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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Katherine Botterill
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
This paper re visits the individualization debate in the context of Polish migration to the UK. Drawing on empirical research with young Polish migrants in Scotland and Poland, I argue that as new opportunities for migration have shaped Polish family life, the family plays ideological, affective and practical roles in shaping and supporting young people’s mobilities. The pursuit of an apparently individualistic, mobile life in the context of post accession Polish mobility is confounded by the persistence of family structures and relations that underpin and shape individual decisions and mobility pathways. I discuss three ‘ruptures’ to the individualization thesis (Beck and Beck Gernsheim, 2001) that relate to the process of migration over the lifecourse: ‘moving out’, ‘keeping in touch’, and ‘coming back’. Through these discussions I argue that individual mobility is a relational process and one that can and should be analysed alongside family structures rather than separate from it.
Author(s): Botterill K
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Sociology
Year: 2014
Volume: 48
Issue: 2
Pages: 233-250
Print publication date: 01/04/2014
Online publication date: 06/06/2013
Acceptance date: 01/12/2012
Date deposited: 01/08/2013
ISSN (print): 0038-0385
ISSN (electronic): 1469-8684
Publisher: Sage
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038512474728
DOI: 10.1177/0038038512474728
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