The impact of migration on human capacities of two generations of Poles: the interplay of the individual and the social in human capital approaches

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article explains the impact of working and living abroad on informal human capital of two generations of Poles: the ‘Generation of Change’ who was born in 1970s and the beginning of 1980s and the ‘Generation of Migration’ who was born in mid-1980s and at the beginning of 1990s. Our contribution to this Special Issue brings the umbrella concept of human capacities with the interplay of its individual (cognitive and intrapersonal) and social (interpersonal) domains. We use data from quantitative (migrants = 4040; non-migrants = 67,174) and qualitative studies (n IDI = 160). In the qualitative data, we found out that international migration has the strongest impact on human capacities of the ‘Generation of Change’, mostly born 1968–1972. In general, the effects of migration on informal human capital connected to employment persisted in birth cohorts born till the symbolic 1989. We also established that the younger cohorts were, the more the work abroad impacted on their individual, rather than social domains of human capacities. Especially for young Polish migrants, working abroad went far beyond the impact on formal qualifications and competences connected to work and employability only. It related to human capacities connected to life skills of self-making, being, communicating, relating to people and understanding society.