Migrants as Agents of Change

Abstract

"An important contribution to debates about migration and social change. Based on interdisciplinary, longitudinal research on migration between three Polish communities and the United Kingdom in post-accession Europe, Grabowska and her colleagues carefully unpack how social remittance transfers actually work. In a world in which sending governments look increasingly to emigrants' economic and social contributions, this book is an invaluable guide to how and when innovation, or resistance to it, occur."--Peggy Levitt, Wellesley College and Harvard University, USA This book offers a unique and innovative way of looking at the paradoxical consequences of human mobility. Based on a three-year transnational multi-sited longitudinal research project, it demonstrates that not all migrants acquire, transfer and implement social remittances in the same way. Whilst the circulation of ideas, norms and practices is an important aspect of modernity, acts of resistance, imitation and innovation mean that whilst some migrants become ordinary agents of social change in their local microcosms, others may contest that change. By putting this individual agency centre stage, the authors trace how social remittances are evolving, and the ambiguous impact that they have on society. This thought-provoking work will appeal to students and scholars of sociology, geography and anthropology. Acknowledgements; Contents; List of Tables; List of Charts; List of Maps; 1: Introduction: Social Remittances and "Hand-Made" Change by Migrants; 1.1 Socio-demographic Portrait of Migrating Poles Since EU Enlargement in May 2004; 1.2 Social Remittances, "Hand-Made" Social Change and Research Questions; 1.3 Context-Dependency of Migration and Change: Three Communities Under Study; 2: Process of Transfer of Social Remittances in the European Union; 2.1 Introduction; 2.2 Social Remittances in Migration Studies; 2.3 Theoretical Concepts and Process of Social Remitting. 2.4 Social Indicators of Social Remittances2.5 Acquisition of Social Remittances; 2.6 Transfer of Social Remittances; 2.7 Outcomes of Transfer of Social Remittances; 2.8 Resistance to Social Remittances; 2.9 Conceptual Model and Summary; 3: Transnational Multisited Qualitative Longitudinal Research in Investigating Social Remittances and Change; 3.1 Introduction; 3.2 Method: Transnational Multisited Qualitative Longitudinal Research; 3.3 Sampling Case Sites and People; Going Local: Sampling Case Sites and Revisiting Them; Sampling People and Maintaining Them in the Panel Research. Local Observers Migrants and Returnees; 3.4 Management of Data Collection and Simultaneity of Field Researchers; 4: Researched Communities in Poland and in the UK: Transnational Spaces of Diffusion and Social Remittances; 4.1 Introduction; 4.2 Sokolka; Outline of the History of the Town; Pre-accession Migration in the Community; EU Accession; Migration to the UK; 4.3 Pszczyna; Outline of the History of the Town; Pre-accession Migration in the Community; EU Accession; Migration to the UK; 4.4 Trzebnica; Outline of the History of the Town; Pre-accession Migration in the Community. EU Accession Migration to the UK; 4.5 Summary; 5: Observing, Acquiring, Resisting: Migrants' Agency in the Web of Social Remittances; 5.1 Introduction; 5.2 Facing Novelty: Migrants in New Context; 5.3 Norms of Civility and Living with Strangers; 5.4 Acquiring Tolerance?; Ways of Being, Ways of Resisting; 5.5 Place-making and Remittances; 5.6 Summary; 6: Collective Outcomes of Social Remittances: Reactions of Local Communities (Acceptance and Resistance); 6.1 Introduction; 6.2 Transfer of Migratory Novelties to Communities; 6.3 Ways of Transfer. 6.4 Changes in Local Communities and the Collective Effect of Social Remittances6.5 Outcomes of Transfer; Individual Outcomes; Collective Outcomes of Migration Transfer; 6.6 No Changes; 6.7 Factors that Inhibit Cultural Diffusion: Social Resistance in the Studied Communities; 6.8 Concluding Remarks; 7: Migrants as Agents of Micro Social Changes; 7.1 Introduction; 7.2 Individuals, Social Remittances, Agency and Change; 7.3 How Agents of Change Are Filtered Out from the Wider Samples; 7.4 Testimonials of Agents of Change.