Suchergebnisse

Chapter 7 Making Polonia. Power, elites, and the hierarchy of belongingChapter 8 Conclusions: power of the individual; Literature; Globalisation, transnationalism, and nation-states; Transnationalism from below, ways of being, and belonging; Ethnicity: dominant and demotic discourses; Class: objective and subjective dimensions across national borders; Data for this book and the problem of 'waves' of Poles; De-territorialised nation-state; Emigration as a moral issue; Established political transnationalism and the production of Poles; The political making of the Polish diaspora.

AbstractThis article looks at the issue of the dramatic rise of street homelessness in London among Polish migrants from the perspective of social anthropology looking at the relationship between structural constraints faced by Polish migrants and their own perception of the social world, their meaning‐making practices, norms and values, behavioral patterns. As I will show, focusing just on structural and economic determinants not only offers a simplistic and one‐dimensional picture but it also fails to give an explanation and predict what happens if these constraints and exclusionary policies are removed and homeless migrants gain the same set of social rights as the rest of British and EU citizens (which in theory will happen in May 2011). An anthropological approach to the functions, roles and cultural meanings of homelessness, group bonds, masculinities, alcohol consumption, perception of the state and dominant society as voiced by homeless migrants I 'hanged around' with, reveals that structurally rejected people with particular backgrounds reconstruct communities and form strong ties despite (or because of) a hostile, exclusionary and hegemonic social environment of the neoliberal order. Two conclusions are drawn from this analysis, empirical and theoretical: first, taking both structural and cultural factors into account, the levels of homeless among that group is going to rise, at least in London; second, the set of cultural forms of behavior and social practices described in academic literature as the homo sovieticus syndrome (Wedel 1986, Sztompka 2000, Morawska 1998) proves not only valuable and resourceful in highly individualized, neoliberal and capitalistic society but may in fact be reinforced in new conditions being a productive – socially and culturally ‐ counter‐reaction to the neoliberal order of social life in the global city.

"Im Vereinigten Königreich arbeitet offiziell fast eine halbe Million Menschen aus den neuen EU-Mitgliedstaaten. Das Gros sind Polen. Doch die polnische Migration ist kein neues Phänomen. Migration und Exil sind ein wichtiger Bestandteil der polnischen nationalen Identität. Neu ist der Charakter der Arbeitsmigration. Statt endgültig auszuwandern orientieren sich die Migranten heute pragmatisch und flexibel an den jeweiligen Chancen. Sie leben und arbeiten zwischen und in zwei Welten: in der Heimat und im Aufnahmeland. Dies hat Auswirkungen auf ihr Selbstverständnis." (Autorenreferat)

The article discusses the case of academic silence with regards to the migration of Roma from Poland – both in Polish Romani studies and in migration studies. The absence of Romani migration in migration research in Poland is contrasted with the absence of the subject of migration in Romani studies, offering a glimpse into fundamental assumptions, and politically and ideologically determined paradigms within both areas. Paradoxically, the group associated in the social imaginary with mobility is absent in migration studies in Poland. Quite surprisingly, Polish Roma are static and immobilized in Polish Romani studies. The aim ofthis paper is to critically explore this particular type of discursive silence and how it impacts migration and Romani studies.