Pomiędzy ojczyzną a obczyzną. Najnowsza fala emigracji Polaków do Wielkiej Brytanii w perspektywie koncepcji transnacjonalizmu

Ze wstępu: "Kontekstem dyskusji o ostatniej fali wyjazdów Polaków do Wielkiej Brytanii pozostaje historyczne doświadczenie polskich migracji - wędrówki za wielką wodę na przełomie wieków, emigracji powojennej czy wyjazdów z okresu realnego socjalizmu. Rozłąka z krewnymi była wspólnym doświadczeniem pokoleń Polaków. Każdy miał ciocię w Londynie, która zapraszała na wakacje, wujka w Niemczech przysyłającego cytrusy na święta czy dalekiego kuzyna w Chicago znanego tylko z paczek pachnących kakao. Te wielkie fale migracyjne od zawsze wpisane były w kontekst życia rodzinnego Polaków. Trudno się więc dziwić, że dziś rozmowie o najmłodszej migracji towarzyszy podstawowe pytanie o to, czy emigranci powrócą do Polski. Historia pokazuje, że ich poprzednicy raczej nie wracali."(...

Remembering Palestine: A multi-media ethnography of generational memories among diaspora Palestinians

This thesis is a qualitative investigation of memories of Palestine among exiled Palestinians and their descendants in Poland and in the UK. Taking the continuous character of Palestinian dispossession as a point of departure, it examines their modes of remembering, imagining and relating to Palestine. The thesis seeks to contribute to the sociology of diaspora by shedding light on the multiplicity of situated trajectories that shape diasporic Palestinians’ relationships with their ‘ancestral’ homeland. It delineates three generations of Palestinians in diaspora: those exiled in the 1948 and their descendants born in refugee camps; those who left as a direct or indirect result of the occupation; and those born as ‘second generation migrants’ in their parent’s countries of exile. It argues that while the continuing erasure of Palestine informs all of their experiences, each generation produces memories of ancestral homeland in relation to different geographies, temporalities and set of imaginings. Tracing these differences, I am concerned with how the plurality of diasporic memories allows generations of Palestinians to endure and constantly re-create their relationships with the Palestine despite more than six decades of continuous uprooting. The research is based on oral history interviews with 33 Palestinians in Poland and the UK, followed by an ethnographic audio-visual exploration of some of the research participants’ sites of memory. The audio-visual engagements have moved back and forth between stories narrated in Poland and in the UK and site-specific field visits within today’s Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The five ethnographic études that accompany the written part of this thesis strive to restore, at least partially, access to context that was lost with the participants’ uprooting and to explore the texture and materiality of their dispossession. This approach contributes to the development of a multi-sensory methodology that seeks to understand diasporic and exilic experiences by placing the relationship between memory, time and place at the heart of sociological enquiry

Participation and wellbeing in urban greenspace: ‘curating sociability’ for refugees and asylum seekers

This paper examines how asylum seekers and refugees experience urban greenspaces. Whilst often overlooked in a focus on support services and integration, we argue that critically exploring the importance of urban greenspaces has wider implications for understanding how asylum seekers and refugees navigate experiences of displacement and resettlement. Drawing on empirical work foregrounding refugee experiences in Berlin, London, and Sheffield, we found that spending time outdoors in local recreational spaces such as parks, can have positive outcomes for wellbeing and inclusion, with the potential to support respite and the beginnings of belonging. However, though there were multiple positive accounts, especially of busier parks and of appreciating nature, many participants were uncertain or anxious about using parks. The interviews highlight the multiple barriers faced by asylum seekers and refugees, regarding information, legibility and in gaining the cultural capital and confidence needed venture out. The varied experiences reflect the diversity of greenspace typologies in Northern European cities, and also how individuals weight up public perceptions and, for some, the insecurity of their legal status. In unpacking the interaction between these barriers, we define and propose ‘curated sociability’ approaches as possible frameworks for supporting egalitarian participation and offering pathways to greater engagement. We conclude by highlighting a range of interventions that offer situated opportunities for asylum seekers and refugees to engage with urban greenspaces, and which provide insights into how the expectations and rules of urban greenspace are actively negotiated and may be rewritten

Do I deserve to belong? Migrants’ perspectives on the debate of deservingness and belonging

The notion of belonging, prominent in social sciences, has been recently used extensively in relation to Central Eastern European migrants in the UK. Whereas the Brexit debates on migration have spotlighted the macro-politics of belonging and the judgments on who deserves to stay and under which conditions, the question of how these discourses of ‘deservingness’ surrounding Brexit may influence the everyday and intimate aspects of belonging among migrants warrants further exploration. Drawing on the interviews with 77 young Polish and Lithuanian migrants in the UK conducted from 2019 to 2020, this article examines how migrants position themselves in relation to the discourses of deservingness and hierarchies of desirability. The focus is also placed on how they negotiate their strategies of (un)belonging to the British society. We argue that the prominence of the deservingness discourse – which has gained momentum in Brexit Britain - entraps migrants in the constant process of boundary making and may prevent them from ever feeling part of the ‘community of value’

‘Football was the key’: the role of sports in facilitating migrants’ belonging and inclusion in Poland

While there is a growing body of literature examining the roles of sports for newly arrived migrants and refugees in ‘super-diverse’ Western settings, less is known about the roles of such initiatives in other urban contexts, where everyday forms of ‘living with difference’ are only just emerging. Poland has become one of the biggest importers of migrant workers from outside of the EU in recent years. Drawing on five ethnographic cases of sports initiatives in Warsaw and Gdańsk supported by the wider findings from 80 interviews with young migrants, refugees and migrant-support stakeholders, we explore sports’ potential in establishing footholds in the new environments. We also investigate barriers impeding more egalitarian access to sports, in particular, related to limited resources available to migrants and refugees. Our findings suggest that in less diverse urban settings informal sports initiatives gather migrants with established cultural and social resources which are needed to navigate with ease in a largely homogeneous environment. We argue that to include migrants and refugees from more precarious backgrounds and with less confidence to reach out, some level of facilitation of participation (‘curation’) is crucial in allowing more diverse groups to benefit from sports initiatives

Do I deserve to belong? : migrants' perspectives on the debate of deservingness and belonging

The notion of belonging, prominent in social sciences, has been recently used extensively in relation to Central Eastern European migrants in the UK. Whereas the Brexit debates on migration have spotlighted the macro-politics of belonging and the judgments on who deserves to stay and under which conditions, the question of how these discourses of ‘deservingness’ surrounding Brexit may influence the everyday and intimate aspects of belonging among migrants warrants further exploration. Drawing on the interviews with 77 young Polish and Lithuanian migrants in the UK conducted from 2019 to 2020, this article examines how migrants position themselves in relation to the discourses of deservingness and hierarchies of desirability. The focus is also placed on how they negotiate their strategies of (un)belonging to the British society. We argue that the prominence of the deservingness discourse – which has gained momentum in Brexit Britain - entraps migrants in the constant process of boundary making and may prevent them from ever feeling part of the ‘community of value’