The Polish Worker in Norway
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives The Polish worker in Norway Emerging patterns of migration, employment and incorporation after EU’s eastern enlargement Jon Horgen Friberg Dissertation submitted for the degree Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) July 2012 Department of Sociology and Human Geography Faculty of Social Sciences University of Oslo © Jon Horgen Friberg, 2013 Series of dissertations submitted to the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Oslo No. 376 ISSN 1504-3991 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission. Cover: Inger Sandved Anfinsen. Printed in Norway: AIT Oslo AS. Produced in co-operation with Akademika publishing, Oslo. The thesis is produced by Akademika publishing merely in connection with the thesis defence. Kindly direct all inquiries regarding the thesis to the copyright holder or the unit which grants the doctorate. Acknowledgements It is often said that writing a PhD thesis is a lonely task. However, thanks to plenty of support, cooperation and inspiration from supervisors, colleagues and friends, I have not felt particularly lonely during these past few years. It has been a privilege to work under my principal supervisor, Professor Grete Brochmann at the University of Oslo. Quick to answer my questions and always reading and responding to my drafts with just the right mix of enthusiastic cheers and critical remarks, she has steered me in the right direction and provided invaluable support throughout the process. I would also like to thank my employer, the Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research, which has given me the opportunity to indulge in academic specialisation when this was wanted and needed. It’s probably safe to say that Fafo has been the leading research institution in Norway on contemporary labour migration to Norway; this thesis is just one small part of a larger research programme involving researchers from several disciplines. It has been highly rewarding to work within such an environment, and several of my colleagues deserve considerable credit for the way my thesis has turned out. I can only mention a few of them. Jon Erik Dølvik has served as both project manager for the overall project and as my co-supervisor. Without his enthusiastic efforts—from elaborating theoretical ideas to correcting commas—this project would not have come into being in the first place, much less been completed. My PhD co- student Guri Tyldum has provided critical contributions as an inspiring sparring partner in countless theoretical discussions and as the methodological mastermind behind the application of Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS) in the first Polonia study. Line Eldring has not been formally connected to my particular PhD project, but as my research partner and project manager in several closely related projects (including the second Polonia survey), and as an expert on industrial relations, work and employment, and the overall coordinator of Fafos research on labour migration, this thesis is heavily indebted to her work. My colleagues at the AIK research group at Fafo provided a fun, productive and inspiring work environment and they read and commented on several drafts for papers and the foundation. 3 The cooperation with researchers at the Centre of Migration Research (CMR) in Warsaw has been invaluable to Fafo’s projects on labour migration, including my work. Special thanks to CMR researchers Joanna Napierala and Paulina Trevena who helped us coordinate the fieldwork in the Polonia surveys. Quite a few interviewers have been involved and deserve credit for their efforts: Agnieszka Cholewinska, Elwira Kawecka, Aleksandra Kawecka, Anna Maria Kowalczyk, Aleksandra Marjanska, Lukasz Niedzielski, Anna Maria Podwysodzka og Agnieszka Silska, Mikolaj Jan Jankowski, Aleksandra Ulrichsen, Maciej Iwanow, Katarzyna Skorupska, Monika Jankowski and Agnes Banach. You all did a great job. In addition to working as interviewers, Alexandra Bartoszko and Paulina Slabon served as field coordinators in the Polonia surveys, and Paulina Slabon also functioned as interpreter during most of my qualitative interviews, as well as doing transcriptions of interviews and translations of written material. Having her as a partner in the field, being able to discuss the meaning and interpretation of each interview and the ways in which the respondents accounts could relate to the overall research questions, has been an invaluable source of insight throughout the fieldwork. My gratitude also goes to all of my informants who have spent time and effort trying to answer all of my questions, whether in the form of questionnaires or qualitative interviews. Without their contribution, my efforts would have been pointless. Finally, I would like to thank my friends—you know who you are—for making sure my life over the past four years has not revolved exclusively around Polish workers and migration theory. And of course, my deepest gratitude goes to my girlfriend, partner and co-sociologist, Lise Granlund, for always being there, patiently listening to my endless ramblings about labour migration, critically reading my drafts and supporting me in every possible way. Oslo, July 2012 Jon Horgen Friberg 4 Summary The Polish worker in Norway: Emerging patterns of migration, employment and incorporation in the wake of EU enlargement In 2004, Poland’s accession to the EU triggered what is now considered to be the largest migration flow to Norway in history. In the next seven to eight years, well over a hundred thousand Polish workers were recruited to work in construction, manufacturing, low-skilled services and agriculture. This thesis explores the ways in which Polish migrant workers have adapted to and become incorporated into Norwegian society during these initial years of an emerging migration system. The main research questions are: What factors and processes lead some Polish labour migrants to settle down in Norway and others to return to Poland? In a context of free movement, how do these migrants adapt and make decisions about length of stay, settlement and return migration? Under what conditions and to what extent are Polish migrant workers incorporated into the regular Norwegian labour market? What opportunities do they have to improve their position over time? What kinds of barriers do they face in the Norwegian labour market? Are Polish migrant workers likely to remain employed or do they risk exclusion from the labour market over time? How does structural change in the labour market in the wake of migration interact with processes of labour market exclusion? Drawing on different theoretical concepts derived from economic sociology and the sociology of immigration (including segmented labour market theory, social network theory and embeddedness), this thesis addresses a central theme: the complex relationship between large-scale labour migration and structural changes in the labour market and the ways in which these changes shape the opportunity structures that face migrant workers. The analysis is based primarily on two methodologically innovative surveys conducted using Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS) to study Polish migrants in Oslo in 2006 and 2010 and qualitative interviews with Polish migrants and Norwegian employers. The study finds that although many migrants return home after a period of temporary work, many others go through a gradual process of settlement (often despite their original intentions) that can be conceptualized as three stages of migration. Although their freedom of movement as EU 5 citizens provides an opportunity to extend the open-ended phase of migration for much longer than in the past, a gradual settlement process often occurs, shaped by family life and social networks and by opportunity structures in the labour market. I argue that because the migrant workers are recruited to satisfy a permanent need for labour and because family life and social obligations place considerable constraints on transnational and circular adaptations over time, a substantial share of them will most likely end up settling permanently in Norway. The analyses thus suggest that some contemporary accounts emphasizing the fluidity and transience of today’s intra-European East-West mobility may be slightly premature. In the wake of large-scale recruitment of migrant workers, migrant-intensive sectors have gone through extensive structural changes involving casualization of labour relations, ethnic segmentation and the rise of new forms of labour-market inequality between native and immigrant workers. In their efforts to access stable employment, Polish migrants face several obstacles, including cultural constructions of otherness and employers’ notions of nationally ascribed suitability for different kinds of work, typically framed in terms of different “work cultures”. Often used by the migrants themselves when competing for jobs and assignments, such stereotyped notions become self-fulfilling prophesies which shape labour demand and help migrants access peripheral parts of the labour market, while restricting their opportunities for upward mobility. The study found that atypical and precarious employment substantially increased the risk of unemployment in a period of labour-market uncertainty and lowered demand after the international financial crisis. Combined with the gradual process of settlement, the establishment of new precarious