Emigration from Central and Eastern Europe: Origin Country Perspectives

Lucia Kurekova (Central European University), Marcin Galent (Jagiellonian University) and Dace Dzenovska (COMPAS)

Thursday, 09 May 2013, 4pm to 6.30pm

Seminar Room 3, ODID, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TB

Hosted by International Migration Institute

About the event

Migrants from Central and Eastern Europe have become an inseparable part of the British ethnic mosaic. Polish is the second most commonly spoken language in England and Wales, and everyone knows at least one anecdote about the iconic ‘plumber’ or a Czech girl who serves lattes during the day and attends English college in the evenings. Eastern European migration attracts a lot of scholarly attention in the UK, however little has been said about the origin country perspective in this debate. What has driven these people to leave in the first place? What are the consequences of their decisions? Not only the costs – depopulation of rural areas in certain localities in Eastern Europe – but also the benefits – low unemployment, skill transfers and modernization projects – of this out-migration are occurring on an unprecedented scale. These issues are hugely debated in the local emigration contexts among researchers and policy makers, but rarely make it through to English speaking academia.

This Special Seminar, hosted by the International Migration Institute (IMI) aims to bring these arguments to light, thereby filling the substantial gap in how emigration from Central Eastern Europe has been conceptualised thus far.

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