By Monika Plocienniczak

Krzysztof, 52, is a Polish-American, who emigrated to the U.S. in 1990 in the hope of providing a better future for himself and his family. He was content to work in New Jersey, but 20 years later, his experience in this country unexpectedly sent him packing for Europe.

“My decision to leave [the U.S.] was a personal one; my relationship fell apart, and I was very much alone,” Krzysztof, who declined to give his last name, wrote in Polish in e-mail from England, his current home.

He said that he left the U.S. about eight months ago because he had family to turn to in the U.K.

“After 20 years of living in the U.S., and with my age, I had to build up enough courage to decide on another emigration.” Krzysztof wrote in Polish. Though Krzysztof said he is content with his decision he constantly thinks about coming back to the U.S.

Elzbieta Baumgartner, author of more than 30 guidebooks for immigrants, says that Krzysztof’s story is typical. Baumgartner specializes in writing about personal finance, immigration, and consumer rights for Polish immigrants in the United States. After 20 years of demand from newcomers, lately, she’s noticed a new trend.

“Ninety percent of my sales come from guides on resettling to Poland,” said Baumgartner during a telephone interview in Polish from her Queens office.

Baumgartner’s latest titles such as “Returning to Poland” and “Retirement of a Re-Immigrant in Poland,” are ranked number one and two in sales, respectively, in Polish-American bookstores and on poradniksukces.com, Baumgartner’s Web site that assists recent New York émigrés.

“Before 2004, there was nothing that could sway Poles to move back to Eastern Europe,” said Baumgartner, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1979. But now, she adds, with a foundering economy and the value of the American dollar dropping against European currencies, Poles are finding “more comfort and better opportunities back home.”

The country’s 2004 entrance to the European Union and the appeal of its open-door labor policy are also enticing both younger and older immigrants to go back.

As a result, New York City’s Polish community is shrinking. The reduction has been felt deeply in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint section, where Poles have been emigrating en masse since before World War II.

From 2005 to 2006, the Polish population in Brooklyn declined by nearly 16 percent, according to a recent census survey. The survey does not breakdown ethnicity figures by neighborhood.

Though Greenpoint’s Manhattan Avenue still remains the center of the Polish immigrant commercial life, many Polish businesses in the area are losing customers and closing down. Polish employers are also struggling to find Polish-speaking workers.

At the same time, sales of one-way airline tickets from New York to Poland are rising.

The Society of Polish American Travel Agents has seen a spike of 20 to 25 percent in sales of one-way tickets to Poland or other E.U. countries over the past year, according to its Web site.

Krzysztof Koczon, owner of Turysta Travel, one of 14 travel agencies catering to Polish- Americans in Greenpoint, has experienced this pattern first-hand.

“People cannot find work here anymore,” Koczon said at his Nassau Avenue office. “They leave out of necessity, even after 15 years of living here.”

In the past six months, Koczon said he has seen a 20 percent increase in one-way tickets to Warsaw from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Though one-way ticket sales are up this season, overall business is down by 30 percent at the Turysta Agency, caused not only by Poles leaving the country, but an in-country migration out of Greenpoint.

Even before this latest Polish exodus, the community in Greenpoint was already on the move as gentrification drove up rents. Young families, immigrants and low-income households have resettled in nearby Polish communities in the city including Ridgewood, Glendale and Maspeth in Queens.

From 2005 to 2006, the Polish population in Queens grew by 18 percent to 26,580, according to the U.S. Census.

Greenpoint’s shifting demographics on all levels have left a gaping economic hole for this proud Polish community.

“Without a fresh stream of newcomers, Poles will melt in the American pot,” Baumgartner said, “just like the Germans or Irish did. It is a sad prospect.”