Transgressing the Nation: Cultural Practices of Polish Migrants in Ireland

Abstract

This article analyzes the ways in which Polish migrants in Ireland negotiate prevalent Polish discourses on migrant identity. The author emphasizes the complexity of migrant identity transgressions first, in order to displace a belief in a fixed homogeneity of the Polish migrant community, and secondly, to illustrate the problematics of young Polish migrants’ relations with politically and culturally endorsed notions of Polishness, and, finally, to stress the need to engage migrant voices into the discussion on issues of Polish cultural and national identity. To that end the author analyzes two narratives of Polish migrants in Ireland which not only engage in contestation and negotiation of fixed identities but also emphasize the value of migration in shaping ideas about identity that transgress the idea of the nation as an absolute.