ABSTRACT
Post-accession migration 1 from Central and Eastern Europe (hereinafter CEE) is unique in that it grew in many cases to become massive and spontaneous in a very short period after the European Union (EU) enlargement of 1 May 2004. Membership of the EU for CEE countries created a crucial momentum for social change in terms of migration processes from those countries. Although migration had taken place before, in the 1990s and earlier, there was an elimination of restrictions in access to selected labour markets. Patterns of migration have since been changing mostly in terms of substance and scale, but also in terms of structure, affecting both the countries seen as sending and the receiving countries.
