This article investigates the issue of migration success achieved by Poles settling in Berlin and London between the 1980s and 2018. We focus on the migration wave that took place after Poland’s accession to the European Union in 2004. We show different ways in which migrants understand their new situation in the light of their integration, daily life, and well-being or satisfaction in the context of migration success. We analyse the similarities and differences of approaches to the new life in London and Berlin explicated by Polish migrants. In doing so, we pay attention to several important characteristics and processes related to the integration of Polish migrants into the metropolitan environments of Western Europe.

The article, presenting the emic approach, concerns Polish migrants settling in Berlin and London, who coped with the integration process and achieved personal success on various levels. It is the second part of the whole cycle, started with the text of Agnieszka Szczepaniak-Kroll, Poles in Berlin and London: different faces of migration success. Part 1 (published in the same issue of JUE). Both are based on grant research and focus particularly on the post-accession period. The article analyses ways and strategies that caused Poles to achieve a successful existence in a new country of settlement, to meet their needs of well-being and happiness in their familial, professional and social lives. Differences and similarities in the understanding of success by migrants and strategies for achieving it were investigated. This helped to create a holistic picture of the successful and satisfactory integration of migrants, as well as a picture of their perception of success.