Central Europe’s Returnees – a Mix of the Relieved and the Reluctant

Eva is one of hundreds of thousands of Czechs, Hungarians, Poles and Slovaks who, after moving to the UK in search of a better life, more opportunities, adventure and money when EU membership opened the door in 2004, have decided to return home following the UK's 2016 decision to leave the EU, which officially happened in 2020.

Precise numbers are hard to come by, but it's clear there has been an eastward migration of people over the last few years, partly reversing the flows in the years after the four Central European nations joined the EU.

In a recent paper published by the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence, the researchers calculated that there had been a fall of 1.3 million in the non-UK born population between July-September 2019 and July-September 2020. If correct, this would represent the largest fall in the UK resident population since World War II.

Regarding Central Europeans in particular, there were around 815,000 Polish-born citizens in the UK in 2020 compared with 1.021 million in 2017, when the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) registered the highest ever number of foreign residents from Poland. According to the ONS, that number fell by almost 100,000 between 2019 and 2020 alone.

The numbers of Central Europeans applying for settled status in the UK also suggest departures. According to data from the British Home Office, by the end of last year 58,750 Czechs had applied for settled status - even though estimates from the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs have around 100,000 Czechs living in the UK. Hungarians applying for settled status by the end of 2020 numbered 131,120 compared with previous estimates of 200,000 living in the UK.

The return of so many young, educated, experienced and, in some cases,...