ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the Labour Force Survey (LFS) data on the international mobility of Polish nationals are used to present the features of return migration. It discusses the scale of post-accession return migration and presents its selectivity with regard to age, skills, region of origin and destination as compared to post-accession emigration. The chapter explains the recent developments in the international economic situation, mainly the financial crisis of 2007, and discusses its impact on the propensity to return of various groups of migrants. Interestingly, returns involved mostly labour migrants resident in Belgium and France, destinations relatively close to Poland. In the twentieth century the first return flow resulted from the Great Depression of 1929, which put an end to the freedom of international mobility that had existed hitherto. The Population Census conducted in 2002 provided information on the return migration of the 1990s. Nevertheless, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) of Poland does attempt to calculate the stock of Polish emigrants.
