Combating the illegal employment of foreigners in the enlargement EU: the case of Poland

"The specific objective of this project is to provide policy-makers and practitioners with a good understanding of the impact of irregular employment of foreigners on the labour markets of the selected EU countries as well its potential for infringement on migrants' rights and for their exploitation; the identification of best measures taken to bombat this phenomenon both by sending and receiving countries; and to contribute to administrative cooperation and information exchange among the participating countries on preventing irregular and promoting legal channals for employment. The current paper focuses on the case of Poland." (author's abstract

Envisaging post-Brexit immobility: Polish migrants’ care intentions concerning their elderly parents

© 2020 The Authors. Published by University of Bamberg Press. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.20377/jfr-352The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union will end the European Freedom of Movement and the privileged migration status of EU Citizens in the UK, which will likely affect ‘Brexit families’ and their transnational care arrangements. This is a case study of the biggest migrant group in the UK, namely Poles. Before the Brexit referendum, the first wave of the in-depth interviews identified several types of migrants’ intentions concerning elderly care for their parents who remained in Poland. The research approached intentions as discursive strategies: declarations of care commitment and statements provided to explain the absence of care intentions. The second wave was conducted after the UK had decided to exit the EU and new policies concerning EU citizens were being developed. Brexit’s influence on elderly care intentions is twofold. First, it brings higher uncertainty about future migration regulations and disorientates migrants about the possibilities regarding reunification with their parents in the UK. Second, Brexit appears in the interviews as a discursive construction to alleviate a migrant’s involvement in direct care provision, where they still deem it normatively appropriate to enact this cultural norm, but do not intend to in fact do so

Highly skilled Indian migrants in Poland

CARIM-India: Developing a knowledge base for policymaking on India-EU migrationCARIM-India is co-financed by the European University Institute and the European Unio

Staying in touch across space and time: Polish grandparents, geographic distance and the COVID-19 pandemic

How to bolster family ties across geographical distance? If your New Year resolution has been to improve relationships with your significant others amidst the pandemic, we have some expert advice for you. Polish grandparents with migrant families share their strategies for quality time together and effective online communication with their grandchildren, the younger and the older alike

Childbearing and parental decisions of intra EU migrants : a biographical analysis of Polish migrants to the UK and Italy

The book explores intra-EU mobility of Polish families as seen by the migrants themselves. The author analyses in what way mobility has influenced their choices regarding if, when and where to have and raise their children. She evaluates how the family dynamics have affected their decisions regarding long-term settlement. The analysis is based on narrative biographic interviews with Polish migrants in Great Britain and Italy. A recurring experience of migrants in the UK was that work and welfare conditions improved their families’ quality of life, allowed them to fulfil desired fertility, and offered better prospects for the future. The opinions on welfare conditions in Italy were more critical, however it also offered long-term stability to the ones who had been struggling to survive in Poland.This book has been published with a financial subsidy from the European University Institute.-- Cover; -- Acknowledgements; -- Table of contents; -- List of tables; -- List of figures; -- Introduction; -- Chapter 1. Contextual and conceptual background and aims of the study; -- 1.1 Theoretical perspectives on female and family migration and their application to Polish migration to the UK and Italy; -- 1.2 Research questions and outline of the analysis; -- 1.3 The relationship between migration and fertility decisions; -- 1.4 Migrants' parental decisions in the institutional context; -- Chapter 2. Methods and techniques of data collection and analysis; -- 2.1 Grounded theory; -- 2.2 Biographical method -- 2.3 Sociological life course approach -- 2.4 Participants' selection; -- 2.5 Techniques of data collection; -- Chapter 3. Post-accession migration from Poland to Italy and the UK in the demographic, family and welfare policies contexts; -- 3.1 Demographic characteristics of post-EU accession Polish migrants; -- 3.2 Polish immigrants in Italy; -- 3.3 Polish immigrants in the UK; -- 3.4 Selected family living patterns; -- 3.5 Family welfare regulations; -- 3.6 Conclusions: migrating into different socio-economic contexts; -- Chapter 4. Managing childbearing in a new country -- 4.1 Factors taken into account in planning childbearing -- 4.2 When life does not go the way it was planned; -- 4.3 Impact of pregnancy on women's economic activity; -- 4.4 Conclusions; -- Chapter 5. Providing care for small children; -- 5.1 Anticipating childcare arrangements; -- 5.2 Organising childcare; -- 5.3 Attitudes to spending time with and caring for one's children; -- 5.4 Grandparents' assistance in caring for grandchildren; -- 5.5 Conclusions; -- Chapter 6. Educational choices of Polish parents abroad; -- 6.1 Preparing to start school in the country of immigration -- 6.2 Choices regarding education of migrant teenagers -- 6.3 Educating Polish children abroad: language and culture; -- 6.4 Class and attitudes to education; -- 6.5 Gendered division of responsibility for schooling; -- 6.6 Conclusions; -- Chapter 7. Construction of the trajectories of Polish intra-EU migrants in a biographical perspective; -- 7.1 Struggle for survival, followed by search for stability; -- 7.2 Lifestyle preferences as a basis for settlement; -- 7.3 Delayed but unavoidable migration; -- 7.4 "Pace of change" -- the progress reinforcing the decision for settlement; -- 7.5 Sacrifice for love and family -- 7.6 The relation between settlement and the original migration project -- 7.7 Conclusions; -- Conclusions; -- Annex 1. Profiles of the interviewees; -- ReferencesPublished version of EUI PhD thesis, 201

Poles in the Republic of Ireland: history, current situation and challenges

The article looks at the origins and scale of migration of Poles to the Republic of Ireland and the characteristics of migrants in light of various statistical data. It outlines the characteristics of the Polish population in Ireland on the basis of 2016 census, taking into account the main directions of changes in relation to previous censuses. Polish immigrants, very few in Ireland before 2004, have since become the largest group of non-Irish nationals, stable in size and spread all over the country. Despite its size and multiple ties to Ireland such as the growing number of Polish-Irish citizens and the increasing share of homeowners, it is argued that the Polish community has limited visibility and impact on the Irish society and politics. The author also points out the housing crisis and Brexit-related risks as important challenges for the Polish community

Child bearing and parental decisions of intra-EU migrants : a biographical analysis of Polish post-accession migrants to the UK and Italy

Defence date: 15 January 2015Examining Board: Professor Martin Kohli, EUI (Supervisor); Professor Rainer Bauböck, EUI; Professor Louise Ryan, Middlesex University; Professor Marek Okólski, University of Warsaw.The aim of the study has been to show in what ways, in the perception of the migrants themselves, family-related considerations have affected their decisions regarding long-term settlement in the UK or Italy as countries of immigration, and what aspects of their situation in these countries influenced their family life and plans for the future. The locus of the study is the migration of Poles to the UK and Italy as countries that successively opened their labour markets for citizens of New Member States after the EU enlargement of 2004. I argue that i) international mobility may serve not only as a barrier but also as an enhancement for parenthood, and ii) placing one's family in the host country produces more durable and numerous ties than employment alone and favours settlement. In the case of Polish families, migration to the UK was a way of securing more stable and comfortable conditions, through salaries and benefits more adequate to family needs. It improved their experienced quality of life, allowed them to fulfill their desired fertility, and offered better prospects for the future. In families of Poles living in Italy the perception of welfare conditions was not that favourable, however it also offered long-term stability to the ones who had been struggling to survive in Poland. Long-term settlement emerged there due to the path dependency, especially the mechanism of „tied stayer". The perspectives on settlement differed according to age at migration and stage of life (stable partnership, children's age, ageing parents' needs). On the theoretical level, the project combines sociology of migration, perspectives on intergenerational relations and life course research. The thesis contributes to the research on intra-EU migrants with a wide range of socio-economic statuses by presenting their perception of migratory trajectories and plans for the future from a family-oriented perspective

Flying granny, skyping grandpa? Grandparenting across geographical distance and national borders

Do distance and national borders make a difference in grandparents' relation and communication practices with their grandchildren? Is transnational grandparenthood a unique phenomenon? Research on diverse types of grandparental care and virtual co-presence in transnational families suggests migrants and their parents have mastered the ways to care at a distance. However, what does it actually mean? In this issue of CMR Spotlight Weronika Kloc-Nowak and Sylwia Timoszuk outline some results of the 2019-2020 nationwide survey which puts 'flying granny' and 'skyping grandpa' tropes in the context of Polish families

'I am afraid to fly there': informal care in Polish migrants' families immobilised by COVID-19

This paper discusses the COVID-19 pandemic as a new external challenge to transnational family life that can undermine the care arrangements and intentions developed by the families of Polish migrants following the 2004 EU enlargement. The pandemic, associated lockdowns and travel restrictions raise questions about assumed transnationalism, building upon earlier concerns about taking for granted migrants’ cross-national mobility. Based on focus group discussions with Polish grandparents conducted in July 2020 and March 2021, we analyse the pandemic’s impact on intergenerational relations with both geographically close and distant kin. We point to perceptions of risks of COVID-19 associated with ethnicised stereotypes and evolving with time. While the pandemic caused temporary restrictions to mobility, it shows the immobilising side of “unsettling events”, the consequences of which, for privileged EU migrants, will unfold in time as their parents’ age and require personal care

Polish Migrants in Ireland and Their Political (Dis)engagement in Transnational Space

Ireland has become one of the main destination countries for Polish migrants after Poland's EU accession in 2004. While much of the literature on Polish migration to Ireland post-2004 focuses on its labour-market element, in this paper we analyse the political participation of Polish migrants. We utilise data from a survey conducted by the Centre of Migration Research (University of Warsaw) with Polish migrants in Ireland which documents low levels of political engagement as measured by voting turnout in Polish presidential and parliamentary elections as well as the Irish local elections and elections to the European Parliament. A lack of knowledge about political participation rights or how to engage in voting is one explanation for the low levels of voting, especially in Irish local and European parliamentiary elections. Another explanation may be the attitude that migrants have towards the political system and how they can influence it. Polish migrants predominantly report that they have no or little influence on politics in Poland and have relatively less trust in the authorities and politicians there (compared to Ireland). The key individual-level characteristic affecting Polish migrant respondents' electoral participation in Ireland is their (lack of) voting habit formed before migration