Normality unpacked
Migration, ethnicity and Local Structure of Feeling among Polish migrant workers in Northern Ireland with a comparative perspective on Scotland
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3634792 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Radosław Polkowski (0000-0002-3212-314X, University of Strathclyde, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 15 |
| Pages | 2519-2535 |
| Publication date | 2017-11-18 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | New Community (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/1369183x.2017.1299621 |
| OpenAlex | W2604048832 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 16 |
Previous literature on Polish migration to the UK identified a discourse of normality as a grand narrative in migrants’ justifications for living and working abroad. The present article contributes to this literature by asking what happens to this discourse in the circumstances of the UK, where it cannot be easily sustained. To explore this issue, the case of Northern Ireland is chosen and it is illustratively compared to that of Scotland. Using the concept of Structures of Feeling to frame the analysis of semi-structured interviews with Polish migrant workers, the study shows that, on the one hand, migration experience in Northern Ireland seems to undermine the ideal of a normal life as well as the idealised images of the UK that the discourse of normality conveys. However, it also shows that this discourse remains an important feature of migrants’ narratives. In accounting for this inconsistency within interviews, the article proposes the notion of ‘normality through exclusion’. It also shows that, although not straightforwardly different from the experience of migration to other parts of the UK, the experience of migration to Northern Ireland is also characterised by certain subtleties which are well accounted for by the concept of Structures of Feeling
Ethnic group · Ethnology · Feeling · Linguistics · Migration studies · Narrative · Normality · Northern ireland · Sociology · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Psychology · Social Psychology
The Long Revolution
Symbolic Interactionism
Envisioning Eastern Europe
Us and Them
Polish Migration to the UK in the ‘New’ European Union
Tales From the Borderlands
The role of social categorization and identity threat in the perception of migrants
Negotiation of normality and identity among migrants from Eastern Europe to the United Kingdom after 2004
Devolution and the Politics of Development in Northern Ireland
Migration Strategies of Polish Migrants
The Redistribution of Methods
Dignity, happiness and being able to live a 'normal life' in the UK - an examination of post-accession Polish migrants' transnational autobiographical fields
Migrant workers and the north of Ireland
Work Identity in Crisis? Rethinking the Problem of Attachment and Loss at Work
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,6 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2023 (3) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |