Współczesne migracje z Polski – próba oceny statystycznej zjawiska w latach 2004-2013

A discussion about the migration of Polish society after the accession of Poland to the European Union appears to be unjustified. The phenomenon of the migration of Polish society reaches the XIXth century, when about four million Polish emigrants settled down in the United States of America. Since the middle of the XIXth century the migration for employment has played the most important role in Poland. In the article its authors conducted the analysis of Polish migration since 2004. Statistical material comes from Polish Central Statistical Office, reports and research results. The main hypothesis of the article is that the effect of the accession of Poland to the European Union was the increase in the employment mobility of Polish workers due to the improvement of institutional conditions. The second hypothesis showed that on account of social-economic conditions inhabitants of eastern Poland, much more often decided on moving abroad than the residents of better developed areas of western Poland. However, the conducted data analysis of applying contemporary emigration did not prove the second hypothesis. It only let state that economic changes had a great impact on the scale volatility of the number of people who emigrated after 2004. The biggest decrease of the number of Polish emigrants took place in 2009 (nearly 40% year to year) which was connected with the economic crisis. The goal of this article is an analysis of Polish migration in the years 2004–2013. The authors conducted the analysis in the view of age and gender. The article describes the phenomenon of Polish migration before the accession to the European Union in 2004.