Book review: "Ethnic Diversity and Social Cohesion. Immigration, Ethnic Fractionalization and Potentials for Civic Action" by Merlin Schaeffer, Ashgate, 2014

Recent scholarly debates in Europe have become preoccupied with the effects of increased ethnic diversity on social relations, trust and social participation. It has been widely investigated, if and how ethnic diversity impacts the quality of urban and neighbourhood contacts between people of different origins. Particularly, the question whether the increase in ethnic diversification leads to ‘hunkering down’ of social capital (Putnam 2007) or ‘erodes’ trust (Stolle, Soroka, Johnston 2008) could be regarded as a starting point of a dynamic academic discussion in many European countries on so called ‘diversity effects’ at the neighbourhood or local community levels. Here, Merlin Schaeffer’s book Ethnic Diversity and Social Cohesion. Immigration, Ethnic Fractionalization and Potentials for Civic Action arrives as a comprehensive review of to-date debates and methods, it also brings diverse, often contradictory arguments together, and points to new research directions

You’ve got Starbucks and Coffee Heaven... I Can Do This! Spaces of Social Adaptation of Highly Skilled Migrants in Warsaw

This article fills a gap in migratory research in Poland by exploring patterns of social adaptation of intra-EU migrants living temporarily (i.e. up to five years) in Poland. The paper explores the spaces of everyday social practices of people of British, French and German nationality that came to work here or followed a family member and uncovers a family and female perspective on social adaptation of highly skilled elite migrants in Warsaw. It presents original empirical material employing creative research techniques gathered in Warsaw. The study reveals that social adaptation of intra-EU highly skilled migrants is spatially selective and expats develop connections with spaces related to their family life reproduction, such as international schools, expatriate associations and places of leisure and consumption. The article argues that more attention should be paid in future research to intra-EU mobility and the gender imbalance in accessing particular local resources, such as the labour market

Czy mamy juz w Polsce mala Ukraine i polskie Viettown? Spoleczno-przestrzenne wzory zamieszkiwania imigrantów w metropolii warszawskiej

The text aims to analyse the patterns of immigrants" settlement in Warsaw agglomeration, especially their settlement in the area of the city of Warsaw. The subject of the study is: the emergence of places where immigrants concentrate and a relation between their places of residence with other types of concentration; factors that determine the places of immigrants" residence and how migrants operate in the urban environment, as well as a relation between the places of immigrants" settlement and their economic activity and its localization, cultural characteristics and the adapted acculturation strategies. To study these problems the authors use the example of the population of the Vietnamese and Ukrainians possessing a permission for settlement in the Mazowieckie Province. The article discuses differences in the patterns of settlements of both groups and shows the emergence of small clusters in the case of the Vietnamese

Brexit and beyond: Transforming mobility and immobility

This Guest Editorial introduces a special issue entitled Brexit and Beyond: Transforming Mobility and Immobility. The unfolding story of Brexit provided the backdrop to a series of events, organised in 2018 and 2019, which were the result of a collaboration between migration researchers in Warsaw and the UK, funded by the Noble Foundation’s Programme on Modern Poland. The largest event – held in association with IMISCOE – was an international conference, arising from which we invited authors to contribute papers to this special issue on the implications of Brexit for the mobility and immobility of EU citizens, particularly – but not exclusively – from Central and Eastern Europe, living in the UK. As we outline in this Editorial, collectively, the papers comprising the special issue address three key themes: everyday implications and ‘living with Brexit’; renegotiating the ‘intentional unpredictability’ status and settling down; and planning the future and the return to countries of origin. In addition, we include an interview with Professor Nira Yuval-Davis, based on the substance of her closing plenary at the conference – racialisation and bordering. Her insightful analysis remains salient to the current situation – in June 2020, as the UK enters the final months of the Brexit transition period – in the unexpected midst of a global pandemic and an imminent recession

Seeking ‘the New Normal’? Troubled spaces of encountering visible differences in Warsaw

In times of globalisation and super-mobility, ideas of normality are in turmoil. In different societies in, across and beyond Europe, we face the challenge of undoing specific notions of normality and creating more inclusive societies with an open culture of learning to live with differences. The scope of the paper is to introduce some findings on encounters with difference and negotiations of social values in relation to a growing visibility of difference after 1989 in Poland, on the background of a critique of normality/ normalisation and normalcy. On the basis of interviews conducted in Warsaw, we investigate how normality/ normalisation discourses of visible homosexuality and physical disability are incorporated into individual self-reflections and justifications of prejudices (homophobia and disabilism). More specifically we argue that there are moments of ‘cultural transgressions’ present in everyday practices towards ‘visible’ sexual and (dis)ability difference

Intimate encounters: the negotiation of difference within the family and its implications for social relations in public space

This paper focuses on the neglected issue of encounters with difference within the context of family life at a moment in time when families are increasingly characterised by dissimilarity as a product of mobility and individualisation. The study upon which this paper is based involved both a survey of social attitudes (survey n = 3021) and qualitative multi-stage research (n = 60). The evidence of the findings is that intra-familial diversity does produce more positive attitudes in public life towards the specific social group that an individual family member is perceived to represent. However, such positive attitudes are not translated beyond this specific ‘difference’ to challenge wider prejudices towards other groups. As such, this research contributes to literatures on geographies of encounter and the geographies of family life by exposing the limits of intimate contact with difference in changing the way social relationships are lived in the wider world

Impact of household structure complexity on the propensity to avoid answering the question measuring total net income in the European Social Survey, 2008-2018

Apart from unit nonresponse, a failure to respond to a particular survey question is a crucial component of the Total Survey Error. This article looks at item nonresponse to a household’s total net income in the European Social Survey (2008–2018). We explore whether the task complexity mechanism is responsible for the likelihood of nonresponse to the income question. Additionally, we consider cross-country differences in national economies and labour market conditions, which we argue might also affect the propensity not to report income. When modelling the probability of avoiding responses, we used multi-level regression models, assuming that the national context also influences the inclination of individuals to fail to respond. The article showed that people living in more numerous households, with income from less stable sources and a more complex family structure, are more prone to not responding

Generation-making narratives and responses to diversity in Poland

In this article, the authors move away from approaching generations as static categories and explore how ordinary people, as opposed to scholars, distinguish generations and justify their different responses to cultural diversity in terms of ethnicity, race and religion/belief. The analysis draws on 90 in-depth interviews with 30 residents in the Polish capital, Warsaw (2012–2013). Through approaching generation as an analytical category, the authors identify various differentiating narratives which the study participants employed to draw boundaries between generations, reinforcing the common belief that the youngest Poles are most accepting of diversity. Although generations are seen as the axis of difference, conditioning generation-specific responses to diversity, the accounts emerging from the interviews reveal their relational nature, as well as similarities and points of connection between their experiences

Not random and not ignorable. an examination of nonresponse to income question in the European Social Survey, 2008–2018

This study analyzes the consequences of item nonresponse to the question about a household’s total net income in the European Social Survey (2008–2018). We recognize two mechanisms in avoiding answering the income question: task complexity and question sensitivity, and apply multilevel logistic regressions to predict the probability of refusals or “Do not know” across respondents of different income levels. We find that the refusal to answer the income question is the highest for respondents with lower incomes, while the probability of selecting “Do not know” answers or refusal to answer is the same among respondents with higher incomes. The bias resulting from the correlation between response propensities and household income affects the accuracy of estimates for several attitudinal measures when income is included as an explanatory variable. We recommend reducing the risk of bias by limiting the complexity and sensitivity of the income question and accounting for nonresponse bias