Envisaging post-Brexit immobility: Polish migrants’ care intentions concerning their elderly parents

The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union will end the European Freedom of Movement and the privileged migration status of EU Citizens in the UK, which will likely affect ‘Brexit families’ and their transnational care arrangements. This is a case study of the biggest migrant group in the UK, namely Poles. Before the Brexit referendum, the first wave of the in-depth interviews identified several types of migrants’ intentions concerning elderly care for their parents who remained in Poland. The research approached intentions as discursive strategies: declarations of care commitment and statements provided to explain the absence of care intentions. The second wave was conducted after the UK had decided to exit the EU and new policies concerning EU citizens were being developed. Brexit’s influence on elderly care intentions is twofold. First, it brings higher uncertainty about future migration regulations and disorientates migrants about the possibilities regarding reunification with their parents in the UK. Second, Brexit appears in the interviews as a discursive construction to alleviate a migrant’s involvement in direct care provision, where they still deem it normatively appropriate to enact this cultural norm, but do not intend to in fact do so.

Citation

Radziwinowiczówna, A., Kloc-Nowak, W., & Rosińska, A. (2020). Envisaging post-Brexit immobility: Polish migrants’ care intentions concerning their elderly parents. Journal of Family Research. https://doi.org/10.20377/jfr-352

Type

Journal article

Language

en

Description

© 2020 The Authors. Published by University of Bamberg Press. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.20377/jfr-352

ISSN

2699-2337

Collections

Faculty of Arts, Business and Social Sciences