The post-EU-entry emigration of Poles was one of the most important events in Polish history. In addition to traditional patterns of international mobility, a completely new direction for Polish emigrants became Ireland and the UK. Post-EU-entry emigration from Central and Eastern Europe (mainly from Poland) was one of the main factors shaping the image and ethnic structure of contemporary Great Britain. Not surprisingly, it has been recognized as one of the most important events in the migration history of Great Britain. The purpose of this paper is to examine the scale of Polish immigration to the UK in light of British statistical sources. The paper attempts to show not only a change in migrant flow, but also provides the demographic and social characteristics of this group of people and its spatial distribution. In addition, the paper describes the principal UK sources of information on the scale of post-EU-entry migration.

The aim of this study is to determine changes in the size and structure of the main ethnic groups of foreigners living in Bremen and to calculate the changes in the level of segregation within these groups, as well as in relation to the total population of this city and the German population in the years 1979–2010. For detailed research the four largest groups of foreigners were selected: Turks, Poles, citizens of the “old EU” (EU 15) and citizens of the countries constituting the former Yugoslavia. Index of segregation (IS) indicates a relatively low level of spatial segregation of foreigners in Bremen and in the years 1979–2009 its values decreased only slightly. Only in the case of Poles and the former Yugoslavs considerable declines were recorded. The highest level of segregation was observed in the case of the Turks. This minority, in comparison to other groups of foreigners, also shows the greatest tendency to isolate, which is confirmed by high values of index of dissimilarity (ID). Immigrants from Turkey, Poland and the former Yugoslavia usually concentrate in areas with lower rents and multi-family buildings located in areas filled with post-war housing blocks outside the city center. Foreigners from the EU 15 countries tend to choose midtown neighborhoods characterized by higher rental prices. Furthermore, their level of income allows them to make housing decisions less dependent on the rent costs and may take into account other factors that ensure better living conditions.

In Mexico, ethnicity is defined based on the language used by a given individual. The indigenous population of Mexico numbers over six million, which is 6.5% of the country’s overall population. The 2005 Mexico Population Census reveals 70 different languages used in the country. The capital city of Mexico – Ciudad de México (Distrito Federal), is a special case with a small percentage of indigenous peoples (1.5%) but a very large variety of languages. The same is true of the adjacent State of México. The paper covers the spatial distribution of ethnic groups across Mexico City as well as selected social characteristics. This includes the age structure and the level of illiteracy for the Indian population and the Spanish-speaking population as well as the Human Development Index. The paper also analyzes the standard of living of both studied populations. The standard of living was measured in terms of infrastructure and selected household products owned by Indians and Spanish speakers.

The paper analyzes selected social and economic indicators that affect the development of the Krakow Metropolitan Area. The city of Krakow is becoming increasingly more linked to other cities around the world and may become Poland’s second global city – after Warsaw. The city’s global connections have made it a point of interest in global economic analyses, which makes it even more metropolitan in nature. Krakow’s suburbs are expanding in most directions from the city proper. Residents leaving the city are moving not only to the first ring of townships around the city but also to the second ring. In addition to distance, easy road access plays a key role in the development of Krakow suburbs. Major arteries leading out of the city as well as motorway exits serve as hubs of suburban development. Finally, townships located in the distant corners of the Krakow Metropolitan Area are becoming increasingly more affluent and are starting to resemble townships directly adjacent to the city of Krakow.

Polish geographers have traditionally focused on research on large cities. However, in the 1990’s, their interests became influenced by Poland’s economic and political transformation. This process led to a break-down of past research methods and a renaissance of local studies, shifting from the macro-scale to that of small towns, while disregarding the meso-scale i.e. midsize towns. Such a lack of interest in midsize towns might result, on the one hand, from vague identification criteria used for this group of towns, and on the other hand, from the need to apply a wider methodological spectrum and a broader theoretical base for the research. The crucial problem is described by the following question: What role do midsize towns play in society and the economy? In other words, what is the relationship between towns in various size groups with their respective supply areas? Establishing the relationship between a town’s population and its functional structure enabled to determine the functional characteristics of midsize towns. The effect of a town’s surrounding area and its structural and functional background should also be considered. The paper analyzes these issues in light of municipal network models, dynamics of municipal systems, municipal development stages, and the theory of the economic base. Certain theories of regional development are also discussed

The structure of the service infrastructure in Hungary is changing due to the country’s ongoing demographic shift. This affects commercial and social services alike. This paper presents a GIS-aided analysis of service availability via the estimation of shortest commuting times to three different kind of secondary level educational facilities.
The official Hungarian database of the Information System of Public Education containing the addresses of institutions was utilized as a source of input data. Geocoding all the schools taken into account at the scale of this research does not require a high level of accuracy. It was sufficient to assign all the educational facilities to geographic centroids. Commuting time was estimated only for geographic locations where a given kind of school is not present. The paper provides a detailed description of the applied methodology. Regional government services, such as tax processing centres, are usually organized based on counties – units of public administration. The accessibility calculation vas performed for a second time, computing the shortest commuting time to the nearest school, without crossing county lines. Comparing the calculations, that the nearest service centres are located in the neighboring administrative unit. Differences in accessibility measurements are shown on maps (Fig. 2–6). Four study areas were selected in order to study local government service accessibility (Fig. 1). The main conclusion is that simply shifting county lines in order to improve access to key services such as public education is not a sufficient solution and a more complex analysis of each individual region is needed