‘Settled in Mobility’: Engendering Post-Wall Migration in Europe

Abstract

The end of the bi-polar world and the collapse of communist regimes triggered an unprecedented mobility of people and heralded a new phase in European migrations. Eastern Europeans were now not only ‘free to leave’ to the West but more exactly ‘free to leave and to come back’. In this text I will focus on gendered transnational, cross-border practices and capabilities of Central and Eastern Europeans on the move, who use their spatial mobility to adapt to the new context of post-communist transition. We are dealing here with practices that are very different from those which the literature on ‘immigrant transnationalism’ is mostly about. Rather than relying on transnational networking for improving their condition in the country of their settlement, they tend to ‘settle within mobility,’ staying mobile ‘as long as they can’ in order to improve or maintain the quality of life at home. Their experience of migration thus becomes their lifestyle, their leaving home and going away, paradoxically, a strategy of staying at home, and, thus, an alternative to what migration is usually considered to be — emigration/immigration. Access to and management of mobility is gendered and dependent on institutional context. Mobility as a strategy can be empowering, a resource, a tool for social innovation and agency and an important dimension of social capital — if under the migrants’ own control. However, mobility may reflect increased dependencies, proliferation of precarious jobs and, as in the case of trafficking in women, lack of mobility and freedom.

Postawy migracyjne młodzieży akademickiej Białegostoku

“…Huntington 2007: 188, też: Slany 17-18]. Wobec takich migrantów, których charakteryzuje wysoka mobilność raczej niż definitywne zapuszczenie korzeni w jednym miejscu Morokvasic (2004) stosuje charakterystyczny zwrot, cytowany również w polskiej literaturze przedmiotu: to settle within mobility, czyli "osiedlać się, będąc mobilnymi" [por. Smagacz-Poziemska 2008: 36].…”

Repensar los cuidados a la luz de la reproducción social: una propuesta para vincular los circuitos migratorios

“…Este fenómeno ha favorecido movimientos a corto y largo plazo en los que las motivaciones así como las estrategias de empleo y las familiares se han entrelazado (para el caso de las migraciones polacas se pueden ver Ryan et al, 2009;White, 2010). La apertura de espacios migratorios ha posibilitado que familias enteras se hayan asentado, a diferencia de otras personas migrantes que no pudieron hacerlo previamente y entre las cuales quien se movilizaba era uno o una de las integrantes (Morokvasic, 2004). Además, las y los progenitores de migrantes europeos pueden reunirse, realizar visitas de manera regular para ofrecerles apoyo práctico y emocional, o incluso preparar un viaje con poca antelación en casos de urgencia, si por ejemplo alguien enferma.…”

On Bilingualism in a (Monolingual?) English Classroom Environment – The Challenges for Polish-English Bilingual Children, Their Parents and Schools

“…Secondly, literature also points to the often temporary and circular form of migration displayed by the Poles (e.g., "commuter migration," (Morokvasic, 2004)), which takes the form of retaining "a stake in Polish society and the option to return," and which, in turn, reduces "motivation to learn English and to integrate in Britain" (Sales et al, 2008, p. 7).…”