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Micha ł P. Garapich CRONEM University of Surrey/Roehampton University

LONDON’S POLISH BORDERS Class and Ethnicity of Global City Migrants **** Embassy of the Republic of Poland London, 17 May 2006. Micha ł P. Garapich CRONEM University of Surrey/Roehampton University Jagiellonian University, Krak ó w. The arguments.

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Micha ł P. Garapich CRONEM University of Surrey/Roehampton University

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  1. LONDON’S POLISH BORDERSClass and Ethnicity of Global City Migrants****Embassy of the Republic of PolandLondon, 17 May 2006 Michał P. Garapich CRONEM University of Surrey/Roehampton University Jagiellonian University, Kraków

  2. The arguments • Accelerating non-linear migration chain – more to come • Breaking through class • Fragmentation of the community • Whiteness as resource

  3. Word on methodology • Qualitative research – complementary to quantitative • Participant observation • Multi-local ethnography • 50 in-depth interviews with Polish migrants in London • 14 interviews with family and friends of migrants in 5 locations in Poland (urban/rural areas)

  4. Sample • 23 F, 27 M • 28% below 25 • 58% 25-40 • 10% 40 up • 22% high edu, 68% sec’y edu, 10% students • 28% rural, 40% below 50k town, 32% 50k up

  5. Transnational Europeans – looking both ways • Circular, temporal, open-ended migrations • 80% make frequent (sometimes up to 10 times a year) visits to Poland checking out the situation • 70% of respondents maintain strong economic and life interest in their home community • 24% have bought or are just about to buy a flat or house in Poland from money earned in London

  6. Chain migration • 60% have arranged employment/accommodation or useful tips for newcomers (migration chain brokers) • 40% have received such help at the beginning • Polish end of the research – growing readiness to migrate

  7. Should I stay or should I go….? • 20% say that they are definitely going to come back soon to live in Poland • 14% say that they will definitely not come back to Poland And the rest?

  8. Intentional unpredictability most common statements: • “Hard to answer that question. Being there [in Poland] last time for the first time I felt that I would like to stay there… so I don’t know…” (INT9Lon.Laura) • “I don’t know. No clue. Maybe yes, maybe not; maybe in three months maybe in ten years. I don’t know…” (INT30Lon.Kordian) • “I don’t know…I’m not able to say now…” (INT4Lon.Pawel) • “I want to come back… but don’t know when” (INT20Lon.Wojciech)

  9. How long do you think you will stay in the UK?(WRS question) • 50% – NOT STATED! (total answers: 175,507 between May 2004 and Dec 2005)

  10. Intentional unpredictability adapted to: • Deregulated, flexible, contractual London service economy and UK labour market in general • Socio-economic situation in Poland • Allows to shift their plans accordingly • Helps to keep the best of both worlds

  11. Breaking through class • Class? What class? • Individualism and the myth of meritocracy • Moving out = moving up • Two reference points in constructing a class position

  12. Ethnicity – double edged sword • Competition on the same market • Risk of being exploited by co-ethnics – national sentiment trap • Fear of association with the wrong crowd, shame, fear of loss of reputation

  13. Q: “You travel on the LU and there are some drunken Poles loudly swearing. What do you feel?” • A: “What I feel? Disgust. Disgust because I’m also a Pole and simply I… automatically think that people who were looking kindly at me before may change their mind because they will associate them with me… and that once I get a drink I would behave like them…“ (INT21Lon.Waldemar)

  14. End of community K. Sword – “community is in decline” (1994) • Fragmentation of the community; rise of complex set of sub-groups, formal and informal transnational networks • London’s Superdiversity (Stephen Vertovec 2005) – not only ethnic, cultural but also shaped by migration patterns, diversity of transnational migrants’ strategies

  15. Multiculturalism through Polish eyes • Enthusiastic approach – educational value • Pragmatic approach – “everyone can make it here”,“I got used to it” • Racist approach – colour coded • Self-criticism - 80% say that Poles are intolerant and that they could not imagine London’s multiculturalism in Poland

  16. Whiteness as resource: • Construction of European identity • Attitudes of British society towards Polish migrants

  17. “ The New Europeans are hard-working, presentable, well educated, and integrate so perfectly that they will disappear within a generation” (Anthony Browne, The Spectator, Jan 26 2006) • “ We have no problem with immigration from Poland, which is valuable to all sides… The government must make a reduction in numbers from elsewhere. What they could do is reduce the number of work permits for the rest of the world.” (Sir Andrew Green, BBC Today, Nov 20 2005)

  18. Conclusions • More to come – sustainable migration system • Social advancement – intentional unpredictability, double reference • Fragmentation of community • Pragmatic approach to ethnicity – whiteness as resource

  19. Preliminary report will be available on: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/Arts/CRONEM/ Funding from the ESRC is gratefully acknowledged

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