Introduction: Patterns of Migration in Central Europe

Abstract

Since the memorable events of 1989, international migration in the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe has undergone an historical evolution. In particular, the Central European countries of Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary became a space for new and dynamic international population movements. For almost two centuries these countries have been sending migrants to the West. This tradition of emigration continues, in new forms, as flows to the European Union. Yet the size of such East—West migration was nothing like as high as predicted in the early 1990s. What is new, is that these countries have themselves become the destination for significant population flows. They attract temporary labourers, migrant traders, tourists and business people from outside the region, as well as migrants trying to get into Western Europe. In particular, they draw people from the bordering countries of the former Soviet Union, from South-Eastern Europe and even from non-European countries as distant as Vietnam, China and Sri Lanka.