The financial crisis and migration

With a slowdown in the rich economies (particularly in the housing sector in some countries), might we see large numbers of migrants returning to their home countries? It looks like Poland, at least, is making plans. According to the Polski blog, Poland's government is trying to help:

Polish PM Donald Tusk was in London yesterday. He was supposed to try and convince Poles living here to come back to Poland, by asking “Do you have a return PLan?’ (PL stands for Poland, of course). All that because the Polish government has launched a special site, where Poles living in the UK can get advice regarding moving their lives back to Poland.

Of course, the financial crisis might have the opposite effect in some cases. Trinidadian blogger Coffeewallah remembers the 1980s:

I well remember the eighties and the recession where people dropped their house keys off at banks and fled the country to escape loans.

(Hat tips to Nicholas Laughlin and Veronica Khokhlova of Global Voices.)