From Going Abroad to Settling Down… While Remaining Mobile? Polish Women in Norway Narrate Their Migration Experiences

Abstract

This article analyses mobility of Polish women living transnational lives between Poland and Norway. The emphasis is on the emic (insider’s) versus etic (outsider’s) points of view regarding issues of migrant identity, mobility before arriving in Norway, and temporality, permanence, fluidity and settlement after moving to Norway. The article is based on an online survey of 485 Polish women and 126 ethnographic interviews with Polish women residing in Norway. The study findings suggest that while many Polish women are working and raising families in Norway, they maintain strong links to Poland and continue to be very mobile. The way they narrate their mobility and migration experiences are contrasted with categories devised by policy makers and scholars.

Keywords

• mobility
• migration
• poles
• women
• norway