Poland wants its people back

doverPolish authorities are appealing to its workers in Britain to return home.

As many as 679,000 Poles are living in the UK, many having arrived when Poland joined the EU in 2004.

But Polish officials are increasingly concerned that a brain drain to depriving the country of well-educated and skilled workers.

It has set up a Returns programme aimed at enticing people back home and it is looking for ways to offer new opportunities to returnees.

Witold Sobkow, the Polish ambassador to the UK, said: “A lot of people come here because they find Britain very attractive as a country also, not just as a place to work and earn money.

"So some of them will settle down here, some of them will save money and will come back.

"We call it the revolving door policy, people come and go."

Although admitting to not knowing precise figures, he added: “We are worried we may lose some well educated people and also skilled workers because we need them.

“We have a special programme called Powroty, or Returns, where we are trying to attract these people back home.

“We are creating opportunities at home and I know there are a lot of success stories.

“We are showing them the opportunities in Poland that they can achieve when they come back.”

Recent figures from the Migration Observatory show that the UK’s population has increased by more than half a million in the last three years.

The study by the Migration Observatory, based on analysis of Census data and the official Labour Force Survey, predicted that immigrants increased the population of England by 565,000 between 2011 and 2014.

Some 318,000 of these were from various eastern European countries which area now part of the EU, while almost another 50,000 were from the rest of the EU.