Since accession one percent of the population has worked abroad

"We have not recorded a massive wave of migration to work abroad. The interest in working abroad was relatively weak among the Poles," Deputy Economy and Labour Minister Piotr Kulpa said. Poles prefer to go to work for a few months to countries located close to Poland, most often to Germany. Over the past 12 months, 350,000 found employment there, of which 90% were seasonal workers in agriculture or forestry. The United Kingdom was the second most popular destination, with 73,500 Polish citizens working there over the past 12 months. There were also 40,000 working in Italy, around 20,000 in Netherlands, followed by Ireland and Spain. Most of them were working in sectors which do not require language skills, such as agriculture and construction. Out of these countries only the UK and Ireland fully opened their labour markets to citizens of new Member States upon their accession. In most of the other countries, Poles were seeking legal work on the same terms as prior to accession. (Parkiet, p.7) T.J.