Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... -rate.html
Poland's divorce rate has doubled in just seven years – believed to have been fuelled by the stresses of mass migration to Britain.
By Matthew Day in Warsaw
Last Updated: 4:09PM GMT 13 Feb 2009
Levels of divorce are expected to continue soaring as Poles defy the country's Catholic culture.
A Polish relationship expert has said that over the next few years divorces attributed to the strains of migration could add hundreds of thousands of cases to a divorce rate that has already gone from 43,000 a year in 2000 to 80,000 in 2007.
Grazyna Czubinska, who works with Poles in the UK, estimates that over the next five years problems stemming from migration could destroy up to 600,000 marriages.
Experts point out that many of the estimated one million Poles who left their homeland in search of work after Poland joined the EU in 2004 also left behind a spouse. Long periods of separation have taken their toll on marriages, and now, as many Poles plan to return home, as recession in the UK bites, marriages could come under further strain as families struggle to readjust.
"People going home need to realise that their standard of living will drop, if they go back," said Agnieszka Danielak, a psychologist working with the Polish community in Britain. "When someone goes back with high or unrealistic expectations then they could be disappointed, which leads to stress and frustration and this might cause problems for marriages. If couples have difficulties in communication and they're not emotionally mature this can lead to divorce."
The fact that so many Poles now regard divorce as an option comes as testament to the social changes that have swept through the Central European country since it joined the EU.
With Poland both immersed and exposed to a liberal European culture the stigma of divorce that once restrained many couples from separating has dissolved, despite 95 per cent of Poles still declaring themselves as Catholic.
Women, who make up 75 per cent of those filing for divorce, have also grown accustomed to an independent lifestyle far different from the conservative once pervasive culture of Polish tradition.
Another obstruction to divorce was removed in 2004 when the government changed the divorce law, making it easier, less time consuming and cheaper for couples who wanted to separate.
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