Migration and Homelessness: The Social Networks of Homeless Poles in Oslo

Abstract

This article discusses the results of fieldwork conducted among physically homeless Polish migrants in Oslo, Norway. I focus on the social networks that are a part of the migrants' social capital, and which should ideally prevent them from a state of ‘rooflessness’. I present the narratives of these Polish rough-sleepers in Oslo and analyse their links with the home country and their bonds with the Polish community in Norway and with the wider Norwegian society. I focus on the migrants' daily survival strategies, ways of obtaining information about work and accommodation and economical exchanges as indicators of their network links. I distinguish the limitations of migrants' social networks in extricating them from a situation of homelessness. Based on this analysis, a simple typology of the Polish homeless in Oslo is presented—largely comparable with other homeless groups described elsewhere.