three - Small-town livelihoods

Summary

This chapter discusses how people make a living in contemporary Poland. A range of livelihood strategies available to people without higher education, especially inhabitants of small towns and villages, are explored. The chapter explains why livelihoods are often seen as being so inadequate that labour migration is chosen in preference. In keeping with the livelihood strategy approach, as well as main jobs in the legal economy, other assets are also considered that can contribute to household livelihoods, such as second jobs and state benefits.

As discussed in Chapter One, a merit of the livelihood strategy approach is that it focuses on the whole portfolio of resources to which a household has access. The common Polish word kombinować, meaning ‘to find a clever way of getting something done’, often using personal connections, tends to exemplify the idea of combining various assets. A good combination of local assets may make emigration seem unnecessary. For example, Luiza, a nurse in Grajewo whose cousin was trying to persuade her to come to Iceland, was resisting persuasion. In order to support her mother and three children in Grajewo without migrating, Luiza did overtime whenever possible. After describing how much money she spent on breakfast for her family of five, she demanded: “And how about dinner and supper? Well, it's a pity, but you need money. That's why you find different ways to make ends meet [dlatego człowiek kombinuje jak może]”. Urszula and her husband had four children. Urszula's brother, who worked in Italy, helped the family with occasional gifts of cash. In addition to these foreign-earned remittances, the household had extra income from local sources:

It's hard … but somehow we manage. Grandmother helps a bit.… My husband works at the bus factory…. It's not well paid. He does overtime when it's available. To make a bit of extra money. Those are the different ways we survive [Tak kombinuemy]

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By contrast, there are households where a combination of liabilities, such as poverty and many children, precludes migration as a livelihood strategy.

I have some neighbours with six children. And the little girls used to come and play with my younger daughter.