THE Polish exodus from the UK is gathering pace, with tens of thousands of eastern Europeans heading home to avoid the recession.
Some 56,000 eastern Europeans left Britain in the year to September last year, just as the credit crunch took hold, latest figures show.
Joanna Walder is one of those returning to Poland from Scotland. She has been in Edinburgh for more than two
years but her employment in the Neptun Polish Food shop on Easter Road is coming to an end and she has found it difficult to get other work.
"It's been very hard to find something else," said Ms Walder, who will fly back to Poland on 31 May this year.
She added: "My English is not too bad but I still have trouble getting work. It's very hard to leave after two years, but I don't have a choice."
Ewa Tamiakowska, a hairdresser at Smart Cut, a Polish-run salon in Edinburgh, said she had noticed a slight drop-off in the number of Poles coming in for haircuts and she knew of several who had either left for Poland or were going soon.
She said: "A lot of Polish people want to go back home but much of it is time. If you have been here for five years, as many people have, it feels like it's time to go back."
Ms Tamiakowska said she had a Scottish boyfriend and had just started running a beauty therapy room in the salon – two good reasons for staying in Scotland, she said.
But she added: "I do know quite a few who have decided now is the time to go."
The latest figures from the Provisional International Passenger Survey compared with only 25,000 who left the previous year. But because 100,000 arrived, there was still an overall increase of 44,000. Other, more recent, figures from the Home Office, have started to indicate an even sharper decline in the number of eastern European workers in the UK.
In the first three months of this year, 23,000 eastern European workers applied to join the Workers Registration Scheme. That was less than half the level of the same period last year.
Immigration minister Phil Woolas claimed immigration levels were "balancing".
He said: "These figures show that immigration levels are balancing as more eastern Europeans are now leaving the UK to return home.
"This suggests that increasing prosperity in post-Soviet eastern Europe in the long term can only be beneficial for the UK."
The passenger survey figures also showed tens of thousands more Britons are leaving the country than arriving.
In the year to September 2008, 165,000 British citizens emigrated, while 74,000 returned – a net outflow of 91,000. A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government stressed that ministers remained committed to attracting migrants to Scotland – through good times and bad.
She said: "Attracting fresh talent is vital for the long term future of Scotland and migrant workers are making an important contribution."
And she added: "While current economic conditions will make it increasingly difficult to attract people to Scotland, this government is taking decisive action to stimulate growth and enhance Scotland's competitive advantage as a destination economy for migrants."
