Development of Migrant Youth Identities in Post-Referendum Scotland

Eastern European Youth in Scotland: Language, Identity and Belonging

Marta Moskal and Daniela Sime

Research done• Two independent studies on intra-EU migration.

• Focused on Polish young migrants’ (both children and youth) experiences in Scotland.

• First-generation migrant youth, born in Poland and who had come to Scotland with or after their parent(s) since 2004.

Moskal, M. and Sime, D. (2015) Polish Migrant Children’s Transcultural Lives and Transnational Language Use, Central and East European Migration Review CEEMR, 4 (2).

Methodologies

Study I (Moskal)- 65 participants- 41 school-aged children aged 5-17 and 24 parents- Main method used was interviewing- 30 families- in 28 families, children and parents did not migrate

together

Study II (Sime)- 18 families, 22 children, aged 7-14- Home visits, in-depth interviews with children and parents- Urban, semi-urban and rural areas

Young people’s identity, belonging and language from a transnational perspective

Transculturation and Bifocality

• Refer to human interconnectivity and a selective weaving of cultural elements to create a new cultural belonging. It also concerns the quality of being connected to oneself and to others in relationships located in space and time (Hébert 2005).

• ‘Transcultural’ or culturally ‘blended’ nature of young people’s lives is underlined.

• Nation-states still do not recognise such dualistic orientations, and their practices monopolise the means of coercive power within their borders and adjudicate discourses of national loyalty, citizenship, language ideology and language policies in education (Lam and Warriner 2012).

Living with ‘bifocality’

• Being socialised in two cultures, that of the Scottish school with its friendships and that of the Polish home, often meant that children were exposed to conflicting values and some talked about the challenging process of managing and negotiating identities and choosing between cultural affiliations according to the circumstances.

• Zuzanna, 12, (Study II) explained how she used her Scottish accent at school and how she ‘felt’ a different identity at home:

I learnt to speak with a Scottish accent quite quickly. My friends like that, although they’d sometimes make fun of my accent or how I say things. I’d say I’m more Scottish at school and more Polish at home.

Conflicted loyalties

Young people often at the crossroads of competing demands between:

1) Public spaces- schools asking them to prioritise English

2) Private spaces- homes where parents want them to maintain their home language as a key marker of cultural identity.

Parents want their children to maintain the cultural values left behind by their family’s migration, leaving open the option of an eventual return.

1) Pressure to learn English

I must learn English well. I already know a lot, I think. I am glad there are no Polish pupils in my class, so I am learning faster. Although, I am befriending only Polish people at the moment. I tried to make English friends, but it is difficult, as I do not communicate as easily as they do.

(Olivia, 15-year-old, rural high school, Study I)

2) Open-ended perspective on mobility

Maybe when I’m older I will go back to Poland. My parents are waiting for my siblings and me to finish schools here, and then they want to go back to Poland. But they say they’ll give us the choice of where we would like to live as adults.

(Joanna, a 17-year-old girl, suburban Catholic high school, Study I)

Language identity issues

• At school - young migrants may see themselves as ‘outsiders’ and disadvantaged due to their developing competence in English and despite their bilingualism.

• At home - young people’s position as ‘cultural experts’ in the new language and culture. This brings other pressures and may challenge traditional roles and hierarchies.

Future Research

New ESRC funded project (2016-2018):

Daniela Sime, Naomi Tyrrell, Marta MoskalHere to Stay? Identity, belonging and citizenship among Eastern European settled migrant children in the UK (a decade after EU Enlargement)

Study aims

• Examine the significance of local, national and global identities for settled migrant youth, including the ways in which identities are negotiated across space and time, locally and transnationally

• Provide insight into the relationships between different aspects of migrant youth identities, according to nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, age, class and other categories identified by young people as significant.

Methodology• Focussing on young people aged 12-18 of Eastern European origin

living in Scotland and England for 3+ years

• Survey of 500-600 youth across six urban, semi-urban and rural areas in Scotland and England

• Focus groups with 70-100 young people and 20 in-depth family case studies

• Use of mobile technologies and young people’s advisors

• Challenge of identifying new methods that can capture the complexities of young people’s multi-layered and multi-sited identities