Magdalena Ślusarczyk

Polish Children in Norway: Between National Discourses of Belonging and Everyday Experiences of Life Abroad

This chapter revolves around the issue of “blending” or hybridizing, as well as seeking to unpack the “why” in Adrian and other children’s accounts of feeling peculiar or strange as youths with migratory backgrounds. To start with some illustrations, seven-year-old Marek, who arrived in Oslo three years ago, begins his meeting with the researcher by underscoring that he is not Norwegian; Norway-born Jan, also aged seven, keeps switching between talking about life and events in Poland and Norway—indicating that his life is happening “here and there.” Finally, Sylwia, 12, browsing international fashion stores and websites on her iPad throughout the interview, states that English is her language of choice, thus demonstrating all the markers of being “a global teen.” While the three examples pertain to the lives of three children all residing in Norway and born to Polish parents, their stories of (national) belonging and affinity are dissimilar, showcasing a range of identities that migrant children construct for themselves and narrate.

Cultivation, compensation and indulgence: Transnational short-term returns to Poland across three family generations

Abstract The paper discusses the short-term visits to the home country among Polish female migrants residing in the United Kingdom and Norway. Grounded in the theoretical approaches of transnationalism, as well as return and visiting friends and relatives (VFR) mobility, it analyzes empirical material from in-depth interviews. The main argument points to the feelings of ambivalence that accompany the maintenance of family ties during stays in Poland. In addition, it categorizes examples of intergenerational compensatory, cultivation, and indulgent family practices. In reviewing the intra-European setting of transnational familyhood, the paper addresses the significance of the particular Central and Eastern European context.

Understanding Foreign Future and Deconstructing Polish Past: The Experiences of Schooling Under a Communist Rule Recollected by Contemporary Polish Migrants

The article elaborates on the recollections of schooling under the communist rule in Poland as presented in biographical interviews with contemporary Polish migrants living in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Norway. An analysis of childhood and schooling nexus is elicited on two platforms, specifically as (1) interviewees’ first-hand experiences of school life and (2) through the picture they paint by comparing their education pathways with those of their children growing up abroad. The focus is on how the need to reflect on one’s past of an upbringing under a communist rule is necessitated by encountering the contrasting schooling systems abroad. The analysis can help deepen the understanding of Polish socialist childhood.