Abstract
Whilst the transnational family life of post-accession intra-European migrants has been extensively explored, past studies have rarely addressed its local dimension. The relatively recent international migration patterns to rural areas in Europe provide opportunities to explore this particular aspect. Drawing on ethnographic data from Polish migrant families and young couples in rural Norway, we investigate the relationship between the settlement of the migrants in a specific rural locality and the dynamic of their cross-border and cross-local patterns of mobility. Using notions of translocalism and social anchoring, the article offers insights into how migrants' lives as couples and families become gradually reoriented as they settle in the rural host context and how the conditions for maintaining family relationships in Poland change at the same time. We illustrate how migrants' search for stability in their lives in the host location is associated with the question of family reunion, their position on the local labour market, purchase of houses and development of place attachment. At the same time, the settlement process breeds ambivalence as it requires migrants to adjust to the new life setting and continually navigate and negotiate the family life across home and host context. The ability of migrants to organise their translocal life satisfactorily depends on and reflects their overall level of integration locally and nationally.
Highlights
To address the foregoing, we explore the relationship between the local settlement processes and mobility by studying practices of Polish couples and families in rural Norway
In the context of our study, the rural location in Norway, social anchoring is related to a specific place, and the ways migrants invest it with meaning and sense (Antonsich, 2010; Gieryn, 2000)
We examine the process of settlement of Polish postaccession migrants in rural Norway
Summary
Patrycja and Jarek, a married couple in their 30s, moved from a small city in Poland to a rural area in Norway a couple of years ago They had a difficult beginning, striving to achieve stability in their new country and experiencing a challenging family situation back home that caused them to reevaluate their plans concerning living in Norway. This article analyses the post-accession settlement processes of Polish fam ilies and couples in rural Norway, in order to understand the continuous interaction between the mobility and immobility of the migrants in the translocal context of their lives. The following research questions frame the article: 1. How do migrants experience the rural context, and how does the rural context affect their settlement decisions?
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