Unfortunately, the sheer interest in new migration had led to heightened interest from academic and policy arenas and often to the detriment of the Polish community. Therefore it was essential to produce a piece of work that mutually benefitted the furthering of knowledge and the local Polish community and bridge the gap between academic and community work. I adopted a mixed methods approach that used different types of data. I used 2011 Census data to geographically map the patterns america rcs data and the direction of Polish migration from outside and within England and Wales. I then collected qualitative data by interviewing forty Polish people living across Greater Manchester to unpick the underlying factors and themes of migrants’ experiences. I developed contacts with Polish interviewees by working closely with local charities and community groups that supported Polish migrants in the Greater Manchester area.
Eastern European migration, more specifically Polish migration, has captured the interest of people in multiple sectors and has become a hallmark of new diversity that has occurred in the UK since the expansion of the European Union in 2004. To engage with this resurgence of interest in ethnically white migrants from Poland, my research examines the role that ethnicity plays in Polish people’s migrant decision-making. ethnicity in migrant decision making has been highlighted among the research on non-white migrants and ethnic minority people living in the UK. Yet so much of this research concentrates on non-white migrant groups that have been linked closely with Britain’s association with the Commonwealth. Few studies have engaged with the migration of migrants with white identities and how their experiences share similarities and differences to that of non-white migrants to Britain.