Abstract
ABSTRACTIn recent years the public discourses on Polish migration in the UK have rapidly turned hostile, especially in the context of economic crisis in 2008, and subsequently after the EU referendum in 2016. While initially Poles have been perceived as a ‘desirable’ migrant group and labelled as ‘invisible’ due to their whiteness, this perception shifted to the representation of these migrants as taking jobs from British workers, putting a strain on public services and welfare. While racist and xenophobic violence has been particularly noted following the Brexit vote, Polish migrants experienced various forms of racist abuse before that. This paper draws on narrative interviews with Polish migrant women illustrating their experiences of racism and xenophobia in Greater Manchester before and after the Brexit vote, and how they make sense of anti-Polish discourses and attitudes. This paper illustrates the importance of the interplay between the media and political discourses, class, race and the local context in shaping relations between Polish migrants and the local population.
Highlights
After months of anti-immigrant rhetoric in the run up to EU referendum in the UK in June 2016, the number of racially aggravated offences recorded by the police in the same month was 41 per cent higher than in July 2015 (Home Office 2016)
After briefly describing the context of Polish migration, and discussing the interplay between race, whiteness, politics and the media, this paper examines the ways in which Polish migrant women and their relatives experienced racism and xenophobia and how they try to make sense of it
While it highlighted the need to understand how less visible minorities can become racialised and experience racism and xenophobia despite their assumed whiteness, it illustrated how the interviewees discussed their experiences with reference to class, location, as well as the media and political discourses
Summary
After months of anti-immigrant rhetoric in the run up to EU referendum in the UK in June 2016, the number of racially aggravated offences recorded by the police in the same month was 41 per cent higher than in July 2015 (Home Office 2016). Laminated cards were left outside primary schools and posted through letterboxes of Polish people in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, with the words ‘Leave the EU/No more Polish vermin’ in English and Polish (Cambridge News, June 25, 2016). Bartosz Milewski, a 21-year-old student was stabbed in the neck with a broken bottle because his perpetrators heard him speaking Polish with his friend in Donnington, near Telford (Independent, September 20, 2016). The wave of post-Brexit vote hostility revealed the extent of racism and xenophobia which affected Polish nationals and other migrants and settled ethnic minorities, including British citizens (Burnett 2017; Komaromi and Singh 2016). While a lot of attention has been paid to the rise of racist and xenophobic incidents after the EU referendum, this is not a
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