Money Talks | 09.10.2008 | 00:30
Poles Pack Up and Head for Germany
Poland, which is new to the European Union, isn’t usually seen as having a booming economy. Well now things are changing and it seems some Poles can’t afford to live in their own country anymore.
For eastern Germans living near the Polish border it used to be quite normal to drive to the other side to fill up their cars on the cheap or buy inexpensive food items, cigarettes and alcohol. But in the past few years, places like the German border village of Loecknitz in the northern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have experienced something quite new. Poles are increasingly coming over to the German side to either just live there or set up businesses.
With a strong zloty and a booming Polish economy, life in Poland has become more expensive than in some rural regions in eastern Germany, rents and land included. The new arrivals from Poland are widely seen as an enrichment of local cultural and economic life, but some feel threatened by the new realities on the ground.
Reporter: Hardy Graupner
