Long-term emigration of Polish women from the perspective of motives and consequences in the professional field

Purpose: Contemporary international migration more and more often concerns educated women who perceive emigration as an opportunity to improve their living conditions, earn higher wages, better use their competences or explore other cultures. The aim of this paper is to present long-term emigration of Polish women from the perspective of motives and consequences in the professional area. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative study in the form of a questionnaire survey was conducted on a group of 126 women, followed by 10 in-depth interviews. Findings: Most female respondents were motivated by several factors combining financial and living aspects or those related to self-development and curiosity about the world. Long-term emigration also had a significant impact on women's professional development. Almost half of the respondents improved their formal qualifications through studies or certified trainings confirming their language skills, specialisation or qualifications to perform a job. On the other hand, almost all respondents acquired new or developed their existing knowledge and skills by performing diverse and complex tasks, self-education, instructions from more experienced colleagues or internal training. Research limitations/implications: The main limitations of the research relate to the size of the sample, which, given the scale of Polish emigration, could have been larger. Social implications: Understanding the motives of long-term emigration of Polish women can help decision-makers create better public policies in order to create better conditions for personal and professional life. This will help to keep valuable human capital in the economy. Originality/value: The paper presents the current motives of long-term emigration of Polish women, which, as it has been shown, have changed over the last few decades. The added value of research on migration is also the demonstration of the impact of long-term emigration of women on their professional development.