Ethnic,gender and class identities of Polish migrant mothers: intersecting maternal narratives with transnationalism and integration

ABSTRACT

Based on a doctoral study of Polish migrant mothers living in Germany and the United Kingdom, this paper examines women's narratives pertinent to ethnicity, gender and social class, as well as the mutual entanglements of these dimensions. While the ethnic identity matrix often evokes dimensions of transnationalism and integration, the addition of the femininity component illustrates the diversity among contemporary Polish migrant women in Western Europe with regard to their identity practices. The analyses of transnational, translocal and cosmopolitan orientations highlight their binding to a contextualized understanding of femininity – its various markers and corollary epitome of motherhood, particularly in the Polish context. The main findings comprise an ideal-type based typology of migrant mothering, which sheds light on how mobility and gender intersect. The discussions adopt the social class lens in an attempt to focus on the implications of certain maternal and migrant identities among Polish women. By underscoring the value of both integration and transnationalism perspectives, the paper calls for additional aspects of translocality and hybridization, seeing them as noticeable social markers of the Polish female migrants’ biographies.     

流动的味觉观：迁居彝人的饮食通感、“家乡”体验与记忆认同

受人类学理论的“感官转向”“物质转向”等交叉影响,饮食人类学研究更加关注到食物怎样在跨地区、跨文化和跨民族交流中积极塑造个体或群体的身份、信仰、健康,乃至整个社群的结构转型等问题。通过对离开故乡、迁居外地的彝人的饮食个案研究,重点探讨民族传统饮食与社会记忆如何在流动语境中创造出一种由饮食通感锁定的“味觉观”。对流动的味觉观的民族志研究可帮助我们深入理解全球化背景下由饮食文化引出的文化建构、族群边界、文化审美、道德区分等问题。     

Exile,gender and identity: the short stories of Afghanistani author Maryam Mahboob

The last two decades of the twentieth century witnessed the largest migration of the Afghanistani population in modern history. More than six million people migrated to neighbouring countries, and to North America, Europe and Australia. Among them were almost all of Afghanistan's female authors; some eventually returned, but others chose to remain in diaspora. Some stopped writing, while others have continued. Maryam Mahboob was the first Afghanistani female author to leave Afghanistan (in 1981). Her major works since then have dealt chiefly with the issues of women living in ‘Outlandia’. Having been treated as second-class citizens in Afghanistan, how do Afghanistani migrant women perceive their social status in a new environment? How has migration affected the lives of Afghanistani women of different generations? Have they assimilated with the new culture and adopted new identities, or have they retained their cultural identities and stayed in closed communities? How do these women perceive their ‘new home’ vis-à-vis the ‘old home-land’. What does it mean to be a female author from a Third World Islamic society living and writing in the First World? Why does Mahboob still write overwhelmingly about themes from her place of origin and in her native language, after so much time abroad?     

Experiments on puerile nations,or the impossibility of surpassing your father: the case of the Anglo‐Greek dialogue

This article is concerned with the dialogic construction of Greek national and British imperial identities. It examines the gendered language in which the Greeks and the British addressed each other in the 1860s and the 1870s. Drawing on Lacanian psychoanalysis, anthropology, studies of nationalism and post‐colonial theory, it looks at the symbolic structure of Anglo‐Greek cultural exchange. In this analysis, it is argued that the familial imageries both sides employed to describe themselves and/or each other were constitutive of the roles they had assumed in Anglo‐Greek relations, but also part of the very process of Greek nation‐building and British imperialism.     

The Economic Integration of Ukrainian and Vietnamese Migrant Women in the Polish Labour Market

Through an analysis of Ukrainian and Vietnamese migrant women in Poland, we study the extent to which their economic integration is influenced by the legal framework—for example, the visa regime—and migrants' possession of, or access to, different forms of capital. The article is based on interviews conducted between 2005 and 2008 with female migrant workers from Ukraine and Vietnam. The women faced administrative obstacles in accessing the formal labour market; their overall initial poor financial status and family situation pressured them to accept work in the informal labour market. Another barrier was the limited ability to convert their cultural capital into economic capital. To overcome these barriers, the women adopted two distinct strategies of economic integration. The Ukrainian women used networks built on strong ties from country of origin and on weak ties in Poland, while the Vietnamese women used strong ties within their own ethnic niche.     

Belonging and the uses of difference: young people in Australian urban multiculture

This paper examines how young people of migrant background in Australia make meaning of cultural, ethnic and racial difference to work out belonging in times of super-diversity. It asks what functions difference still has for a generation growing up within conditions of proliferating diversity that demand and accommodate competing constructions of cultural identities. It suggests that young people's narratives about difference depend on the space of belonging, and explores how young people use difference differently depending on whether they are articulating membership in the local community, the nation or youth culture.     

Orgasm and the West. A history of pleasure from the sixteenth century to the present

ABSTRACT

This study analyses the experiences of exiles within international rugby union in Britain. The emphasis is on challenging existing sociological assumptions surrounding national identity and sports labour migration. Eight international rugby exiles were invited to take part in semi-structured interviews and several themes emerged. The major findings from the study demonstrate that exiles are subject to an array of cultural attachments and personal experiences which shape their national identities. As migrants, their repositioning in relation to the nation is increasingly deemed to be the norm in rugby union. However, additional influences were also shown to persist to varying degrees.     

Perceptions of diversity and attitudes of tolerance in the ‘fragmented’ U.K.

ABSTRACT

Relying on a quantitative survey (n = 1497) and semi-structured interviews (n = 30) conducted in the U.K., we explore British nationals’, Romanian and Turkish migrants’ attitudes of tolerance and the factors influencing them in the current socio-political context in the U.K. The quantitative data reveal the role of younger age, diverse networks, higher education, attachment to city/region and supranational identifications in more open attitudes towards diversity. The qualitative findings illustrate how diverse these three groups’ attitudes of tolerance can be and how they are affected by their position and status in the U.K. The British’ attitudes show their tolerance can reflect diverse forms of acceptance of ethnic and cultural differences but can also draw lines in terms of civic values opposing ‘those who contribute to society’ versus those who ‘live as parasites’. The Turks are in favour of diversity with the expectation of receiving more civic rights and facing less prejudice. The Romanians tend to have a more ambiguous relation to diversity given their position of stigmatised migrants in the U.K. Our analysis reveal how inclusive or exclusive people’s (sub- and supra-)national identities can be and how these frame their attitudes of tolerance.     

Gender,Migration and Place of Qualification of Doctors in the UK: Perceptions of Inequality,Morale and Career Aspiration

This article draws on a large British Medical Association (BMA) survey which allows the comparison of doctors who qualified in the UK with International Medical Graduates (IMG) who qualified overseas. It does this with respect to inequality, morale and career aspiration. The paper argues that the human-capital protection of qualifications, profession and status is not sufficient to equal the experiences of migrant doctors with those of doctors who qualified in the UK. Moreover, the article provides a gendered analysis which demonstrates clear differences between women and men and shows that place of qualification intensifies the gendered experience of a medical career. Drawing on intersectional insights shows that women IMGs are the most disadvantaged despite the apparent protection of high human capital.     

Rewriting dominant narratives of the academy: women faculty of color and identity management

Drawing on Delgado and Yosso’s counterstory, Yosso’s community cultural wealth, and Alsup’s borderland discourses, the authors, who are women of color academics, use narratives from their lives to discuss the ways in which they draw on resources in managing and reconfiguring their multiple identities within the academy. These include identities of scholars, mentors, teachers, community members, mothers, and partners. They suggest that rather than merely being socialized into cultural reproduction, as much of the literature oriented toward women of color advises them to do in order to become successful, they seek to actually engage in transforming their roles and that of the academy by consciously and repeatedly making present and visible facets of identity that have previously been more-or-less absent in higher education. By presenting these counter-narratives the authors attempt to engage with ways of self-positioning that are, especially for women of color in academia, not frequently discussed or presented.     

Muslim Women in Australia,Britain and the United States: The Role of “Othering” and Biculturalism in Identity Formation

When Muslims migrate to Western countries, they bring their identity and culture with them. As they settle in their host countries, some Muslims encounter structural inequality, which is often revealed through media representation, unequal labour market status and racial profiling. Through the dynamics of structural inequality, some Muslim women remain doubly disadvantaged. Within their ethnic/religious community, Muslim women are expected to follow their cultural traditions and in the wider society their overtly Muslim appearance is often questioned. The discussion of identity formation in this paper is based on interviews with Muslim girls and women in Australia, Britain and the United States, aged between 15 and 30 years. Though the cultural and political contexts of these three countries are different, the practice of “othering” women have been similar. Through their life stories and narratives, I examine the formation of the participants’ identities. It was found that for many of these women their sense of identity shifted from single to multiple identities, thus revealing that identity formation was a flexible process that was affected by a variety of factors, including the relevance and importance of biculturalism in the women’s identity formation.     

建构家族意识 拯救民族认同——刍议南方回族谱牒中的文化认同

本文试图从回族家谱具体内容来探讨南方回族在历史上对民族文化认同的重构。指出南方回族谱牒是特定政治和社会文化环境中,人们克服认同危机而所作的积极应对的手段,是回族社会内部进行自觉文化认同重构实践的一个组成部分,是南方回族在宗教认同淡化前提下文化认同重构的一种转换和替代。这种历史实践隐含着南方回族发展的一个历史特点,即家族意识的构建和延续在一定程度上加强了南方回族的民族认同。     

Racism and xenophobia experienced by Polish migrants in the UK before and after Brexit vote

In recent years the public discourses on Polish migration in the UK have rapidly turned hostile, especially in the context of economic crisis in 2008, and subsequently after the EU referendum in 2016. While initially Poles have been perceived as a ‘desirable’ migrant group and labelled as ‘invisible’ due to their whiteness, this perception shifted to the representation of these migrants as taking jobs from British workers, putting a strain on public services and welfare. While racist and xenophobic violence has been particularly noted following the Brexit vote, Polish migrants experienced various forms of racist abuse before that. This paper draws on narrative interviews with Polish migrant women illustrating their experiences of racism and xenophobia in Greater Manchester before and after the Brexit vote, and how they make sense of anti-Polish discourses and attitudes. This paper illustrates the importance of the interplay between the media and political discourses, class, race and the local context in shaping relations between Polish migrants and the local population.     

Video and the Hausa Novella in Nigeria

An explosion of Hausa popular fiction writing in Nigeria, from about 1987 onwards, was mirrored in an even greater growth in Hausa video film production from the mid-1990s onwards. A range of themes, reflected in the imagery of book covers, has been dominated by issues concerning the roles of women and the relations between men and women in this predominantly Islamic society, leading to a continuing debate both about Hausa society and about the morality and value of such forms of cultural production. The paper traces the ideological transformation of the stereotypical identities of bora and mowa, the unfavoured and favoured wife, as they move from genre to genre—from tale to play to novella to video film.     

Practices of active citizenship among migrant youth: beyond conventionalities

This paper discusses the empirical manifestations of the notion of active citizenship in the context of the experiences of migrant youth. It focuses on the practices of active citizenship through involvement in social networks and creative civic engagement. In doing so, the article examines the complex and multi-faceted nature of social networking among migrant youth and the extent to which their approach to engagement is dependent on the specificities of the local environment, the type of social issues involved, and the cultural norms of one's own cultural heritage. Key empirical insights are derived from quantitative and qualitative research conducted among migrant youth of African, Arabic-speaking and Pacific Island backgrounds in Australia. These empirical insights are used to examine the changing perceptions of active citizenship among migrant youth, and the possibilities offered through non-traditional networks to engender civic engagement and social participation.     

Knowing ‘how to go on’: structuration theory as an analytical prism in studies of intercultural engagement

Accelerated rates of global migration over the past 20 years have seen dramatic increases in demographic, cultural and social diversity in the world's most developed countries. Scholars of migration are faced with the challenge of understanding a society that consists of countless socio-cultural frontiers, along which the contrasting and often conflicting practices and values of diverse populations collide. These circumstances require the development of a theoretical framework that elucidates the practices through which these cultural collisions and conflicts are actualised and addressed, illuminating the day to day challenges of living with difference. This article proposes structuration theory as an insightful analytical prism that can afford new in-depth perspectives into intercultural engagements. By exploring the confluence between structural factors and the actions of individual agents, structuration theory illuminates the choices made by members of migrant groups regarding socio-cultural affiliations, as well as highlighting the strategic processes and behaviours through which these choices are actualised. A discussion of empirical research with Muslim youth in the west of Ireland illustrates the analytical clarity that structuration theory can offer to debates on integration and interculturalism.     

‘Both an Arab and a woman’: gendered,racialised experiences of female Palestinian citizens of Israel

Following feminist and postcolonial discourses, this paper uses the concept of ‘everyday experience’ as a tool to trace the social world of educated Palestinian women in Israel. The term refers to the complex array of these women's experiences in racialised and gendered social sites, as well as within the class, religious, and ethnic contexts in the subordinated group and its relations with the dominant Jewish group. Based on 108 in‐depth interviews with Palestinian women citizens of Israel, the paper claims that educated Palestinian women are located in a ‘third place’ between cultural, gender, class, national and racial structures that generates a continual ambivalence. Within this marginal, ‘unhomely’ space women negotiate their own identities and challenge dominant social definitions. Women create various modes of interim spaces and multi‐dimensional, shifting identities for themselves. The ambivalent attitudes generated by the women's experiences expose the possibility of shedding categorising markers. The omnipresent existence of the gendered, racialised regime of knowledge makes every place a potential site of subversion and resistance.     

From Sex to Gender: The Feminisation of Migration and Labour-Market Insertion in Spain and Portugal

The aim of this article is to study the feminisation and masculinisation of migration and the insertion of the migrant population into the labour market in Spain and Portugal from the perspective of gender. Rather than focusing on the appearance of the demand for migrant labour in social reproduction work, we analyse the situation of both men and women in highly feminised and masculinised activities by studying the impact each exerts on the other, and the way in which this conditions the gender breakdown of the migrant population. We provide a historical view of the work of migrants in the care and cleaning sectors, comparing it with male migrant employment—mostly in construction—and analysing the gendered breakdown of migrant communities. We argue that, in contrast to the generally accepted discourse on the international scene, there has not been a steady evolution in the feminisation of migrant labour in Spain and Portugal. Instead, the presence of migrant women on the labour market fluctuates in accordance with a specific set of variables: welfare state and care regimes, immigration policies, historical links influencing the national origin of migrants, the housing situation, labour markets and the respective economic situations in the construction industry and in domestic and care work.