The Motives for Polish Settlement in the German Part of the Functional Area of the City of Szczecin Case Study of the Town Löcknitz

Abstract

Located in north-western Poland at the border with Germany, the city of Szczecin and the surrounding municipalities and towns creates a functional area with more than 560,000 inhabitants. Observed for several years in Poland suburbanisation processes also concern Szczecin. These processes have a spatial and demographic dimension taking place within the city borders, and also in its functional area, administrative units surrounding the city. Functional area of the city delimited by Śleszyński and Komornicki in 2009, is also present in other planning documents but does not include the delimitation of the growing influence of the city on the areas located on the German side of the border. One can even state that the city in a slowl and unevident way recovers historical range of influence lost after the Yalta and Potsdam conference results. After the Polish accession to the European Union, the accession to the Schengen zone in 2007, and also after the opening of the German labor market, a gradual and slow process of settlement of the Polish population in areas on the German side began. Areas in close proximity to the city are in a relatively difficult demographic and economic situation. The article defines the socio-economic characteristics of these areas, and more precisely adjacent to the border with the Polish administrative unit Landkreis Vorpommern-Greifswald (Uecker-Randow), with a particular focus on the town of Löcknitz. These characteristics will be an introduction to the main purpose of the article which is to identify and describe the factors motivating the Polish population to settle in the trans-border areas and to identify favourable conditions, and barriers affecting the level of entrepreneurship in these areas. Statistical data, earlier references, interviews, and fieldwork were used to substantiate the adopted thesis.