{"title":"“它改变了你的优先事项”:在英国脱欧和新冠疫情的多重危机中,波兰裔英国重要工人的留英动机","authors":"Anna Gawlewicz","doi":"10.1080/17450101.2025.2478205","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article explores stay-return motivations among Polish migrant essential workers in the UK and how the combination of Brexit and Covid-19 shapes them. It conceptualises Brexit and Covid-19 as <em>polycrisis</em>, ie multiple, mutually reinforcing crises and illustrates how the intertwinement of both produces a new context against which migrant aspirations and transnational mobilities are negotiated. In doing so, the article calls for sustained engagement with polycrisis in research on migrant workers’ decision-making. The focus on Polish migrant workers is far from arbitrary: Polish remains one of the most numerous non-British nationalities in the UK despite decreasing by approximately 25% post Brexit referendum. Poles are also heavily represented in the essential work sectors such as food production, healthcare and transport, in particular in the more precarious and lower-paid roles. Methodologically, the article is based on a mixed-methods study including an online survey (n = 1105) and 40 qualitative interviews with Polish migrant essential workers alongside 10 expert interviews with key stakeholders providing support to migrant workers in the UK. It draws upon the first major study exploring lived experiences of migrant essential workers in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51457,"journal":{"name":"Mobilities","volume":"20 5","pages":"Pages 853-870"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"‘It changes your priorities’: stay-return motivations among UK’s Polish essential workers in the polycrisis of Brexit and Covid-19\",\"authors\":\"Anna Gawlewicz\",\"doi\":\"10.1080/17450101.2025.2478205\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"<div><div>This article explores stay-return motivations among Polish migrant essential workers in the UK and how the combination of Brexit and Covid-19 shapes them. It conceptualises Brexit and Covid-19 as <em>polycrisis</em>, ie multiple, mutually reinforcing crises and illustrates how the intertwinement of both produces a new context against which migrant aspirations and transnational mobilities are negotiated. In doing so, the article calls for sustained engagement with polycrisis in research on migrant workers’ decision-making. The focus on Polish migrant workers is far from arbitrary: Polish remains one of the most numerous non-British nationalities in the UK despite decreasing by approximately 25% post Brexit referendum. Poles are also heavily represented in the essential work sectors such as food production, healthcare and transport, in particular in the more precarious and lower-paid roles. Methodologically, the article is based on a mixed-methods study including an online survey (n = 1105) and 40 qualitative interviews with Polish migrant essential workers alongside 10 expert interviews with key stakeholders providing support to migrant workers in the UK. It draws upon the first major study exploring lived experiences of migrant essential workers in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council.</div></div>\",\"PeriodicalId\":51457,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Mobilities\",\"volume\":\"20 5\",\"pages\":\"Pages 853-870\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":2.3000,\"publicationDate\":\"2025-09-03\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Mobilities\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"90\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/org/science/article/pii/S1745010125000190\",\"RegionNum\":2,\"RegionCategory\":\"社会学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q1\",\"JCRName\":\"GEOGRAPHY\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Mobilities","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/org/science/article/pii/S1745010125000190","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"GEOGRAPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
‘It changes your priorities’: stay-return motivations among UK’s Polish essential workers in the polycrisis of Brexit and Covid-19
This article explores stay-return motivations among Polish migrant essential workers in the UK and how the combination of Brexit and Covid-19 shapes them. It conceptualises Brexit and Covid-19 as polycrisis, ie multiple, mutually reinforcing crises and illustrates how the intertwinement of both produces a new context against which migrant aspirations and transnational mobilities are negotiated. In doing so, the article calls for sustained engagement with polycrisis in research on migrant workers’ decision-making. The focus on Polish migrant workers is far from arbitrary: Polish remains one of the most numerous non-British nationalities in the UK despite decreasing by approximately 25% post Brexit referendum. Poles are also heavily represented in the essential work sectors such as food production, healthcare and transport, in particular in the more precarious and lower-paid roles. Methodologically, the article is based on a mixed-methods study including an online survey (n = 1105) and 40 qualitative interviews with Polish migrant essential workers alongside 10 expert interviews with key stakeholders providing support to migrant workers in the UK. It draws upon the first major study exploring lived experiences of migrant essential workers in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council.
期刊介绍:
Mobilities examines both the large-scale movements of people, objects, capital, and information across the world, as well as more local processes of daily transportation, movement through public and private spaces, and the travel of material things in everyday life. Recent developments in transportation and communications infrastructures, along with new social and cultural practices of mobility, present new challenges for the coordination and governance of mobilities and for the protection of mobility rights and access. This has elicited many new research methods and theories relevant for understanding the connections between diverse mobilities and immobilities.