TY - JOUR N2 - The aim of this article is to provide an empirical test of the model of non-economic transfers by migrants such as values, attitudes, behaviours, lifestyles, transnational social networks, know-how, skills and knowledge. The first part of the article discusses the current state of Polish society, identifies the direc-tion of social change in Poland since 1989 and analyses the mutual dependency between social change and migration. The second section offers the analytical model and describes how existing empirical data from official statistics and research reports as well as the author’s own research projects have been analysed. The crucial element of the model is the notion of ‘closure’, defined as any factor that makes the migrants’ non-economic transfers difficult or impossible. Within each of the three categories of closure – socio-economic, cultural and psycho-social – more specific barriers to non-economic trans-fers are tested, e.g., lack of cohesive policy towards return migrants, social narratives on migration or ‘homecomer syndrome’. The analysis leads to the conclusion that, however difficult the measurement of the impact of return migration on social change at this stage, return migrants’ transfers are accelerating the process of social change in Poland towards the model of well-developed, post-modern Western societies, whereas closures impede this process. L1 - http://journals.pan.pl/Content/117572/PDF-MASTER/Dzieglewski_Return_Migration_and_Social_Change_in_Poland_0.pdf L2 - http://journals.pan.pl/Content/117572 PY - 2016 IS - No 2 EP - 188 KW - post-accession migration KW - social change KW - social remittances KW - return migrant KW - actor of change A1 - Dzięgielewski, Mariusz PB - Polska Akademia Nauk, Ośrodek Badań nad Migracjami UW VL - Vol. 5 DA - 2016 T1 - Return Migration and Social Change in Poland: ‘Closures’ to Migrants’ Non-Economic Transfers SP - 167 UR - http://journals.pan.pl/dlibra/publication/edition/117572 T2 - Central and Eastern European Migration Review ER -