To what extent has the liberation of the labour market after Poland's accession to the European Union confirmed the myth that Italy is an excellent labour migration country for skilled Poles? Has the situation of Polish women previously working in the Apennine Peninsula improved thanks to the freedom of movement of workers? Has the satisfaction/dissatisfaction with staying in the Italian labour market affected the satisfaction with life in Bel Paese?

Dr Kamila Kowalska from the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies of the University of Warsaw, a lawyer and labour market expert, answers this question in her research.

"The results of my research - says Dr Kowalska - contribute, in a way, to the collapse of the myth of Italy, associated in the Polish consciousness since the 1980s with a country to which it is worth travelling in order to take up a job and earn high wages. The long-term crisis into which the country fell at the end of 2007, as well as the existing migration patterns on the local labour market (segmentation, grey economy, clientelism) have shown that in the situation of gradual economic growth in Poland and extensive employment opportunities in other EU countries, Italy has lost its power to attract workers-migrants from Poland".