Doctoral Dissertation Research: Immigration, Belonging and the [In-] Visiblity of Difference: The Case of Polish Immigrants in Norway

移民的种族政治在欧洲备受争议。2004年5月，10个新国家加入欧盟，目前的成员国预计来自这些新成员国的移民将增加。越来越多的移民也将影响到邻近的非欧盟国家，如挪威。该研究项目探讨了越来越多的波兰移民在挪威，以及他们在劳动力市场上的地位正在结构化的方式。该项目调查了挪威雇主如何看待波兰移民作为工人，以及在挪威的波兰移民如何驾驭影响其就业的归属和排斥规范。 更具体地说，它分析了波兰跨国移民网络调解移民在挪威找到工作的方式。 该项目将关于种族的地理文献与移民社交网络理论相结合，旨在展示排斥性做法如何在劳动力市场上发挥作用。该项目以在挪威奥斯陆和波兰华沙进行的深入实地考察为基础，采用了定量和定性相结合的方法。 在挪威和波兰迅速全球化的劳动力市场上收集的经验数据是为了修正同化理论的概念基础。 该项目将提供深入了解移民的种族政治的社会科学和政策理解。这项研究的结果将特别关注挪威波兰移民的需求，并将向移民政策制定者通报跨国社交网络影响移民和劳动力市场进程的方式。通过研究白色移民少数群体，传统的种族概念将扩大到包括这个新的和不断增长的移民人口。这项研究将引导研究人员和社会服务机构的注意力转向往往被忽视的移民少数群体之间的就业种族政治。

The racial politics of immigration are highly contested in Europe. Ten new countries entered the European Union in May, 2004, and the current membership states expect an increased influx of immigrants from these new member states. The growing numbers of immigrants will also affect neighboring non-EU nations, such as Norway. This research project examines the growing number of Polish immigrants in Norway, and the ways in which their positions in the labor market are being structured. The project investigates the ways that Norwegian employers perceive of Polish immigrants as workers, as well as how Polish immigrants in Norway navigate the norms of belonging and exclusion that shape their employment. More specifically, it analyzes the ways in which Polish transnational immigrant networks mediate the ways that immigrants find and get jobs in Norway. The project's combination of geographic literature on race with theories of immigrant social networks is directed at showing how exclusionary practices play out in the labor market. Based on in-depth fieldwork in Oslo, Norway and Warsaw, Poland, the project utilizes a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. The empirical data collected on the rapidly globalizing labor markets of Norway and Poland are geared towards revising the conceptual underpinnings of assimilation theory. This project will provide insight into social science and policy understandings of the racial politics of immigration. Findings from this study will direct attention specifically to the needs of Polish immigrants in Norway, and will inform immigration policy- makers about the ways that transnational social networks influence migration and labor market processes. By studying white immigrant minorities, the classical conception of race will be broadened to include this new and growing immigrant population. The research will direct the attention of researchers and social services agencies toward the racial politics of employment among groups of immigrant minorities that tend to be overlooked.