seven - The emotional impact of migration on communities in Poland

Summary

The children miss their parents. They long for them. There are heaps of children who live just with their mum, or dad, if mum's abroad. Definitely. How they talk! ‘Oh, my dad's coming home soon, he's coming home today, maybe three days’ time.’ That's what they say, they miss them so much and they get all worked up in advance, dear oh dear.… ‘Dad's coming, mum's coming, they’ll bring me a present,’ and a bit later, tears. ‘Mum's going away already, dad's going away!’ Heaps of children say things like that in my class. Dad, or mum. They’re little children, under six, and they tell you everything. (Czesława, kindergarten worker, Sanok)

Sanok is a half-town. (Iwona)

It has been asserted that ‘Whenever we look at life, we look at networks’, and much of this book is concerned with the ties that connect families and people, often across international borders. It is therefore helpful to understand the world in terms of social networks. On the other hand, it is also important to remember the gaps. Sometimes, being in Grajewo or Sanok, it is the gaps that seem more evident:

There was a time when everyone on this street had a relative abroad…. Down from us the neighbour's daughter is in England, she has a granddaughter, they got married and are in England…. Over here's my aunt, who's in the USA, and over there's a neighbour who's also in the USA…. [The houses] are empty…. People just come back here for holidays. (Maria, Grajewo)

Lots of people from our block of flats have gone abroad. Upstairs there's a neighbour in England, there are three families in the USA, their flats are empty, because they’ve gone away as whole families, or the father is in the USA, and that lady who passed us on the stairs, her husband is in the USA, and her son is abroad, too, so there are really heaps of people, heaps of people living abroad…. And upstairs there's a family where the mother and father work abroad, and they have a girl of about 15, and a boy of 18.