Polish Migration from the Perspective of 2017

04 May 2017–05 May 2017, 10:30 am–6:30 pm

Event Information

Location: IAS Common Ground (Room G11 South Wing)

Join us for the 2017 Polish Migration Conference, led by Professor Anne White.

Despite the cold winds of Brexit, Polish migration research continues to blossom. Myths about Polish migrants pervade politics and the media, but more and more good information is available, as numerous research projects have been completed in recent years.

The last SSEES Polish migration conference, in April 2015, focused on integration, settlement and opportunities for transnational practices within the EU free movement area. In 2017, these themes are equally relevant for Poles in their everyday lives, but so too are the insecurities engendered by Brexit and by anti-immigration sentiment across Europe.

This conference brings together scholars working on Poland, the UK, Norway and New Zealand to discuss the findings of several collaborative, funded projects, as well many individual ones, and to explore new concepts and methodologies in migration research.

Conference abstracts can be found here.

Programme

Thursday 4th May:

10.30-11.00	Introduction
11.00-13.00	Session 1: Gender and migration Justyna Bell and Paula Pustułka, ‘Role Changes and Pressures within Multiple Mobile Masculinities - the case of Polish Migrant Men’ Lise Widding Isaksen and Ela Czapka, ‘Gender and Care in Transnational Families: Empowerment, Change and Tradition’ Alina Rzepnikowska, ‘Convivial practices of Polish migrant women in religious spaces and beyond’
13.00-14.00	Lunch
14.00-15.20	Session 2: Interactions with the receiving society Marta Bivand Erdal, ‘When Poland Became the Main Country of Birth among Catholics in Norway’: Exploring the Interface of Polish Migrants’ Everyday Narratives and Church Responses to a Rapid Demographic Re-Constitution’ Louise Ryan, 'After the Brexit Referendum: the dynamics of Polish migrants belonging in London'
15.20-15.50	Tea
15.50-17.10	Session 3: Welfare and living standards Bozena Sojka and Emma Carmel, ‘Free to move, right to work, entitled to claim? Governing social security portability for mobile Polish people in the UK’ Catherine Barnard and Amy Ludlow, ‘The benefit of benefits?’
17.10-17.25	Fruit
17.25-18.45	Session 3 (Welfare and living standards) continued Rebecca Kay and Paulina Trevena, ‘Central and East European migrants in Scotland: the role of welfare in shaping in(securities) and longer-term plans’ Joanna Marczak, ‘The grass is always greener - cross-national comparisons of living standards and policy packages in fertility decision making of Polish nationals in Poland and UK’

Friday 5th May

9.00-11.00	Session 4: Young(er) Poles in Poland Paula Pustułka, Justyna Sarnowska, Izabela Grabowska, Aldona Zdrodowska, Marta Buler, Natalia Juchniewicz Double paper: ‘Peer groups and migration: dialoguing theory and empirical research’ and ‘Young people leaving Polish middle-towns: A multi-sited ethnography of migration causes in sending localities and the peer group/migration juncture. Preliminary findings of the Peer Groups and Migration project’ Anne White, ‘The impact of migration on Poland: generation, gender and location’
11.00-11.30	Tea
11.30-13.30	Session 5: Young(er) Poles in the UK Anna Kordasiewicz and Przemysław Sadura, ‘Migrant place re-making through an intersectional lens – Lewisham Polish Centre case dtudy’ Daniela Sime, Naomi Tyrrell, Claire Kelly, Christina McMellon and Marta Moskal, 'Here to stay? Preliminary findings from a post-Brexit survey with young Poles in the UK' Sara Young, ‘Narratives of resistance: Polish adolescents & anti-Polish sentiment in the UK’
13.30-14.30	Lunch
14.30-16.30	Session 6: Reflexivity, agency and change in migrants’ identities and experiences Justyna Bell and Markieta Domecka, ‘The Transformative Potential of Migration: Polish Migrants’ Everyday Life Experiences in Belfast, Northern Ireland’ Kinga Goodwin, ‘Women's feelings of inclusion in the public versus private sphere as women, migrants and Poles: a comparison of New Zealand and the UK’ Holly Porteous, ‘Central and East European migrant entrepreneurship in the North of Scotland: motivations and realities’.
16.30-17.00	Tea
17.00-17.40	Session 7: After Brexit Kate Botterill, ‘”Bargaining chips” or “stakeholder citizens”: Polish migrant political agency in two UK referendums’
17.40-18.10	Concluding discussion

Registration

To register for the workshop, please email Prof Anne White, Professor of Polish Studies, UCL SSEES. Registration is free but essential, as places are limited