i mean when 3 mil of your youngest and most mobile (and most prone to have kids) people leave the country to work in uk, germany etc it was to be expected. thing is all the goverments thought that the 2000-2020 emigration is going to be like all the ones before it. people go abroad, work for 10 years (mostly men) return with great money, start families, buy stuff, build houses, start businesses. what , to their total suprise, the goverments in poland found out, is that if a polish med student gets a job as a doctor/nurse in uk, germany etc they do not come back. (almost close to 2/3s of all polish med school majors never work in poland, but the polish state pays for them going to a med school). and this drips down. why work for 2800 z, when you can work for 2000 euros. same lidl, better pay, and life cost is similar but the quality is better. but the core thing was the not returning thing. normaly you would go back to take care of your parents/get married etc. well turns out if you stay in the west for 10-20 years, you don't want to take care of your parents, and you often don't feel the urge to be married (at all, never mind with "only with a nice polish boy/girl").
Poland