Childbearing and Parental Decisions of Intra EU Migrants

The book discusses how reproductive and parental decisions are made in the context of intra-EU mobility. The themes include childbearing, childcare, education and plans of the families of Polish post-accession migrants in the United Kingdom and Italy. It is a qualitative sociological study based on the analysis of narrative biographical interviews.

The book explores intra-EU mobility of Polish families as seen by the migrants themselves. The author analyses in what way mobility has influenced their choices regarding if, when and where to have and raise their children. She evaluates how the family dynamics have affected their decisions regarding long-term settlement. The analysis is based on narrative biographic interviews with Polish migrants in Great Britain and Italy. A recurring experience of migrants in the UK was that work and welfare conditions improved their families' quality of life, allowed them to fulfil desired fertility, and offered better prospects for the future. The opinions on welfare conditions in Italy were more critical, however it also offered long-term stability to the ones who had been struggling to survive in Poland.

Autorentext

Weronika Kloc-Nowak received a Ph.D. in Political and Social Sciences from the European University Institute, Florence, Italy. She works as a sociologist at the Centre of Migration Research, University of Warsaw, Poland, and is specialised in the internal dynamics of migrant families, intergenerational relations and gender perspective on migration.

Inhalt

Post-accession migration from Poland to Italy and the UK in the demographic, family and welfare policies contexts Managing childbearing in a new country Providing care for small children Educational choices of Polish parents abroad Intra-EU migration trajectories in autobiographical narratives