Is the Polish diaspora returning home?

Is the Polish influx to Britain coming to an end? It's hard to believe when an estimated 1m Polish workers have come to the UK since 2004. But talk to the businesses who have been employing Poles and a different picture emerges.

Kris Ruszczynski had 50 Polish builders working for his company, Polonia, on the refit of the Home Office. At the end of 2007 that suddenly changed. "It hit me hard," said Ruszczynski. "Nearly 30 per cent of my team didn't come back after Christmas."

From agriculture to construction you will find a similar story. Even the airlines have noticed a change.

SkyEurope operated routes from several British cities to Poland but at the end of 2007 they closed them down. Tomasz Zeglinski of SkyEurope says the demand from Poland was simply no longer there. "It has been falling since summer 2007... We noticed there is

not so many Polish people in the UK, they have simply gone."

Daniel Leszczynski, 23, is part of the Polish exodus. After three years in London he progressed from pot-washer to working on the accounts at the Peter Jones store in Sloane Square. "Job-wise, Poland's getting better and better," he said before he left. "I've been offered jobs but always refusing them. Now I think it's time to accept." Three days after he returned to his home town in central Poland, Daniel had a job as a car salesman.

Finding accurate data on the scale of this return migration is virtually impossible. We don't know who's here, let alone who's leaving. We do know the percentage of Poles applying to work under the workers' registration was down last year, by almost 10 per cent. Research conducted for the Polish Ministry of Labour last year also pointed to workers returning home.

So why are Poles forsaking high wages, guaranteed employment and bad weather for a less certain future back home? In the