Milena Rachid Chehab has discovered a new breed of Polish immigrant worker: Expats in Ukraine! “These are experts who bear the free-market flame eastwards. Our previous knowledge of this species was limited to foreigners who, at the beginning of the nineties, took on top management jobs in western firms entering the Polish market. Now the domino effect is kicking in: Poles who have gathered experience over the years are passing it on to Ukrainians who, in economic terms, are standing at dawn of transformation.” Why move from Warsaw to Kiev? “Better to be a big fish in a little pond than the other way round,” as one manager put it.
Sorry the article is in Polish maybe Polish Press can translate?
[...] My personal experience and therefore common sense also suggest something contradicting with Scatts’s observations. 16 years ago my family used to live in a tiny 2-room apartment. Now we live in a four-times larger house (which doubled in value within last 4 years). Public transport vehicles in my town are all shining and new. City’s sewer no longer drops the city’s poo to the Vistula – now it all goes to treatment plant to protect the environment. Drinking water is now provided through a new plant, and is no longer purified with chlorine, but with use of more advanced and ecological technologies. The police are being more and more friendly and generally more up to standards. City centre has been revitalised, most historic buildings, whole blocks, renovated, as most of the historic city streets. Mayor transit roads leading through the city have been widened and redone. Kilometres of new bike lanes have been added, following a plan to create a comprehensive city-wide network. Part of the city ringroad is ready, together with a new bridge (part of the future A1 (Rome-Helsinki) motorway). New city districts that were developed in recent years are tidy and pleasant, some areas are even pretty. New civil society movements have emerged: political, social, artistic, hobbyist. Soon a new Modern Art Museum will be opened. Local largest university, UMK, ranked 4-6th, is undergoing constant development. Recent invention of an optical eye-diagnosis machine will probably help many people around the world keep their sight. Unemployment is very low, around 6% (probably lower, as many people work in grey zone, being registered as unemployed to maintain free access to health insurance). Even people drink in a more cultured way and bring capitalism to the wild East. [...]
I think that it is a very interesting and amusing article. Practically all its main points are true.