In one of the most concentrated waves of voluntary migration ever, more than one million people from central and eastern Europe have come to Britain since the enlargement of the EU in 2004. Poles are now the largest group of foreign nationals resident in the UK, but there are now signs that this situation is reversing.

In one of the most concentrated waves of voluntary migration ever, more than one million people from central and eastern Europe have come to Britain since the enlargement of the EU in 2004. Poles are now the largest group of foreign nationals resident in the UK, but there are now signs that this situation is reversing.

The number of people coming to the UK from central and eastern Europe is already diminishing. That is likely to continue, as the economic conditions in their home countries improve. The value of the pound has fallen by about one-quarter against the Polish zloty since 2004, making working in Britain much less attractive. As other EU states remove restrictions on workers from the countries of central and eastern Europe many of them are likely to choose to work in mainland Europe. Those who move for economic reasons (the vast majority) will be drawn to the eurozone by the increasing value of the euro against the pound. By contrast, Britain will attract people whose main motive is to improve their English - an important factor now that it has displaced Russian in most Polish schools - but they are in the minority. However, the British economy is increasingly dependent on them.

Scottish fruit growers already have to offer incentives such as English lessons and sightseeing tours to attract pickers from eastern Europe. Migrants are now an essential part of the workforce in food processing and in the hotel and catering businesses in Scotland. Driven by the need to find work, they take jobs in areas such as the Highlands, where there has long been a shortage of staff, and where there is now a thriving Polish community. They are also making a significant contribution to the increase in population. In 2007, one in three babies in Scotland was born to a mother from one of the eastern European countries and already population projections have been altered based on an upward trend in births.

The lack of accurate numbers of EU migrants has made planning difficult, particularly for providing services such as health and education, but it will equally be a problem if projections about the number of young adults in the population have been based on a wrong assumption that migrants would become permanent residents. About half of those who have come here since 2004 are thought to have returned home, and the ease of travelling between Britain and other EU countries make future migration likely to be temporary, unlike previous immigrations from Commonwealth countries. The Fresh Talent initiative, aimed at attracting migrants to help turn around Scotland's declining population, was recently found to be more successful in helping people who were already here than in attracting new immigrants.

As the new migrants go home, Scotland will have to find a way of attracting others to boost our economy and our population, but those who are now setting up in business here should be given every encouragement. We need their entrepreneurial spirit and they will make Scotland a better, more cosmopolitan place.