WHEN Richard Fetyko left his native Slovakia in 1992 for a high-school study-abroad programme, he planned to return at the end of the year. Instead he spent 22 years in America, earning university degrees and working in banking and on Wall Street. “I didn’t really see myself able to apply my skills in Slovakia,” Mr Fetyko says. But as Slovakia’s economy matured, that started to change. In 2014 he got an offer from an investment firm in Bratislava, and came home.
Mr Fetyko was part of a wave. From 1992 to 2015, so many people left eastern Europe that its population shrank by 18m, or about 6%, according to UN figures. The trend accelerated as the region’s countries entered the European Union. It was a sour turn for the EU’s new members: rather than making them as rich as western Europe, accession lured their workers to move there.
In the west, especially Britain and France, that led to fears of “Polish plumbers” undercutting local wages. On August 23rd Emmanuel Macron...Continue reading
Souce: Europe http://ift.tt/2wBfZNI
EmoticonEmoticon