk - Why do people migrate? : labour market security and migration decisions

The introduction contains the main hypotheses and research questions as well as an answer to the question why the topic raised in the monograph allows for a better understanding of the process governing migration-related decision-making, and in this way assists in projecting migration policies. The principal hypotheses and research questions are based on the search for an answer to the following question: to what extent labour market security, which can be provided in various ways, influences both the decision to emigrate and the choice of a particular destination country. All the publications chapters are summarised in the introduction.

The twentieth century is oftentimes referred to as the century of migration (e.g. Castles, de Haas, & Miller, 2014). In the second half of it, the migration status of many countries had gradually changed; they had evolved from being typical countries of emigration to acquiring the status of countries of both emigration and immigration, to have eventually become countries of immigration. In Europe, the greatest transformation in that sphere had taken place in countries of the south of the continent, that is, in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece. They had thus been named new countries of immigration (Oklski, 2012). At the same time, countries of Central and Eastern Europe, in spite of their having been open to immigration as a result of the systemic transformation that started in 1989, retained their status of typical countries of emigration. The initial period of their membership in the European Union (EU), joined by most of those countries in 2004, brought no change in this respect. The magnitude of the wave of post-accession migration has undoubtedly exceeded the relevant forecasts (Boeri & Brcker, 2000; Fassmann & Hintermann, 1997; Wallace, 1998). It has perhaps actually been one of the many causes of the current political crisis in the EU. The result of the Brexit referendum having been the most adverse effect it co-determined. Anyway, it was not until the second decade of the twenty-first century that the migration status of the countries of Central Europe changed, with great numbers of citizens of Ukraine starting to flow in and settle throughout the region (see Duszczyk & Matuszczyk, 2016). This was related to the deteriorating economic situation in Ukraine, a result of delayed free-market reforms, as well as to the socio-economic consequences of the armed conflict in the east of the country. Owing to the mass influx of Ukrainians and, on a smaller scale, migrants from other East European countries, Central European states have rapidly transformed into emigration-immigration settings.

Poland has been the country facing most pronounced change of migration status. The number of foreigners to whom temporary residence permits were issued grew dramatically in the years 20142018, from below 40,000 in 2014 to over 200,000 in 2018. There was a similar increase in permanent residence permits within the same period, their number having increased from 25,000 to 67,000 (Office for Foreigners, 2019). At the same time, a dynamic growth of the numbers of foreigners in the Polish labour market occurred, especially with respect to the segment of seasonal jobs. Within just the three-year period between 2015 and 2018, the respective figures increased by over 300% (Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy, 2019). During that time, for many Ukrainian nationals, Poland became a destination rather than just a transition country. Notably, all the aforementioned large-scale shifts have brought about neither an increase in unemployment rates nor a drop of employment figures in Poland. It caused no major social tensions either (Duszczyk & Matuszczyk, 2018). The increase in the attractiveness of Poland for immigrants is largely confirmed by the Eurostat data on the scale of first residence permits issued in the EU countries in 20152017. For instance, in 2017 for Poland, the number amounted to more than 683,000, well above the numbers recorded for some of the typical countries of immigration, such as Germany (535,000) or the United Kingdom (517,000); (Eurostat, 2019).