Dignity, happiness and being able to live a ‘normal life’ in the UK – an examination of post-accession Polish migrants' transnational autobiographical fields

Abstract

This article examines data from a qualitative study of post-accession Polish migrants living in the UK. We examine themes from our interviews such as 'dignity', 'normality', 'happiness' and the 'affordability' and 'ease' of life in the UK (compared to Poland). We focus on the autobiographical or intra-personal discursive practices that define what Habib calls migrants' continuing relationship with their 'homeland'. We draw on Emirbayer and Mische's analysis of the relationship between 'agency' and what they call 'embedded temporalities' to examine the interaction between our participants'recollections of life in Poland and their evaluation of their present lives in the UK in order to examine the impact of these on their future plans (to stay in the UK or return to Poland). We locate this analysis in what we call a transnational autobiographical field which is a modification of what Levitt and Glick Schiller call a transnational social field. Rather than examine, for example, how decisions to migrate, settle and re-migrate are embedded in inter or trans-personal social relations and networks, in this article we examine the self-dynamics associated with our participants' articulation of their intra-personal and autobiographical embedded temporalities. Our argument is that articulations of individuals' pasts, presents and anticipated futures are also significant factors shaping their migration, settlement, and re-migration decisions.

Can the Concept of Lifestyle Migration be applied to Return Migration? The Case of Estonians in the UK

“…This image of Eastern European migrants only being in the West on a temporary basis has somewhat hampered the research on the return migration of these migrants, because – what is there to study if it is given that they do not want to stay? However, some recent research (see Krings et al, ; McGhee et al, ) has found that the nature of East‐West migration might not be as temporary as predicted. At least before Brexit, many Poles in the UK were planning to stay, referring to a more dignified life in the UK.…”

An ‘undeliberate determinacy’? The changing migration strategies of Polish migrants in the UK in times of Brexit

“…Secondly, we wished to de-emphasise 'temporariness' and 'fluidity'; Polish migrants, qua EU citizens, may remain undetermined about plans for the future without necessarily becoming 'temporary' residents, given that they automatically acquire permanent resident status after five years of exercising free movement rights. Also, 'indeterminacy' can arguably be construed as supportive of the oft-described quest for a 'normal life' among those who have been resident for longer and have begun establishing families, as evading the necessity to formulate clear return or settlement plans can enhance the sense of 'normalcy' by essentially normalising transnational forms of belonging and activity across the lifecourse (Galasińska and Kozłowska 2009;Lopez Rodriguez 2010;McGhee, Heath, and Trevena 2012;Morokvasic 2004). …”

“…Taking into consideration the above, our aim here is therefore to find out what factors contribute towards determining the migration and 'civic integration' strategies of Polish migrants in the UK (1) over a normatively relevant medium-term time frame and (2) under the conditions created by the UK's vote to leave the EU. Our approach, therefore, acknowledges that long-term plans are changeable and hard to determine (Burrell 2010;Parutis 2014), and also that 'indeterminacy' and 'civic integration' can both be manifestations of different forms of transnational living (McGhee, Heath, and Trevena 2012;Morokvasic 2004;Ryan 2011;White and Ryan 2008).…”

Liquid migration, grounded lives: considerations about future mobility and settlement among Polish and Spanish migrants in Norway

“…Many find themselves on a quest to establish more grounded lives, which is indicative of the significance of qualitative measures of economic factors. Here, the relevant economic factors are not restricted simply to having a job -or an income -but rather extend to the ability to lead what some interviewees called a 'normal life' (see also McGhee, Sue, and Trevena 2012), and what others described as a decent life, or living with dignity. This notion encompasses a decent 'working life' (Galasińska and Kozłowska 2009).…”