In recent months, as the recession continues to bite in the UK, more Polish people are returning to the land of their birth. The economic gap between the two countries has closed as Britain emerges from a deep recession and Poland hopes for a better recovery than many other EU countries.

Also, the pound has slumped against the Polish zloty. Where the exchange rate once stood at seven zlotys to the pound, now the rate is just 4.7. At the same time average wages have almost doubled in Poland, so many Polish workers who may at one time have been attracted by the prospect of finding work in the UK are finding that financially they may as well stay at home.

Such statistics as are available show that the large numbers of new Polish immigrants coming into the UK has slowed down. Figures from the Polish Embassy show that in 2007 the number of Poles coming to this country was over 150,000, the following year that number had fallen to just under 100,000.

The Institute for Public Policy Research produced figures claiming that half of the estimated 1.5 million Poles who had entered the country since 2004 from Eastern Europe had gone back home. However those claims were questioned by the Centre for International Affairs in Warsaw. Professor Krystyna Iglicka from the centre claimed that about a million Polish still lived in the UK including workers, students and dependants.

Also the Polish Central Statistical Office, which produces its own estimates of Poles working abroad said that the number of Poles in the UK had fallen only slightly in 2008 and for 2009, although official figures were not available, unemployment rates in Poland are stable. This would also indicate that not as many Poles had returned from the UK as are claimed by the IPPR figures.

However, the Polish Express newspaper, the leading Polish weekly newspaper in the UK says that the economic slowdown in Poland has led to many reversing their earlier decision to return to their homeland and are buying one-way tickets to the UK once again. Once again, because of the fluctuations due to seasonable labour and inconsistencies with official figures it is difficult to say with any precision, not only how many Polish people are in the UK at any one time but also how many Poles are leaving to return to their place of birth.