What makes a migrant family?

Open borders, cheap flights and broadband internet have changed the way migration is perceived in Poland. It's easy to keep in touch with family at home and the decision to stay or go back is not set in stone. Dr Anne White from the University of Bath studies Polish migrant families. For Poles Apart she flipped open her latest work to be published next year.

Dr White has been investigating family migration from small-town Poland since 2006. For her research project she interviewed Polish mothers in Poland and the UK and ran an opinion poll in rural Poland.

Migrants' motives

According to Dr White, many families had a sense of being ‘forced’ into migration because “they had exhausted local livelihood options” in Poland.

Apart from economic motives many mothers said the hope for a better life and having more time for the children were important factors.

Homemaking, education and their children's welfare were at least as important to parents as finding a job. Some parents were disappointed with the standard in British schools.

Dr White found that most of those who had made the move did not regret it: “Parents interviewed in the UK often stressed that, despite the hardships they had encountered as migrants, it was worth it for the sake of giving their children a better start in life.”

'It's worth giving it a go'

Ten years ago it was more common for one parent to work abroad while the family stayed in Poland. Poles today are much better informed about life in the UK. Dr White’s research suggests that family migration can be a form of learning experience: Some couples make the move as a family because they had been separated in the past and missed each other too much.

Dr White also noticed that migrating mothers were no exception from other young Polish migrants in the sense that they shared their curiosity and sense of adventure and the attitude ‘it’s worth giving it a go’ because they can always go back.

Information taken from Anne White’s draft chapter Family migration from small-town Poland: a livelihood strategy approach for publication in K.Burrell (ed.): Polish Migration to the UK in the New European Union: After 2004 ( Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009)