Polish Culture In Britain

This edited volume explores the historical, cultural and literary legacies of Polish Britain, and their significance for both the British and Polish nations. The focus of the book is twofold. First, it investigates the history of Polish immigration and the ways in which Polish immigrants have conceptualised their own experiences and encounters with Britain and the British. Second, it examines how Poles and Poland have been represented by Anglophone writers in both fictional and non-fictional forms of discourse. Inevitably, these issues are intertwined. Polish experiences of Britain have been shaped, in part, by British ideas about Poland, just as British notions of Poland have been transformed by the emergence of large and culturally active Polish communities in the UK. By studying these issues together, this volume develops a wide-ranging and original analysis of Polish Britain.

The figure of the Polish plumber or builder has long been a well-established icon of the British national imagination, uncovering the UK's collective unease with immigration from Central and Eastern Europe. But despite the powerful impact the UK's second largest language group has had on their host country's culture and politics, very little is known about its members. This painstakingly researched book offers a broad perspective on Polish migrants in the UK, taking into account discursive actions, policies, family connections, transnational networks, and political engagement of the diaspora. Born out of a decade of ethnographic studies among various communities of Polish nationals living in London, Michal P. Garapich documents the changes affecting both Polish migrants and British society, offering insight into the inner tensions and struggles within what is often assumed to be a uniform and homogeneous category. From Polish financial sector workers to the Polish homeless population, this groundbreaking book provides a street-level account of cultural and social determinants of Polish migrants as they continually rework their relation to class and ethnicity.

AND CONCLUSION ABIBLIOGRAPHY.

From 1942 to 1950, nearly twenty thousand Poles found refuge from the horrors of war-torn Europe in camps within Britain’s African colonies, including Uganda, Tanganyika, Kenya and Northern and Southern Rhodesia. On the Edges of Whiteness tells their improbable story, tracing the manifold, complex relationships that developed among refugees, their British administrators, and their African neighbors. While intervening in key historical debates across academic disciplines, this book also gives an accessible and memorable account of survival and dramatic cultural dislocation against the backdrop of global conflict.

Based on 115 interviews with Polish mothers in the UK and Poland, as well as a specially-commissioned opinion poll, this topical book discusses recent Polish migration to the UK. In a vivid account of every stage of the migration process, the book explores why so many Poles have migrated since 2004, why more children migrate with their families and how working-class families in the West of England make decisions about whether to stay. With a fully revised introduction for the paperback edition, it covers many broader themes - including livelihoods and migration cultures in Poland, experiences of integration into UK communities and issues surrounding return to Poland. This book is highly relevant to migration policy across Europe and beyond. It will be of interest to policy-makers and the general public as well as students and scholars. Winner of the BASEES George Blazyca Prize 2011.

How has the international mobility of Polish citizens intertwined with other influences to shape society, culture, politics and economics in contemporary Poland? The Impact of Migration on Poland offers a new approach for understanding how migration affects sending countries, and provides a wide-ranging analysis of how Poland has changed, and continues to change, since EU accession in 2004. The authors explore an array of social trends and their causes before using in-depth interview data to illustrate how migration contributes to those causes. They address fundamental questions about whether and how Polish society is becoming more equal and more cosmopolitan, arguing that for particular segments of society migration does make a difference, and can be seen as both leveller and eye-opener. While the book focuses mainly on stayers in Poland, and their multiple contacts with Poles in other countries, Chapter 9 analyses ‘Polish society abroad’, a more accurate concept than ‘community’ in countries like the UK, and Chapter 10 considers impacts of immigration to Poland. The book is written in a lively and accessible style, and will be important reading for anyone interested in the influence of migration on society, as well as students and scholars researching EU mobility, migration theory and methodology, and issues facing contemporary Europe.

For centuries, migration has been part of Polish history. In recent decades, however, migration patterns have intensified and undergone significant changes, especially after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989/90 and Poland's accession to the European Union in 2004. This collection of essays is the first to explicitly address the cultural impact of Polish migration to three European countries that have absorbed the major part of the recent exodus: Germany, Ireland, and UK. The volume analyses cultural activities of Poles abroad, explores topical trends in Polish migrant literature, and discusses the representation of migrants in film. By opening up a decidedly cultural perspective, the essays hope to break new ground and enrich the scientific discourse on migration in the European context.