article_snippet: One-way ticket: Polish migrants from Zychlin board a coach in Warsaw to start a new life working in Britain .
article_snippet: But the most decisive factor was the party’s decision not to impose controls in 2004 when Poland and seven other former Eastern Bloc countries joined the EU.
article_snippet: Labour, unlike in almost every other major European economy, opted not to impose transitional controls when eight former Eastern Bloc countries joined the EU in 2004.
article_snippet: What followed was one of the largest peacetime movements of people in European history.
article_snippet: At the end of 2004, there were 167,000 Eastern Europeans in the UK.