Introduction

The introduction below sets the stage for the book by briefly describing the legal circumstances of the movement of workers after the European Union (EU) enlargement of 2004 and the selectivity of those migrations. This strong selectivity was the main inspiration for formulating seven research questions, which focus on how migration decisions were made, on factors influencing the destination choices and the reasons for remaining in the destination countries. The introduction then presents the theoretical framework for this book, which is based on the push–pull framework, the methods and the empirical material – qualitative interviews with Polish migrants in Germany, the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands – as well as the volume's structure.