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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
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'Polish plumber' is going home
ThenIn 2004 ten countries, eight of which former communist from Central and Eastern Europe joined the EU. An unprecedented wave of economic migrants moved to the West; some estimate the wave to be of more than 2 million people; most of them moved to Britain; the largest national group of migrants came form Poland. The phenomenon was known as the 'polish plumber'. Most people weren't Poles, and most migrating Poles weren't plumbers, but the notion has stuck. Up to 90 percent of all migrants were people of 35 year old or younger. In fact, that meant that this was the first generation maturing during the post-communism. What they expected to find in Britain, and elsewhere, were up to 10 times higher salaries. The major question that people asked then, was whether these migrants were 'hamsters' or 'storks', in other words, whether they were moving to build their new homes in Britain and elsewhere, or were just economic opportunists, without strong feeling of attachment to either place. Less than 2 years alter, the answer seems obvious; most post-2004 migrants turned out to be 'storks'.
NowThe trend now has reversed. Approximately a half of those who migrated for better life after the Central Europe joined the EU are now back into their native lands. The Poles are again the group that leads the trend in numbers. And Britain is the country that suffers most from the unexpected outflow of migrants. The reasons for this new trend are numerous, from gains in value of the Polish and other regional national currencies through strong economic growth in Central and Eastern Europe, the high cost of living in Britain, and last but not least, the British pound relative devaluation vis-à-vis these currencies. The bottom line is that what looked then as 10 times difference in the remuneration in Britain and some Central European countries has been almost completely eliminated if the difference in the costs of living is also included in the calculation. This new phenomenon, however, has important impact on the real estate market, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. Up to twenty percent of this market in countries like Poland exists because of the demand created by returning economic migrants.
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