Young, Sara;
(2019)
'My Mum didn't really wanna stay in Poland and my Dad didn't wanna come to England': the changing pattern of family migration from Poland to the UK.
Presented at: IMISCOE Spring Conference: Transforming Mobility and Immobility: Brexit and Beyond, Sheffield, UK.
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Abstract
Following Poland’s accession to the European Union in 2004, the demographic of Polish migration to the UK changed. While previous migrants were predominantly young, single males, post-2004 migration comprised Polish families, often coming with children. Yet where once the father was seen as responsible for making the initial move to migrate, it is increasingly the mother who is taking this step, with the father remaining in Poland. This was a pattern which emerged from my doctoral study investigating the experiences of Polish-born adolescents living in the UK, where several of the young people interviewed had divorced parents, and in the case of two of them, their fathers had remained in Poland. This paper examines the narratives of these two adolescents and explores the challenges highlighted by their stories. One is the limited amount of time the children can spend with their fathers, and the subsequent impact on their relationship, something which may be further impacted by possible Brexit regulations on mobility. A second issue is that while English is becoming the adolescents’ main language, neither fathers speak the language. This further affects interaction between these children and their fathers. I suggest that such issues may influence the way these adolescents negotiate their relationship not only with their fathers, but with Poland. This paperexamines the narratives of these two adolescents and explores the challenges highlighted by their stories. One is the limited amount of time the children can spend with their fathers, and the subsequent impact on their relationship, something which may be further impacted by possible Brexit regulations on mobility. A second issue is that while English is becoming the adolescents’ main language, neither fathers speak the language. This further affects interaction between these children and their fathers. I suggest that such issues may influence the way these adolescents negotiate their relationship not only with their fathers, but with Poland. This paper thus argues that the experiences of separated families need to be explored further in discussions on changing patterns in contemporary migration.
| Type: | Conference item (Presentation) |
|---|---|
| Title: | 'My Mum didn't really wanna stay in Poland and my Dad didn't wanna come to England': the changing pattern of family migration from Poland to the UK |
| Event: | IMISCOE Spring Conference: Transforming Mobility and Immobility: Brexit and Beyond |
| Location: | Sheffield, UK |
| Dates: | 28 - 29 March 2019 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Publisher version: | https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/migration-research-gro... |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | adolescents, Brexit, Polish migration, applied linguistics |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10200189 |
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| 2. |  United States | 1 |
| 3. |  China | 1 |
| 4. |  New Zealand | 1 |
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