ABSTRACT

The article discusses what happens when a ‘critical event’ exposes a migrant population to public view, leading them to reflect on their multiple identities and loyalties. Its focus is on twenty-first century Europe, where societies spread across international borders, offering opportunities for individuals to identify with two or more, and attempt to integrate sufficiently for their own purposes within each. Our case study is British-born Poles; the critical events are the post-2004 wave of Polish migration and the 2016 Brexit referendum. Based on interviews with 28 British-born individuals who felt they had emerged from ‘invisibility’ and become increasingly Polish, we seek to explain their integration trajectories into new Polish society in the UK and society in Poland. These integration experiences are shaped by the complex intersection of generation, wave, community, and historical and geographical setting. Existing research tends to focus on tensions between the post-1945 and post-2004 waves. We show how tensions can occur. However, we also point to instances of successful integration, where British-born Poles update their linguistic and cultural knowledge, form social relations with the new arrivals, and perhaps most importantly, experience life in Poland more intensely than was possible before 2004.

摘要

本文讨论了当“关键事件”使移民人口暴露于公众视野，导致他们反思其多重身份和忠诚时所发生的情况。它的重点是二十一世纪的欧洲，那里的社会遍布国际边界，为个人提供了与两个或两个以上人认同的机会，并试图在每个人中充分实现自己的目的。我们的案例研究是英国出生的波兰人；关键事件是2004年后的波兰移民潮和2016年的英国脱欧公投。根据对28位出生于英国的个人的采访，他们感到自己已经摆脱了“隐形”并变得越来越波兰，我们试图解释他们融入英国新波兰社会和波兰社会的轨迹。这些整合经验是由一代，浪潮，社区以及历史和地理环境的复杂交汇点决定的。现有研究趋向于集中于1945年后和2004年后浪潮之间的紧张关系。我们展示了紧张可能如何发生。但是，我们还指出了成功融合的实例，其中，英国出生的波兰人更新了语言和文化知识，与新来者建立了社会关系，而且最重要的是，与2004年之前相比，他们在波兰的生活体验更加浓烈。