Eastern Europeans in Britain: Successfully Integrated Citizens or Alienated Migrants? A Case Study of the Lithuanian Migrant Community in London

Abstract

This article addresses issues of Eastern Europeans’ integration process in Britain. The study contributes the first analysis of Lithuanian migrants’ integration experience in the United Kingdom (UK) by utilising qualitative data gathered from the Lithuanian migrant community in London. The main concern of this paper is to provide an analysis of the empirical data gathered and to compare it to other Eastern European migrants’ integration experience in the UK. I have critically examined personal and collective levels of integration, including the following themes: language, employment and labour unions, education, and interaction within the migrants’ national community. The intention of this study is not to make generalisations about all Lithuanians or Eastern Europeans in the UK, but rather to identify and illustrate certain trends that either support or contradict the propositions developed in the literature review. Based on Lithuanian interviewees’ experiences of and attitudes towards integration into British society, it can be concluded that only some of the above-explained features are similar between the five interviewed Lithuanians and other Eastern European migrants in the UK, namely education and collective action within migrants’ national community.