FAQ

New receiving countries and the European ‘mobility laboratory’: integration and family reunification aspirations among Ukrainians in Płock

Publication date: 21.12.2020

Migration Studies – Review of Polish Diaspora, 2020 (XLVI), Vol. 4 (178), pp. 27 - 47

https://doi.org/10.4467/25444972SMPP.20.037.12774

Authors

Anne White
University College, London, Great Britain
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4431-6707 Orcid
All publications →

Titles

New receiving countries and the European ‘mobility laboratory’: integration and family reunification aspirations among Ukrainians in Płock

Abstract

Poland has recently become a country with net immigration, thanks largely to an influx of labour migrants from all over Ukraine. This begs the question of how similar its experiences will be to those of European countries which made the same migration transition in the 20th century. The article explores how recently-arrived Ukrainians experience life in a medium-sized Polish city, Płock, which has itself only recently achieved net international immigration. I argue that one should not overplay Poland’s status as a new receiving country, differentiating it from established receiving countries such as the UK. In fact, there are many parallels between the experiences of migrants in the UK and Poland, primarily linked to 21st century opportunities to establish dynamic transnational migration networks. All receiving countries need to adjust to this unexpected situation. For the Ukrainian factory workers interviewed in this study, its most important aspect is that the majority aspire to bring their families to Poland – just as Polish families rapidly reunited abroad in the aftermath of Poland’s EU accession.

References

Ager, A., Strang, A. (2004), Indicators of Integration: Final Report, London: Home Office.
 
Ager, A., Strang, A. (2008), Understanding integration: a conceptual framework, Journal of Refugee Studies Volume 21, Issue 2, pp. 166–91.
 
Andrejuk, K. (2017), Przedsiębiorcy ukraińscy w Polsce. Struktura i sprawstwo w procesie osiedlenia, Warsaw: Wydawnictwo IFiS PAN.
 
Arango, J. (2012), Early starters and latecomers Comparing countries of immigration and immigration regimes in Europe, in: Okólski, M. (ed.), European Immigrations: Trends, Structures and Policy Implications, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press/IMISCOE, pp. 45–64.
 
Beichelt, T., Worschech, S. (eds.) (2017), Transnational Ukraine? Networks and Ties that Influence(d) Contemporary Ukraine, Stuttgart: Ibidem.
 
Brunarska, Z., Kindler, M., Szulecka, M., Toruńczyk-Ruiz, T. (2016), Ukrainian Migration to Poland: A “Local” Mobility? In: Fedyuk, O., Kindler, M. (eds.) Ukrainian Migration to the European Union: Lessons from Migration Studies, IMISCOE/Springer, pp. 115–132.
 
Brzozowska, A. (2018), Społeczne zakotwiczenie w klasowo-etnicznych formach tożsamości a integracja polskich i ukraińskich migrantów, Studia Migracyjne – Przegląd Polonijny Issue 1(167), pp. 69–99.
 
Castles, S., Miller. M. J. (2009), The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World (4th edn), Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
 
Collett, E. (2013), The Integration Needs of Mobile EU Citizens: Impediments and Opportunities, Brussels: Migration Policy Institute Europe.
 
Długosz, P. (2018), Integracja ukraińskich studentów podejmujących naukę w Polsce, Studia Migracyjne – Przegląd Polonijny, Issue 2 (168), pp. 67–92.
 
Eade, J., Drinkwater, S. and Garapich, M. P. (2007), Class and Ethnicity – Polish Migrants in London, Guildford: Universities of Surrey and Roehampton.
 
Escandell, X. and Ceobanu, A. M. (2009), When contact with immigrants matters: threat, interethnic attitudes and foreigner exclusionism in Spain’s Comunidades Autónomas’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Volume 32, Issue 1, pp. 44–69.
 
Fedyuk, O. (2016), ‘The Gender Perspective in Ukrainian Migration’, in: Fedyuk, O., Kindler, M. (eds.) Ukrainian Migration to the European Union: Lessons from Migration Studies, IMISCOE/Springer, pp. 72–89.
 
Glynn, I. (2011), Emigration memories and immigration realities in Ireland and Italy, in: Fanning, B., Munck, R., Globalization, Migration and Social Transformation: Ireland in Europe and the World, Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 65–77.
 
Górny, A., Grabowska-Lusińska, I., Lesińska, M., Okólski, M. (eds.) (2010), Immigration to Poland: Policy, Employment, Integration, Warsaw: CMR and Scholar.
 
Górny A. (2017) All circular but different: variation in patterns of Ukraine-to-Poland migration, Population Space and Place, Volume 23, Issue 8, pp. 1–10.
 
Górny, A., Jaźwińska, E. (2019), Ukraińskie migrantki i migranci w aglomeracji Warszawskiej: cechy społeczno-demograficzne i relacje społeczne. Raport z badań, Warsaw: CMR Working Paper 115/173.
 
Górny, A., Kołodziejczyk, K., Madej, K., Kaczmarczyk, P. (2018), Nowe obszary docelowe w migracji z Ukrainy do Polski. Przypadek Bydgoszczy i Wrocławia na tle innych miast. Raport z badań, Warsaw: CMR Working Paper 118/176.
 
Grabowska-Lusińska, I. (2011), Introduction and conceptual framework, in Grabowska-Lusińska, I. D. Drbohlav, Hars, A. (eds.) Immigration Puzzles: Comparative Analysis of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland Before and After Joining the EU, Warsaw: Lambert Academic Publishing, pp. 6–22.
 
Grabowska-Lusińska, I., Drbohlav, D. and Hars, A. (eds.) (2011), Immigration Puzzles: Comparative Analysis of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland Before and After Joining the EU, Warsaw: Lambert Academic Publishing.
 
Grzymała-Kazłowska, A. (2016), Social Anchoring: Immigrant Identity, Security and Integration Reconnected?, Sociology, Volume 50, Issue 6, pp. 1123 –1139.
 
Grzymała-Kazłowska, A., Brzozowska, A. (2017) From Drifting to Anchoring. Capturing the Experience of Ukrainian Migrants in Poland, Central and Eastern European Migration Review, Volume 6, Issue 2, pp. 103–122.
 
Iglicka, K. (2001), Poland’s Postwar Dynamic of Migration, Aldershot: Ashgate.
 
Janicki. W. (2015), Migracje kompensacyjne jako czynnik wzrostu obszarów peryferyjnych. Rola ukrytego kapitału ludzkiego, Lublin: UMCS Press.
 
Janská, E., Čermak, Z.,Wright, R. (2014), New immigrant destination in a new country of immigration: Settlement patterns of non-natives in the Czech Republic, Population Space and Place, Volume 20, pp. 680–693.
 
Jeram, S. (2013) Immigrants and the Basque nation: diversity as a new marker of identity, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Volume 36, Issue 11, pp. 1770–1788.
 
Kawczyńska-Butrym, Z., Ogryzko-Wiewiórowska, M., Butrym, M. (2012), Wyjazdy Polaków – przyjazdy Ukrainców. Lokalne problemy migracyjne na Lubelszczyźnie. Departures of Poles – Arrivals of Ukrainians. Local migration problems in the Lublin Region, Lublin: UMCS [bilingual text].
 
Kenny, C. (2010) Finding a voice or fitting in? Migrants and media in the new Ireland, Media, Culture and Society, Volume 32, Issue 2, pp. 311–22.
 
Kindler M. (2011), Risk and risk strategies in economic migration from Ukraine: the case of migrant women working in the domestic work sector in Poland, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
 
Kindler, M., Wójcikowska-Baniak, K. (2018), ‘Sieci społeczne a integracja migrantów ukraińskich w Polsce’, Warsaw: CMR Working Paper 107/165.
 
Krings, T., Moriarty, E., Wickham, J., Bobek, A., Salamońska, J. (2013), New Mobilities in Europe: Polish Migration to Ireland post-2004, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
 
Kubal, A. (2015) Legal consciousness as a form of social remittance? Studying return migrants’ everyday practices of legality in Ukraine, Migration Studies, Volume 3 , Issue 1, pp. 68–88.
 
Kubiciel-Lodzińska, S., Ruszczak, B. (2016), ‘The Determinants of Student Migration to Poland Based on the Opolskie Voivodeship Study’, International Migration, Volume 54, Issue 5, pp. 163–174.
 
Łakomski, M. (2010), Płock na emigracji, Płock: ViaArtCity.
 
Marcu, S. (2007), Spain, a new country of immigration in Europe, Analele Ştiintifice Ale Universităţii “Al I. Cuza” Iaşi, Tom L III, s. II – c , Geografie, pp. 141–54.
 
Okólski, M. (ed.) (2012), European Immigrations: Trends, Structures and Policy Implications, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press/IMISCOE.
 
Rabikowska, M., Burrell, K. (2009), ‘The material worlds of recent Polish migrants: Transnationalism, food, shops and home’, in: K. Burrell (ed.) Polish Migration to the UK in the ‘New’ European Union: After 2004, Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 211–32.
 
Robinson, D. (2010) The neighbourhood effects of new immigration, Environment and Planning A, Volume 42, pp. 2451–2466.
 
Toruńczyk-Ruiz S. and Brunarska Z. (2018). Through attachment to settlement: social and psychological determinants of migrants’ intentions to stay. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2018.1554429, on-line first.
 
Urząd Statystyczny w Warszawie (2019), ‘Miasto Płock’ (series Statystyczny Vademecum Samorządowca). https://warszawa.stat.gov.pl/vademecum/vademecum_mazowieckie/portrety_miast/miasto_Płock.pdf
 
White, A. (2010) ‚Migracja z dziećmi do Anglii jako strategia życiowa polskich kobiet’, in: Napierała, J. and Kindler, M. (eds.), Migracje kobiet z i do Polski, Warsaw: Warsaw University Centre of Migration Research, pp. 69–89.
 
White, A. (2017), Polish Families and Migration Since EU Accession (2nd edition), Bristol: Policy Press.
 
White, A., Grabowska, I., Kaczmarczyk, P. and Slany, K. (2018), The Impact of Migration on Poland: EU Mobility and Social Change, London: UCL Press.

Information

Information: Migration Studies – Review of Polish Diaspora, 2020 (XLVI), Vol. 4 (178), pp. 27 - 47

Article type: Original article

Titles:

Polish:

New receiving countries and the European ‘mobility laboratory’: integration and family reunification aspirations among Ukrainians in Płock

English:

New receiving countries and the European ‘mobility laboratory’: integration and family reunification aspirations among Ukrainians in Płock

Authors

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4431-6707

Anne White
University College, London, Great Britain
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4431-6707 Orcid
All publications →

University College, London, Great Britain

Published at: 21.12.2020

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY-NC-ND  licence icon

Percentage share of authors:

Anne White (Author) - 100%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

English