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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2022
Your homeland is where you earn your bread. (Polish proverb)
This chapter, the companion to Chapter Eight, explores aspects of integration linked to constructing Polish identities abroad. It discusses why interviewees led ‘Polish’ lives, looking at the different choices they made and the different opportunities they possessed. It also explores the outcomes, the extent to which interviewees felt more, or less, at home in the UK, as the result of their engagement in transnational activities.
After some general comments about identity, and specifically Polish identity, the chapter looks in turn at home and community. It begins with a discussion of the physical homes occupied by the Polish families in England and how much the interviewees felt at home in them. Insofar as it was indeed ‘home’ because the family was finally back together, how much were spouses able to enjoy being at home with their family, rather than being out at work? What are the implications of new working patterns for gender roles within the family?
The chapter continues by exploring selected transnational activities. First, it considers whether people feel at home in England because they can spend time there with their extended family, either by telephone or internet connection to Poland or directly, when relatives are invited to England for visits or for a long-term stay. The chapter then discusses buying and cooking food as an aspect of maintaining Polish cultural identity. For families, an important choice is whether to send their children to Saturday school. For all Poles, there are decisions about how far to socialise with other Polish people and whether to take an active role in building Polish community organisations, including Saturday schools. The final part of the chapter looks at socialising and collaboration among the Polish community, with particular emphasis on the possibilities for forming friendships and finding social support among fellow Poles. Emotional connections with Poles can help mitigate the effects of lacking such connections to the British community.
The chapter links logically to Chapter Ten, about return. Maintaining Polish identity and Polish networks in the UK can, paradoxically, have opposite outcomes for return.
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