Materialising the Border: Spaces of Mobility and Material Culture in Migration from Post‐Socialist Poland

Abstract

Using post‐socialist Polish migration to Britain as a case study, this article analyses the ‘furnishing’ of journey and border times and spaces by recent Polish migrants – a theme which has been neglected in most migration studies research. Four key intersections between movement and materiality, and their significance for migration, are considered: passports, car and coach journeys, suitcases, and laptops in airport lounges. Set against a backdrop of shifting mobility dynamics in Europe, these overlapping examples demonstrate the different ways in which Polish migrants have filled the spaces of international borders and performed the experience of mobility since 1989. The article finds that the physical practice of journeying and border crossing is not an empty act, suspended in space and time between two realities, but is a highly materialised and emotional undertaking, and a real, tangible space in its own right.

Keywords:

• Poland
• UK
• migration
• borders
• journeys
• material culture

Notes

1. The considerable emigration that did take place out of Poland during the post‐1989 period was largely directed towards other Western and Southern European countries and again tended to be short‐term and/or undocumented (see Iglicka, 2001; Triandafyllidou, 2006).

2. These figures, counting only registered workers, are generally assumed to be conservative, possibly underestimating true numbers considerably.

3. For this research slightly more female respondents have been interviewed than male, but the interviewees' experiences cover a wide range of circumstances – for example, time of migration, age on migration, occupation and marital status. Just over half of these interviews have been carried out with people who left Poland after 1989, two‐thirds of whom have come after 2004. I have kept in touch with several of the respondents via email since undertaking the interviews. All names used in this article are pseudonyms.

4. Interview with Pawel (9 March 2007), who migrated in 2006, aged 21.

5. Interview with Adriana, (24 November 2005) who migrated in 2005, aged 31.

6. Interview with Marta (10 December 2005, follow up email correspondence June and July 2007) who migrated in 2005, aged 29.

7. Interview with Sylwia (15 May 2007) who migrated in 1999, aged 23.

8. Interview with Julia (5 May 2005) who migrated in 1999, aged 19.

9. Interview with Elzbieta (5 May 2006, follow up email correspondence November 2006, July 2007), migrated to Britain in 2006, aged 32, having previously spent several years working in Holland.

10. Interview with Izabela (3 October 2005) who migrated in 1992, aged 28.

11. Interview with Marcin (9 February 2006) who migrated in 1991, aged 27.

12. Interview with Patrycja (20 October 2005) who migrated in 2005, aged 26.

13. Interview with Alina (4 May 2005, follow up email correspondence February 2007), who migrated in 1998, aged 20.

14. Of course, Marks and Spencer was originally co‐founded by Jewish immigrant Michael Marks.

15. See the Civil Aviation Office of the Republic of Poland (Urząd Lotnictwa Cywilnego) 2006. Available at www.ulc.gov.pl/download/pdf/stat2006.pdf (accessed on 13 July 2007). Most Polish airports have seen a dramatic rise in passenger numbers, but the Łodz example is one of the most striking.

16. See Łodz Airport official website. Available at www.airport.lodz.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=48&Itemid=125&lang=en_EN (accessed 13 July 2007).

17. Interview with Rafał (19 November 2005), who migrated in 2005, aged 24.