Gaining social mobility: Polish migrants in Berlin, 1980-2016
Gaining social mobility: Polish migrants in Berlin, 1980-2016
Author(s): Agnieszka Szczepaniak-KrollSubject(s): Social history, Post-War period (1950 - 1989), Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today), Migration Studies, Ethnic Minorities Studies, Politics and Identity, Asylum, Refugees, Migration as Policy-fields
Published by: Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: social mobility; migration; Federal Republic of Germany; Berlin; success; Polish migrants;
Summary/Abstract: Social mobility can be both horizontal and vertical. The latter is characterised by movement from a lower social class to a higher one, and with it a change in social status. Upward social mobility appears in different guises; it can pertain to education, occupation, cultural capital, income, etc. Until recently, the phenomenon of upward social mobility concerned a small number of emigrant Poles, with “migrants of success” composing only a small minority of a much larger number of Polish migrants in previous years. The accession of Poland to the European Union in 2004, and then to Schengen Zone in 2007, opened new opportunities. This article (based on my ethnological fieldwork) presents different ways that Poles who emigrated to Berlin between 1980 and 2016 managed to enact upward social mobility and the changing characteristics of this migration pattern.
Journal: Sprawy Narodowościowe
- Issue Year: 2019
- Issue No: 51
- Page Range: 1-19
- Page Count: 19
- Language: English