| Description |
Despite a huge public and academic interest in post EU enlargement migrations of Polish citizens who by moving to WesternEurope take advantage of the principle of freedom of movement, there has been an almost complete silence on how these newmigration opportunities affect the Polish Roma populations. But according to Roma organizations own estimates there has been averitable exodus with sometimes over 90% of local Roma communities emigrating or otherwise engaging in internationalmobility. In that sense, scholarly and public silence on the matter is striking. This research aims at shedding some light onmigratory movements of that group taking an anthropological perspective and using qualitative methods – participant observation,interviews and spending considerable amount of time with migrating Roma, their friends and family who stay in Poland, as wellas those Polish Roma who live in Great Britain. To what extent their migrations differ from the overall patterns of migrations ofnon-Roma Polish populations? And how did transnational networks between Roma communities in Poland and Great Britaindeveloped? And what happens once they are there, how do they operate and make sense of living in global city like London orsmall English town? How the experience of their members living in Britain affects Roma communities back in Poland? These arethe questions this research aims at answering. By using so called multi-sited ethnography it will analyse Polish Roma patterns ofmigrations, the ways with which international EU mobility impacts on some aspects of their culture and what happens to PolishRoma’s sense of identity once no longer in Poland.
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