Rebordering Britain & Britons after Brexit
EU post-accession Polish migrants trajectories and their settlement practices in Scotland
Abstract
The presence and the apparent permanence of post-accession EU migrants in the UK is of significant interest to both academics and politicians. Studies have debated whether migration from new accession countries to the UK mark a new type of migration often described as liquid' and open ended', or whether these migrants will settle in the new destination countries. Based on a qualitative study of Poles who have lived in Scotland for at least six years, we observed four typologies of what we call migrants' settling practices: (1) stayers, (2) over-stayers, (3) circular and transnational migrants and (4) economic migrants. The findings from this study demonstrate that Polish migrants do not have fixed ideas about the duration of their migration (in terms of a sense of permanence) but instead focus on diverse links, anchors or attachments in Scotland and Poland in describing their settling practices. Thus, the main contribution the article makes is to present an in-depth understanding of what settlement means from the perspective of migrants themselves. This paper concludes by providing a short comment on implications of the outcome of the Referendum on EU membership Brexit' in June 2016 on Polish migrants settling practices.
You might also be interested in :
Scotland and Brexit: Citizenship, Identity and Belonging
This article is the editorial introduction to the Special Issue of Scottish Affairs on Scotland and Brexit: Citizenship, Identity and Belonging. Here we outline the key themes and concerns of the Special Issue and contextualise the various contributions that follow.
An `undeliberate determinacy'? The changing migration strategies of Polish migrants in the UK in times of Brexit
This paper reformulates classical questions regarding the plans and strategies of Polish migrants in the UK-such as decisions to leave or remain in the host country, or be `deliberately indeterminate' about future plans-from a sociologically situated `rights-based' perspective.
Policy, office, votes–and integrity. The British Conservative Party, Brexit, and immigration
While Europe’s so-called migration crisis is of fairly recent origin, some of the continent’s centre-right parties have been successfully politicising immigration for at least half a century. But that success and that politicisation can come at a heavy price–for the country, for the party…
'They laughed at me, but I left that job': occupational agency of Latvian migrant workers in the United Kingdom
This article focuses on migrants' occupational agency in the UK labour market. In particular, the article explores the experience of Latvian migrant workers who together with other Baltic and Central European migrants have filled the low-skilled and low-paid employment sectors in the UK.