Contemporary Challenges and Threats to the Development of Polish Regions in the Context of the Phenomena of Migration and Re-emigration Cover Image

Contemporary Challenges and Threats to the Development of Polish Regions in the Context of the Phenomena of Migration and Re-emigration
Contemporary Challenges and Threats to the Development of Polish Regions in the Context of the Phenomena of Migration and Re-emigration

Author(s): Brygida Solga, Krystian Heffner
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: Slezská univerzita v Opavě, Fakulta veřejných politik
Keywords: Foreign migration; migration region; social and economic consequences; regional development

Summary/Abstract: After a decade of membership in the European Union and the opening of the European labor markets for Poles, the importance of foreign migration and its impact on the development of particular regions has grown significantly. The evaluation of foreign migration with regard to the opportunities and threats for regional development - even if not quite ambiguous - rightly puts foreign migration balance and their results in the context of risks to the region’s development. Therefore, the following consequences of permanent negative migration balance are the most important for the development of the region: loss of human and social capital, decreasing population and rapid worsening of the age structure, growing labor deficit, shortages in educated personnel and skilled workforce within specific lines of business, reducing local budgets and generally decreasing the economic potential of the region. As a result, despite the significant transfer of income, increasing standards of living and wealth primarily in migrant families, decreasing unemployment and growing professional skills of the migrants resulting from migration - the impact of positive consequences of migration on a region’s development is distinctly less visible.

  • Issue Year: 2/2014
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 189-201
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: English