Mobility Towards Stability: Network-Mediated Ethnography of Successful Polish Migrants in Dublin
Keywords:
Social mobility, social and economic status, stability, achievement, success, wellbeing, network-mediated migration, network-mediated ethnography, migration, Polish migrants in DublinAbstract
Inspired by some findings in the areas of the anthropology of wellbeing and mobility, in this paper I wish to consider the non-dichotomous relationship between socio-spatial mobility and the life stability of Poles who have migrated to Ireland and are satisfied with their current status. I assume that the status that my research partners have obtained is satisfying for them because it enables them – and those they feel responsible for – to achieve further social mobility in a direction they want. In other words, they see mobility as a means of achieving successful stability, and such stability is a means to continue mobility, both social and spatial, if it is deemed necessary or preferred. Since most of my research partners have settled in Dublin taking advantage of social networks created before migration and actively developed after, I have decided to follow in their footsteps in the form of ‘network-mediated ethnography’, to by using my existing network of family and friends to become acquainted with successful Polish migrants in Ireland, and to understand them and their experiences better. I complemented these attempts using means accessible to everyone – searching the Internet, doing fieldwork in in selected localities and hanging out with my research partners.
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References
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