Poland's Brain Drain Reverses as 300,000 Young Poles Return Home
From 2017 to 2024, more than 300,000 individuals from Poland made the decision to return home, marking a shift from the emigration pattern that started in 2004. A survey conducted in 2013 revealed that 69% of Polish citizens had relatives living overseas. Since 2004, Poland's economy has expanded at an annual rate of 4%, with salaries tripling and disposable income rising. Monocle highlights four young returnees: Agnieszka Homanska, 27, who works with Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski and co-founded Zryw; Michal Tarnowski, 30, who returned from the UK to join the Ministry of Digital Affairs and holds a PPE degree from Oxford; Marcin Szala, 46, who co-founded Liceum Artes Liberales in 2022; and Aleksandra Pedraszewska, 32, who launched Vastpoint, aimed at Polish start-ups.
Key facts
- At least 300,000 Poles living abroad returned home between 2017 and 2024.
- About 5 per cent of Polish citizens left the country in the first 10 years of EU membership from 2004, mostly settling in Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK.
- A 2013 survey showed 69 per cent of Poles had a family member or close friend living and working permanently abroad.
- Poland's economy has grown 4 per cent on average annually since 2004, with salaries tripling.
- Agnieszka Homanska, 27, runs the political cabinet of Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski and co-founded the nonpartisan initiative Zryw in 2023.
- Michal Tarnowski, 30, joined Poland's Ministry of Digital Affairs in 2025 to work on the digital services tax.
- Marcin Szala, 46, co-founded Liceum Artes Liberales (LAL) in 2022 in Warsaw's Wola district.
- Aleksandra Pedraszewska, 32, founded Vastpoint, a venture-capital fund for Polish start-ups, and cites ElevenLabs, founded in Warsaw in 2022 and valued at $11bn (€9.5bn), as a symbol of Poland's economic miracle.
Entities
Artists
- Agnieszka Homanska
- Radosław Sikorski
- Aleksandra Uznanska-Wisniewska
- Michal Tarnowski
- Marcin Szala
- Aleksandra Pedraszewska
- Mati Staniszewski
- Piotr Dabkowski
Institutions
- European Union
- McGill University
- University of Warsaw
- Zryw
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Ministry of Digital Affairs
- University of Oxford
- Liceum Artes Liberales
- Vastpoint
- Google Campus
- ElevenLabs
- Monocle
Locations
- Poland
- Germany
- Ireland
- Netherlands
- United Kingdom
- Warsaw
- Montréal
- Canada
- Wola district
- Praga District
- London
- Berlin
- New York
- Silicon Valley
Sources
- Monocle —