Polish migrant workers in the north: integration and xenophobia

Polish migrant workers have moved from being a novel feature of many northern workplaces and communities to becoming resident in everyday life, with shops and businesses catering for their needs. The research undertaken here began in 2005 and is still continuing, more recently it has explored moral panics and the integration of Polish workers in the north. This recent work has been undertaken with a colleague from the Warsaw based Polish Academy of Sciences. The presentation will provide an initial consideration of the 124 questionnaires with Polish workers in the north. Even though there is evidence of integration and business start-up over fifty per cent of Poles experienced some form of xenophobia which included violence from resident populations. Questions are raised with regard to the influences of the news media, political expediency, social capital, and precariousness. In particular it also considers Polish community formation and newly emerging group identity.