Central and Eastern European Migration Review

The text attempts at explaining different positions that the two groups of Eastern European immigrants – Jews from the former Soviet Union and Poles – have acquired in the New York City labour market at the turn of the 20th and 21st century. The initial difference in the human capital, measured by education and occupation has been accelerated by the difference in social capital that the two groups could rely on in New York City (organizational network of legal and practical assistance coming from one of the wealthiest and prestigious group for post-Soviet Jewish immigrants versus support coming from working class but well-rooted group of Polish-Americans and ‘white ethnics’ for Polish immigrants). These different resources have been shaped in the course of over a century of Jewish and Polish migrations from Eastern Europe to the US. Additionally, since the late 20th century, the difference between the two groups has been further deepened by the legal status that is typically accessible to the two of them in the US (refugees vs immigrants, including the unauthorized ones). The text also compares the Eastern European immigrants’ position with other immigrant groups’ one in the New York City labour market. The US 2000 census statistics (The Newest New Yorkers 2000) document the difference in human capital and legal status of the two groups while results of my fieldwork in Greenpoint, a traditional destination of Polish immigrants in Brooklyn and of the existing qualitative research on post-Soviet Jewish immigrants in New York City provided data on social networks and extended evidence on human capital and consequences of legal status.

The article discusses the notion of return migration with regard to its permanency and temporariness. In reference to selective patterns of return migration, factors conducive to permanent returns and to re-emigration, i.e. subsequent migration after the return, are examined with the use of a logistic regression model. Analyses demonstrated in the article are devoted to return migration to Poland in 1989-2002 and based on the 2002 Polish census data. The obtained results confirm earlier findings on the major role of the level of human capital and family attachments in shaping the nature of the return waves. It was revealed that return migrants who decided on a longer stay in Poland were more often living in Polish urban areas, and had higher human capital and stronger family attachments to Poland, when compared to re-emigrants. It was also observed that return migrants possessing dual nationality were the most likely to engage in re-emigration, while descendants of Polish emigrants tended to settle in Poland on a more permanent basis.

The article introduces the theoretical approach to analysing return migration policy and discusses the main dilemmas of the state related to political reaction to returns of its nationals. The concept of reactive and active policy is presented, the first aiming at minimising the negative effects of returns, while the second focused on stimulating the return processes. The main drivers and determinants of the return policy effectiveness as well as the types, scope and scale of state activities addressed to returnees are also discussed in the article. The practice of state policy implementation is illustrated with the example of the particular case of Poland as a country which faced mass emigration after accession to the European Union and return migration in the recent years. The review of conceptual documents, the rationale for the state policy and the variety of activities implemented by the Polish government and other institutions are presented.

The purpose of this article was to answer the question whether and how the legal status, and in particular its increase, influences the economic and professional adaptation of immigrants with different ethnic backgrounds. The analysis was of a qualitative nature and was based on in-depth interviews with Ukrainian and Vietnamese immigrants having different legal statuses. Contrary to the assumed hypothesis, it turned out that the increase of the legal status of the studied immigrants from Ukraine and Vietnam, meaning that they achieve more secure legal status – giving them wider scope of rights and a growing sense of security and stability – rarely contributed to a significant improvement of their economic and professional position. Meanwhile, there could be observed differences between these two groups in terms of patterns of adaptation in the Polish economy, which were influenced by the legal framework, but also by other important factors, such as, in particular, the availability of income-bringing activities and social networks.