comparing life trajectories and adaptive strategies of ukrainian and vietnamese female immigrants in...

Comparing life trajectories and adaptive strategies of Ukrainian and Vietnamese

female immigrants in Poland

Weronika Kloc-Nowak, CEFMR, Poland

8th European Sociological Association Conference Glasgow, 5th September 2007

Acknowledgements:

“FEMAGE – Need for Female Immigrants and Their Integration in Aging Societies” funded through EC 6th Framework Programme.

Prof. Charlotte Hoehn (BiB, Germany) - Project Co-ordinator

Dr Attila Melegh (DRI, Hungarian Central Statistical Institute) - the narrative interviews methodology design.

Izabela Koryś (CEFMR) coordinated the interviewing and led the analysis in Poland, especially in the Vietnamese part.

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Plan of the presentation

1. About the research2. Motives for migration3. Strategies employed4. Trajectories5. Conclusions

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Aims of the research• to compare and contrast the migratory experience of

female immigrants from Ukraine and from Vietnam who settled in Poland

• to identify the factors influencing the female migratory experience in the life course perspective

• to investigate the degree of social and economic integration available to settled female immigrants

• to identify the needs and attitudes concerning integration into the host society to be responded by policy means

• to assess the future of immigrants (stay, return, further migration) in the context of their stories and future aging

1. About the research 2.Motives 3.Strategies employed 4.Trajectories 5.Conclusions

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Data on the immigrant groups • Ukrainians – the largest

immigrant group• 9 840 residence permits• up to 400 000 present

each year at peak (est.)• feminisation (2/3) due to

mixed marriages• largest share among

foreign students and workers

• best suited for integration?

• Vietnamese – the unique immigrant community

• 1876 residence permits• 100 000 at peak, now ca

35 000 (est.)• ethnic niche: trade

business• concentration and

segregation


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Hypotheses on migration patterns Ukrainians • migration was easy, and

cheap – massive, available to individuals

• post-Soviet society – broken ties, weak families

• historical and family ties across the border (ethnic minorities)

• cultural proximity, ‘invisibility’, ability to assimilate

Vietnamese• migration was expensive,

difficult, often illegal –family resources and channels

• Confucian values, strong clan and family ties – cooperation, collective strategies

• cultural and physical distinctiveness, fear of racist attacks, segregation


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Selection of interviewees • Long term documented 1st generation migrants (1989

onwards, 3 years, residence permit)• Variety of age (20-34, 35-49, 50+)• Variety of social and economic status• Vietnamese (15): recruited through an insider, only in

Warsaw, only through personal ties, interviewed in Vietnamese

• Ukrainians (16): recruited through Greek-Orthodox parishes, Internet, NGOs, employers, media (‘celebrities’), in Warsaw and 3 peripherical regions, interviewed in Polish


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Narrative interview • Based on biographic-interpretive method (BIM) by Fischer-Rosenthal

and Rosenthal (Rosenthal 1996, Wengraf 2001), analysis of the told story and lived life.

• Modified for FEMAGE by Melegh, stress on lifecourse. 1. opening unit:Question: We are interested in the migration of women.

Could you please tell the history of how you got here. Result: a passage of her story, uninterrupted, she decides the end.2. ‘catching the threads’:Questions posed only in reference to the events mentioned, starting

from the earliest ones, words of the interviewee. Result: filling in missing parts in her lifestory, biography reconstruction.3. untouched aspects: family, work, legalisation


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Analysis of the narratives1. Reconstruction of the biography Events in chronological order. (1 person, interviewer)2. Questionning the biography development Predicting (alternative) scenarios, producing hypotheses on

active forces in her life. (team)3. Identification of major turning points, driving engines.4. Gendered aspectsPresentation of herself as a woman, her attitudes and

choices in typical gendered moments.5. Discourse active/passive self-presentation, dichotomies...


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Motivations for migration

1. „Generally speaking, a woman has two reasons: life and family” – marriage and family reasons

• Marital migration (both)• Family reunion (Vietnamese)• Turning temporary to settlement due to a Polish parter (Ukrainian)• Migration as reaction to personal trauma (both)

eg: In Vietnam these love affairs are not considered as in the West - this means in the West it’s pretty normal, isn’t it? But in Vietnam there’s something wrong about it – of course not for me myself – but in general this is not good – since you loose anyhow – your students disrespect you that’s why I had to leave. VN16


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2. “Everyone else goes abroad…” – labour or welfare migration

• Looking for better income and standard of living (both nationalities)• First my husband came to work here and I came to visit him (…) three

months after my arrival I started to trade – and – the first day I noticed that “there could be profits out of it”. VN2

• I could only afford to buy a handbag or a lipstick in a month. To buy a pair of shoes I had to save my salary for four months. U9

• Unemployment (Ukrainian, young Vietnamese)Then there was such a situation, that there was unemployment, there was an unemployment benefit. The benefit in the beginning was quite good, as I had been earning good money at school [the benefit was first equal to the lost salary] and then less, and less, and less, and then appeared the question what [to do?]. In the country, there was no work near by, further away – one didn’t know. U10


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3. “An opportunity to study what I have always wanted” – migration as a response to blocked upward social mobility in the country of origin

• Migration to study - Ukrainians

Journalism was something I had dreamed of since a long time – and – in the university of [home town] there was no such faculty. There is one in the University of Lviv, but unfortunately – unfortunately I have to mention about the possibility of getting into a university. It is very difficult, I should say. A great role is played by money and personal contacts. None of them did my family possess so I chose a less ambitious faculty [philology at local university] but as the journalism was still somewhere inside me and, and I found such an opportunity to study what I have always wanted – in Poland. U13


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3. migration as a response to blocked upward social mobility - cnt

• Labour migration due to failed entry exams - Vietnamese

If you didn’t graduate from a school and didn’t find a job after the school, it was a complete unemployment and I would be an ordinary sales person – it would be very difficult. VN13

[After high school] I didn’t get to the university – and I was left at home – and my friends – I had good friends – at these times many people failed the entry exams – in my times almost everybody – so – for some of them the families managed to find a placement, some were sent abroad – like me here – later when I was flying to Poland I saw that everyone has made it – succeeded – majority succeeded thanks to trade. VN4


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Vietnamese trading strategyThe path of development followed by the majority of interviewees:1. investing one’s savings into merchandise or taking some goods in

commission from a wealthier trader.2. selling them in a rented stall in the Stadion – an open air market place in

the centre of Warsaw.3. buying one’s own stall/box and moving to a “better” part of the Stadion

(from retailing to wholesale).4. moving to the East Asian Commercial Centre (“the China centre”).

The most successful one turned to:5. large scale import from China.6. ordering and importing own brands of clothing.


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Vietnamese trading cnt


Photo: Bożena Navicka

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Vietnamese trading cnt


Photo: EACC materials

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Vietnamese trading cntProblems:[In the Stadion] we had ‘cool heads’ – we didn’t need to worry about imported

goods – we did not import anything, we did not think, but the life was very hard. You see, we needed to worry about caring goods, about everything but it was a “physical”, not an “intellectual” difficulty. Now it’s much easier “physically” because I don’t need to drag heavy packages myself as I employ Polish workers to do so, but the whole day I need to think, to account so there’ll be some commodities, there’ll be some money, there’ll be some profits…VN9

• effort, extermely long hours, monotony & routine• risk of being arrested for tax/duty offence• organising child care in unusual hours


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Ukrainians: variety of jobs Casual jobsCleaners, child minders, elderly carers• Frequent changes, abandoning jobsMy studies: I had such a need to go out, sit in a library, get a book. They were paying me quite

well, so I could by these books, but I needed company. I realised that it was very hard to live among Poles all the time, because I had no Ukrainians near me. (...) The girl was very sad when I as leaving, she was crying and couldn’t understand. U9

Full time professionals – mostly teachersThe situation was such that there were only two English philologists in X, two persons who

were able to translate in our big town. People made a lot of demands on me: this school offered me hours, that school, the company. People who had some private companies asked,- asked me to call somebody in the USA at midnight, because it is a different time zone and so on. At first they tried to exploit me, but then I didn’t allow for it. U15


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Exceptions ‘An Ukrainian Vietnamese’ – selling textilesIn [the town X] I met an Ukrainian, I thought that he would help me, simply as

another person to ask, and he made me run away from that town. Why? Competition. U17

Am I a president or a company or who am I? A prole. Like a horse.(…) I carry the burden, not my employees, me. U17

A ‘Vietnamese intermediator’ a Pole’s wife, tried many professions, runs legal and accounting advising companyWhen I opened this accounting company – it was mostly to serve to the Vietnamese

– but besides it serves others, mostly my friends get clients for me, one tells to another – Ukrainians, Russians, English, these are all friends – I have this big advantage from my husband’s side – his friends – thanks to which, thanks to which my contacts are wider, this is my advantage. VN14


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Family strategies 1. Ethnicly mixed marriages (Ukrainians, one Vietnamese)

2. Ethnic (in-group) marriages (Vietnamese, two Ukrainians)

3. Single (Ukrainians, one Vietnamese)Yet, if I continue my studies and start a family here - - I would like him [i.e.

her future husband] the most to be an Ukrainian. I mean it doesn’t matter to me if he is from the “Action Vistula” [member of the Ukrainian minority living in Poland], or an Ukrainian from Ukraine, or an Ukrainian who came and settled here, that wouldn’t matter to me. I would only like him to be Ukrainian, so that - we wouldn’t have conflicts on the matters of religion, Church, upbringing of children, he would have to speak Ukrainian apart from Polish, then I would 100% sure stay in Poland. U8


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Negative opinions about mixed marriagesI saw among my friends Vietnamese who married Polish women – they

are young people - but majority of them - regrets. VN10

100% of men, who have Polish wives have also extramarital relationships with Vietnamese women. VN13

[It is hard for a foreign woman to survive alone] unless you get married – then you’re oppressed by the husband, an alcoholic, a miser or some other ‘moron’. It is rare that one marries a normal man - U17

Hypothesis:

Poor quality of partners available to immigrant women,

Bad experience from bogus marriages1. About the research 2.Motives 3.Strategies employed 4.Trajectories 5.Conclusions

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Mothering - strategies

Ukrainians- limiting economic activity due to parenthood (not only

for maternity leave)- bearing children when one doesn’t have right to work

yetVietnamese- providing children with financial means, mostly for

education- delegating upbringing tasks on hired persons or

institutions- leaving children with relatives in the host country


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Trajectories1. „Ripening” – gradual development (both, more Vietnamese)

[Vietnamese] aim higher and higher, diligent and hard-working, having lofty aspirations and climbing upward, as this is an only way leading to a success. VN 6

2. “Starting from scratch” – crisis and recovery trajectory (both)

And I gave my first concert, it was the first concert, I wanted to do it in the underground passage [where she trades] as I was born again [starting to recite her poem]:

I was born again in the beautiful town G.

here I found my luck, while I was in a trap,

I found peace next to anxiety,my sweet joy fights with bitter toil. U17 (translation by WKN)


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3. “There was no single moment that I would be happy that I live in Poland” – subjugation and degradation scenarios (both)

Trading, I forget about many things so I’m robbed or I forget to charge, that is when I sell I happen to forget to take money from clients, you know it’s my head, I can’t concentrate, I don’t have a gift for it.(...) frankly speaking I don’t like it now and I never did – I compelled myself to trade since we need some money apart my husband’s wage to afford some food and clothes. VN5

4. “Life has its own scenarios” – stories of prolonged temporalityAnd now after the studies I didn’t know if- because: I, I am not sure if I want to

come back home, kind of I still don’t have this certainty where I will stay. (...) That’s why I wanted to study and long I couldn’t make my mind what faculty, I thought I will take psychology, as I had wanted to [before], so I would try for the third time. U8

I do not really know what to do with it right now. I am not a pedagogue. I am neither a religious instruction teacher, nor a pedagogue, nor anything. In general everything, in practice nothing. U9


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Conclusions• MotivationsViet: family reunification, family welfare, independence

Ukr: studies, labour, joining the Polish partner

• Economic strategiesViet: trade in ethnic niche – profitable, high personal cost

Ukr: limiting ec. activity or full time at primary labour market

• Family strategiesViet: in-group marriages, child care delegated outside

Ukr: mixed marriages, many singles, own child care


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Further research questions• ChannelsVery positive effects of institutionalised channels for Ukrainians

(regional cooperation)! Other such formal channels?

• Purposeful isolationUneasy company of Poles as a reason for avoiding primary labour

market, Vietnamese 1.5 generation reluctant to integrate. Why?

• Secondary marital marketIn both groups negative opinions on mixed marriages – based on

bogus marriages? Quality of partners available to immigrant women!

• Secondary education marketIllusion of higher education value when it was primarly a means for

legal residence? Information on labour market needed!


comparing life trajectories and adaptive strategies of ukrainian and vietnamese female immigrants in...

Documents

vietnamese migration

strategies employed4

life trajectories

vietnamese female immigrants

family reunion vietnamese

vietnamese ukrainians

migration of women

collective strategies