This paper is based on a study on the effects of unauthorized migration on Latino children and youth’s access to education, healthcare, and livelihoods. The research project aimed at improving understanding of the many nuanced effects of undocumented status on employment and livelihood prospects of Latino youth. Research involved ethnographic fieldwork in three neighborhoods in the larger Washington, DC metropolitan area: Chirilagua, VA, a neighborhood on the border of Alexandria and Arlington in northern Virginia; Langley Park, MD; and Columbia Heights, in DC. In this article we attempt to explore the circumstances faced by Latino youth as they transition into adulthood and analyze the effects of unauthorized status of the young person or other family members on incentives to work and access to the labor market. We argue that while these youth are often pressured to choose waged employment over education in order to contribute to the family’s income, their lack of legal immigration status is an incentive to stay in school for the relatively safe legal environment it affords. Once the decision to work has been made, or graduation from high school has forced them out of the safety net, the limited options for work available to these youth create difficult decisions wherein some seek work in safe environments for less compensation while others choose more formal, higher-paying positions that come with exposure and high risk.

The article reflects on the role of mobility within transition to adulthood process. It will present the results of research focusing on the transitions to adulthood of representatives of the generation born at the beginning of the 1980s in Poland. This boom generation experienced both the transformation from a communist to a capitalist state, as well as the joyful and hopeful moment of Poland’s accession to the EU in 2004. Post-2004, faced with high unemployment, the representatives of this age cohort decided to leave Poland en masse in search of employment opportunities. Based on biographical interviews with young Poles born in the early 1980s and living in Poland, the article reflects upon the meaning of mobility and migration experiences in their young age. What was mobility impact on different transition to adulthood trajectories – employment, family or independent living? How has it affected the concept of adulthood? In the article, the mobility experience will be looked upon through the lenses of theories of youth studies, which is a recent trend in analyzing young people’s mobility or migration. The article points to the three meanings of mobility: mobility as an experience of semi-independence, mobility as time to gain adulthood, and mobility as a celebration of youth. As the experience of this cohort is unique in the historical sense, it is also exemplary for the growing importance of mobility in transitions to adulthood.

The effects of broad and narrow socialization on migration trajectories of young adults
The previous scientific considerations have focused on the fact that international mobility of youth plays a significant role in the process of becoming adult (see Eade et al. 2006, Crivello 2011, Punch 2015, King 2017), as well as affects the further stages of transition from education to work and adulthood (see Sarnowska 2016). The aim of this article is to explain the importance of socialization in the family for migration trajectories of Polish young adults. To illustrate various migration strategies, the concept of broad and narrow socialization of Jeffrey J. Arnett (1995a) will be used. It was assumed that Arnett’s concept is based on a particular dimension with two poles. Depending on a source of socialization, individuals experience broad or narrow socialization conditions as well as broad or narrow socialization influences. Particular attention will be given to parents as socializing agents. The analysis of the empirical material will be based on the qualitative longitudinal study with 14 people aged 25–34 with a university degree, who took one of the first works in life abroad. The second wave of the study had been conducted after one year to two years after the first one.

This article explores the relationship between international migration and the precarization of work among young migrants from selected medium-sized cities in Poland. The authors analyze, whether international migration allows for a change or, on the contrary, preserves precarious work conditions. This is examined in the context of young people who try to avoid precarization by migrating from their local communities. Theoretical framework of this work concerns “liquid migration”, which is based on the temporariness, flexibility, and unpredictability of life trajectories. In the professional context, “liquid migrants” have to adapt to a flexible, deregulated and increasingly transnational labour market. Such labour markets are associated with specific challenges, one of them being the precarization of work and the fact that contemporary work signifies a number of risks. Based on the empirical material from the “Education-to-domestic and- foreign labor market transitions of youth: The role of local community, peer group and new media” project, the authors are looking for the answer to the questions about the role of migration experience in the process of experiencing work precarization, both in objective and subjective terms.

Polish accession to the European Union in 2004 saw migration to the UK increase exponentially. However, the recent climate in Britain has become one of a harsher anti-immigrant discourse. This paper is based on findings of my doctoral study exploring identity construction amongst Polish-born adolescents in the UK in the light of such negative discourses. Here, I see identity as contingent, (re)negotiated in different contexts; I also draw on the theory of positioning, whereby individuals adopt certain subject positions even as they are positioned differently by others. Fieldwork for the study took place in January-May 2016. A narrative inquiry approach was used; interviews were held with eleven participants aged 11–16, living in small Polish communities. Findings suggest that while the adolescents report having been subjected to anti-Polish bullying, they refuse to tell stories of victimhood. Rather, they present themselves as agentive individuals who respond to attacks by asserting their Polish identity and reinforcing their right to be in the UK. Thus, despite the antagonistic discourses surrounding Polish migration to the UK, these adolescents demonstrate the positive way that they are confronting their present difficulties and approaching their future.

The article analyzes the ways Norwegian educational institutions, especially Kindergartens, transmit ideas and cultural norms regarding childhood. The article is based on empirical ethnographic research among Polish women residing in Oslo and vicinity, including Kindergarten teachers and mothers of preschool age students. In some instances, the women were both teachers and mothers of Kindergarten students. In particular, we focus on hierarchies and childhood discourses related to the role of public institutions in raising and education young children. We ask the following research questions: How is the role of Kindergarten defined in Norway? How does it differ from the role Kindergarten plays in Poland? What values are transmitted in Norwegian Kindergartens?
What is the opinion of Polish mothers, whose children attend Norwegian Kindergartens, about these values? We also look at communication strategies between parents and teachers and analyze their consequences.

Experiencing Inequalities in Social Status and Bullying within a School Environment. Perception of Children of Polish Immigrants in Norway
This article discusses a mosaic of unfavorable aspects related to the socio-economic situation of children of Polish immigrants in the Norwegian school environment. The main focus is placed on discrimination experienced by these children due to non-majority social status (as compared to Norwegian children). Moreover, we examine memories and experiences of peer violence in a form of bullying and individual coping strategies seen as ‘peer work’. We demonstrate that socio-economic inequalities manifested by children can be seen in the bullying acts. In addition, we show the role of the Norwegian school and the school environment in a process of integration among the children of Polish immigrants. We note how it shapes their self-esteem, as well as assess social status of a family and the economic situation in the countries of origin and arrival. The article is based on the results of two research projects: Children’s experience of growing up transnationally (Work Package 5 conducted within the Transfam project between 2013 and 2016) and The adaptation process of children of Polish immigrants. Field research in Norway (a doctoral project implemented in 2013–2014 at the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University).

The present paper is based on the research project “(Un)easy returns home. The functioning of children and young people returning from emigration”, the main goal of which was to investigate and describe the experience of children from Polish returning migrant families, and specifically to answer the question: What kind of challenges do children from families returning to Poland face when entering the Polish educational system? We conducted qualitative research taking into consideration four perspectives: children, adolescents, parents and teachers. In this paper, we focus on the most important challenges in a new educational context based on the narrations of children, adolescents, parents and teachers and dividing the challenges into three groups: purely educational, socio-cultural and emotional. Finally, we also discuss best practices which proved helpful for children’s adaptation to the new environment and which may be used in the school context

Children-repatriates from Kazakhstan in the Polish educational space – a difficult return to one’s roots
The article discusses the situation of children-repatriates from Kazakhstan in the Polish educational space. Focusing on the research area of compulsory schooling, the process of identity-construction and children’s place in Polish school depend on many factors. Of primary importance are the family context and a personal attitude of each child towards the decision about repatriation – which was usually made by their parents. Unlike majority children who are fluent in the Polish language, repatriated children find themselves in a different educational situation. The research results demonstrate that both cultural capital (Bourdieu) and the so-called school capital, that are at the disposal of the repatriated children, have proven useless in Poland. Explanations have been drawn in connection to the differences between schooling environments of different educational institutions, in Poland and in Kazakhstan, These differences stem from a varied cultural reference and, most importantly, from how a school functions as an educational institution. Children-repatriates experienced not only a sudden clash of two different socio-cultural worlds but also a culture shock. These were, in turn, interconnected with their personal traits.

Adaptive problems of children of repatriates – a context of peer relations
My research shows that the vast majority of repatriate children suffers from stigmatization within formal schooling in Poland. These experiences are due to the differences related to being brought up in the Russian linguistic and cultural setting. Children often attempt to conceal their cultural identity because they fear rejection. One of the main consequences of conflicts with peers is that the repatriated children abandon Russian language, despite the fact that it is an integral part of their cultural identity and a tool enabling them to communicate with the usually large family outside of Poland. A rejection of language due to assimilation-driven peer pressure may also have an adverse effect on the formation of personality. In the article, I try to present how the outlined mechanism operates by taking into account some aspects of the development specific to a school-aged child, as well investigate the role of adults in this process. As I consider this against the possible variations of the acculturation processes, I argue that action must be taken in order to enable a successful integration (rather than assimilation) into the host society for this group.

This article offers a two-fold contribution. On the one hand, it includes a review of the key junctions in the research landscape related to migrant children and youth by bringing together youth studies, migration studies and a child-centered paradigm with the focus on the meso-level and the concept of belonging. On the other hand, by seeing belonging as a valuable analytical framework for the integration of approaches at the tripartite analysis favoring the meso-level, the paper encourages studies to dynamically overcome the dichotomy, incompleteness and a static nature of the research conducted separately on either macro or micro levels.