40 research outputs found
âI will not be thrown out of the country because Iâm an immigrantâ: Eastern European migrantsâ responses to hate crime in a semi-rural context in the wake of Brexit
This article examines Eastern European migrantsâ experiences of and responses to hate crime. Following the UK European Union Membership Referendum (âBrexitâ vote), there was an increase in reported hate crimes against immigrants. The study focuses on the experiences of migrants in Lincolnshire, a region of England which has a significant migrant population, and which had one of the highest âleaveâ votes. The focus on white migrants in this semi-rural setting offers an original perspective in the field of hate crime studies. We draw on semi-structured interviews and observations to identify temporal, spatial, and relational factors in responses to hate crime. We uncover the insecure occupation of a âthird spaceâ constituted by material, discursive, and emotional practices. This positioning was destabilised post referendum; but there was also evidence of the operation of agency within processes of âotheringâ, suggesting a transition from victim identity to emergent political subject
âI will not be thrown out of the country because Iâm an immigrantâ: Eastern European migrantsâ responses to hate crime in a semi-rural context in the wake of Brexit
This article examines Eastern European migrantsâ experiences of and responses to hate crime. Following the UK European Union Membership Referendum (âBrexitâ vote), there was an increase in reported hate crimes against immigrants. The study focuses on the experiences of migrants in Lincolnshire, a region of England which has a significant migrant population, and which had one of the highest âleaveâ votes. The focus on white migrants in this semi-rural setting offers an original perspective in the field of hate crime studies. We draw on semi-structured interviews and observations to identify temporal, spatial, and relational factors in responses to hate crime. We uncover the insecure occupation of a âthird spaceâ constituted by material, discursive, and emotional practices. This positioning was destabilised post referendum; but there was also evidence of the operation of agency within processes of âotheringâ, suggesting a transition from victim identity to emergent political subject
Finding Larger Transnational Media Markets : Media Practices of the Vietnamese Diasporic Community
Addressing a concern about the absence of Vietnamese migrants in the Czech media landscape, this chapter first reviews various life contexts of the different Vietnamese populations in the Czech Republic (CR) and then discusses how they have generally lacked participation in the Czech media landscape because of their adoption of transnational media practices. This study also demonstrates how the diasporic community has failed to establish a conventional form of diasporic media but instead has found new translocal information outlets on social media. While the old and new first generations have relied more on media outlets from their country of origin, young migrant children have explored media markets beyond the binational border. However, Vietnamese migrants have recently begun to use social media platforms as networked information outlets, reaching a variety of communities and media outlets located in the CR, Vietnam and their own diasporic community
Intercultural moments in translating and humanising the socio-legal system
This paper seeks to address the question how people go about intercultural differences in an institutional setting which aims to mediate between the socio-legal system and the âoutsidersâ of the system, i.e. ordinary citizens, through an investigation of professional interactions between a legal advisor and her clients of Eastern European backgrounds in London. Drawing data from a linguistic ethnography, the analysis foregrounds the practice of resemiotisation and calibration. The second aim is to extend the notion of âintercultural momentsâ and to explore its analytical benefits in understanding fleeting and seemingly mundane moments in encounters
Qualitative Migration Research: Viable Goals, Open-Ended Questions, and Multidimensional Answers
Following a brief review of the epistemological premises informing qualitative methodologies, I identify the key features of qualitative research undertaken in the verstehende or interpretative social-science tradition, which render it particularly well suited to capturing the inherent dynamics of the lived experience of human beings in general and, in our case, of immigrants: its multi-dimensionality; its ability to accommodate ambiguity and outright contradictions; its emphasis on the temporality and fluidity of social phenomena; and its insistence on the contextual and situational nature of human perceptions and agency. Next, I argue that the research goals appropriate for qualitative investigations as proposed by Charles Ragin (Constructing social research. Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks, 1994) â exploring diversity, giving voice, testing/refining theories or guiding concepts, and generating new research questions â can be realized by asking questions and gathering answers related to these issues in the context of (im)migrantsâ experience. These claims are illustrated with questions asked and answers obtained through three standard methods of qualitative research: interviewing, observation, and document analysis. The examples draw from the current and emerging problem agendas in migration studies. I also discuss the strengths and limitations of research questions probing the complexity and un(der)determinacy of (im)migrantsâ lives and the answers they generate
Telling network stories: researching migrants' changing social relations in places over time
Class and Ethnicity: Polish Migrant Workers in London, 1996-2006
Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The study examines recent Polish migrations to London and the socio-cultural consequences for Poland and the UK as well as individual narratives about ethnicity, class, migration and multicultural Britain. This dataset consists of 57 qualitative, semi-structured face-to-face interviews with Polish nationals living in London and their friends and family in four locations in Poland. There is also one set of fieldwork notes conducted in Poland. Interviews were conducted in Polish and transcribed directly into English by the researcher. A majority of interviewees had been in London for no more than two years. Although some in the sample were very recent migrants, others had been living in the capital for almost a decade. Interviews were conducted across sections of age, education and occupational activity and the sample was weighted in order to be consistent with the more general statistical data gathered by the Home Office Workers Registration Scheme and the Labour Force Survey. The study asked interconnected questions, such as: in what terms do Polish migrant workers understand their socio-economic position within both London's market and in Poland, and in what ways can their understandings of both be analysed in terms of analytical distinctions between class and ethnicity? Also, what social and economic links did respondents maintain with relatives and friends in Poland? Further information is available from the ESRC Class and Ethnicity: Polish Migrant Workers in London award page or the Surrey University Class and Ethnicity: Polish Migrant Workers in London project web page. Main Topics:Migration, Polish, transnationalism, class<br
Polish migrant settlement without political integration in the United Kingdom and Ireland: a comparative analysis in the context of Brexit and thin European citizenship
Following EU enlargement in 2004, the United Kingdom and Ireland experienced large-scale migration from Poland and other new EU states. The Poles who migrated to both jurisdictions were demographically similar and have faced similar challenges although these have begun to diverge in the context of Brexit. Previous research emphasized the intentional unpredictability of many Polish migrants who deferred decisions whether to settle or return which appears to
account for limited political incorporation in both the Irish and UK cases prior to Brexit. This literature also examined how such migrants have become socially embedded but not politically integrated. Drawing on surveys conducted in Ireland and the UK during 2018, we highlight predicaments arising from the thin nature of EU citizenship which allowed for free movement but has neglected political integration. In the Irish case, we suggest that EU migrants, including Poles, are likely to remain detached from citizenship and political participation
Banal interculturalism. Latin Americans in Elephant & Castle
This paper discusses banal interculturalism as produced in an interview situation with migrants of Latin American background in London. Banal interculturalism emerges within discursive semiotic processes that allow the participants to display their (cultural) knowledge about co-ethnics and their practices, to position themselves in opposition to the âothersâ within diaspora, and to justify their, typically negative, views towards other migrants. Sources of that knowledge can be experiential, though in most cases consist of hearsay evidence. This notion may assist intercultural communication scholars in understanding how intra-group relations are conceived and the consequences for migrants of the discourses they themselves spread within the wider group