CEEYouth: Youth from Central and Eastern Europe facing risks in the UK. The comparative study of Poles and Lithuanians in the context of Brexit

ACRONYM: 

CEEYouth

SOURCE OF FINANCING: 

National Science Centre (Poland) and Research Council of Lithuania (Lithuania) – grant DAINA: 2017/27/L/HS6/03261

DURATION:
2018-2021

RESEARCH TEAM:

Polish team:

Prof. Izabela Grabowska, Principal Investigator

Dr Olga Czeranowska, Post-doctoral researcher

Dr Agnieszka Trąbka, Researcher

Iga Wermińska-Wiśnicka, Stipendist

Dr Dominika Blachnicka-Ciacek, Research team member

Dr Justyna Sarnowska, Research team member

Dominika Winogrodzka, Collaborator

Zespół litewski:

Dr Dovilė Jonavičienė, Leader of the Lithuanian team

Dr Egidijus Barcevičius, Researcher

Irma Budginaitė-Mačkinė, Researcher

Luka Klimavičiūtė, Research team member

Justė Vežikauskaitė, Research team member

External experts:

Dr Violetta Parutis University of Essex

Prof. Louise Ryan, University of Sheffield

Prof. Aleksandra Grzymala-Kazłowska, University of Warsaw

DESCRIPTION, GOALS: 

An interdisciplinary study examining risks faced by young (19-34) Polish and Lithuanian migrants in the United Kingdom after the Brexit Referendum vote. The objective of the project is to identify young (19-34 years old), EU10 migrants’ biographical trajectories and their planned and realized returns to the countries of origin – Poland and Lithuania. The unprecedented context of researched phenomena is the changes in the political climate, in which the Brexit referendum and its consequences as well as quickly changing institutional, social, economic and political circumstances, play a key role. Central and Eastern Europe migrants are one of the groups most affected by Brexit.

Objectives: 1) To dynamically analyse how the unfolding consequences of Brexit affect life trajectories of Poles and Lithuanians, with special a focus on transitions to adulthood; 2)To carry out a detailed exploration of various risks young migrants from Poland and Lithuania experience in the context of Brexit; 3) To compare migrating youth from Poland and Lithuania (movers) to the relevant sedentary populations in the sending countries (stayers); 4) To explore and compare the latest return migration of the young Poles and Lithuanians; 5) To comparatively assess social anchoring of young Poles and Lithuanians in the UK; 6) To distil (if possible) migratory behaviours of mobile ethnic Poles from Lithuania and ethnic Lithuanians from Poland in the UK.

The project brings together two interdisciplinary research fields: migration studies and youth studies and fulfils the knowledge gap on migrating youth in relation to non-migrating peers. It answers the need to conduct a complex and interdisciplinary comparative research where one can compare young Polish and Lithuanian migrants. Moreover, the project offers a dynamic approach to the young unfolding lives catching various influences on them.

The project is being realized in an optimal time to capture Brexit’s consequences.. The 2016 Referendum marks the temporal caesura, yet the actual biographies and strategies of Polish and Lithuanians young migrants will be continuously diversified by an array of factors. Chief among them are a degree of formalization of one’s stay (residency, citizenship, vis-à-vis new arrivals), labor market trajectory (stability versus precarity), family situation (i.e. having already established own family of procreation), as well as access to the welfare state (social protections, healthcare) and education

METHODOLOGY:

The study relies on the mix-methods approach in combining three research components through an integrative research design logic: (1) Secondary data analysis of the existing survey datasets; (2) An innovative qualitative technique of asynchronous interviewing (tracking 50 migrants for two years, 25 per country) will be used to collect data dynamically and in a longitudinal perspective, starting with face-to-face contact (intake interviews) and continuing with internet communicators; (3) Online survey (CAWI) in Polish and Lithuanian language versions.

PUBLICATIONS:

• Blachnicka-Ciacek, D. Grabowska I., Hekiert D., Pustulka P., Sarnowska J., Trąbka A., Werminska-Wisnicka I., Barcevicius E., Budginaite-Mackine I., Jonaviciene D., Klimaviciute L., Vezikauskaite J., Parutis, V. (2019). The comparative study of young migrants from Poland and Lithuania in the context of Brexit. Combining public statistics, web survey and asynchronous interviewing, Warsaw: SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Youth Working Papers, 10/2019, ISSN: 2543-5213. Doi: 10.23809/7.
• Trąbka, A, Pustułka P. (2020) Bees & butterflies: Polish migrants’ social anchoring, mobility and risks post-Brexit, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Online First, https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1

• Grabowska I. (2020). The 2004 EU enlargement as an outcome of public policies: The impact of intra-EU mobility on Central and Eastern European sending countries. Social Policy and Society, 1-17. doi:10.1017/S147474642000024X
• Klimavičiūtė L., Parutis V., Jonavičienė D., Karolak M., Wermińska-Wiśnicka I. The Impact of Brexit on Young Poles and Lithuanians in the UK: Reinforced Temporariness of Migration Decisions. Central Eastern European Migration Review, 127-142. doi: 10.17467/ceemr.2020.06
• Trąbka A., Wermińska-Wiśnicka I. (2020), Niejednoznaczny wpływ Brexitu na życie młodych Polaków w Wielkiej Brytanii, Studia Migracyjne – Przegląd Polonijny, 4 (178): 49–70. DOI: 10.4467/25444972SMPP.20.038.12775

We invite you to read the preliminary results of the quantitative study: Popular science report

PPMI (Public Policy and Management Institute in Vilnius) is a leading European research and policy analysis centre (www.ppmi.lt). It helps public sector and civil society leaders from around the world, presenting evidence in a way that is simple, clear and ready to use. Around 80 per cent of PPMI revenue comes from the services provided for EU institutions and agencies. The work carried out at PPMI has supported policy change in many fields, such as public administration, education and youth, migration, employment and social policy, R&D policy and other (http://ppmi.lt/en/projects-and-expertise-9.html). PPMI implements complex field research, ranging from hundreds of interviews over several months, to international surveys with tens of thousands of respondents, and employs a wide variety of methods for data mining and analysis. All of this is made possible by in-house team of more than 50 dedicated researchers from a range of disciplines and countries. PPMI also collaborates with the best peers, including leading public research institutes, prominent universities, market and data analysis companies, and software developers. By bringing together multiple perspectives from academia, business, the public sector and society at large, PPMI connects ideas and experiences to build a world where policies work.