by Camilla Azzini
Countries of destination
UNITED KINDOM: immigration from POLAND
Since the EU enlargement in 2004, the number of Polish people who emigrate to UK arise significantly. Rapid increase in migration – 600.000 Polish migrants up to March 2009 with the UK Workers Registration Scheme, two million according to some newspaper – had the unexpected result of large numbers of Polish children arriving to British schoold – over 40.000.
See also
- Recent Polish Migrants in London: social networks, transience and settlement (2007) funded by the ESRC.
- Polish Pupils in London Primary Schools: opportunities and challenges (2008) funded by Multiverse.
- Stories from Three Generations of Polish Migrants funded by Heritage Lottery (2009)
SPAIN: immigration from ROMANIA
Romanian population flows have been increasing in the last years especially since 2000 when we had 6.240 Romanians registered until the 798.892 Romanians in 2009. The main explanations of this increase are related to the socioeconomic situation in Romania and to the fact that Spain improve the socio-economic situation and the existence of a black market. Among the population the main group is concentrated in the age of working with a major concentration in 4 areas (Madrid Comunitat Valenciana, Andalucia and Catalunya).
There are no specific policies or actions that take in account the situation of children left behind or the impact of migration on children. Nevertheless focus is put on the welcoming processes and tools for helping people to get integrated in school to understand the language, the system and the culture.