Experiences of Social Security and Prospects for Long Term Settlement in Scotland amongst Migrants from Central Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union

在过去的20年里，移民的模式发生了巨大的变化，生活在曾经与西欧隔绝的国家的人们的行动自由增加，这在其中发挥了重要作用。英国出现了来自中东欧和前苏联集团其他地区的新移民潮。在英国国内，苏格兰呈现了一个特别有趣和独特的案例，原因是：其经济和人口状况的特殊性，关于移民必要性的相关政治讨论，以及英国和苏格兰议会和地方当局在移民问题上的责任分工。苏格兰行政当局和许多地方当局都表示希望吸引和留住移民工人。然而，也强调了与提供服务的需求和充分性有关的挑战。与此同时，人们对移民本身的经历和看法仍然知之甚少。该项目旨在研究苏格兰中东欧和前苏联移民在社会保障方面的观点和经验。通过与移民社区的长期和深入接触，该项目将提供重要的新的和原创的经验数据。它将通过对现有理论框架的创新综合，产生重要的新的学术见解。此外，该项目提出了一种开创性的方法，通过使用参与性行动研究方法来制定实际和政策成果和解决办法。第一阶段的研究将确定主要主题和令人关切的领域，特别是借鉴移徙者本身的经验和观点。这之后将是参与性行动研究阶段，在此期间，我们将直接与移民、移民组织、政策制定者、服务提供者和雇主合作，制定解决特定问题的实际项目。将对制定这些项目的进程及其短期、中期和长期成果进行评估，以确定“最佳做法”以及在更广泛的地方、区域和国家范围内推广的可能性。我们使用‘社会保障’是指移民能够在新的环境中使自己在社会、经济、个人和文化上获得安全的方式，以及他们应对日常风险的策略。该项目将考察移民对社会保障的经历和看法如何影响他们在苏格兰定居的长期意图。移民的经历和需求取决于他们的教育和技能水平、他们所做的工作种类、他们的语言能力、他们的年龄、他们来自哪个国家、他们是男性还是女性以及他们来苏格兰的哪个地区生活和工作。例如，大城市和较偏远的农村地区之间的服务提供水平、当地经济和人口需求以及当地社区对移徙的看法和反应有很大的不同。这些差异也影响着移民的经历和抱负。该项目将关注这些不同形式的多样性。这项研究将在苏格兰的八个地点进行：两个城市(格拉斯哥和阿伯丁)，两个中等城镇(彼得黑德和阿布罗思)，以及阿伯丁郡和安格斯的四个偏远农村地区。在每个地点，该项目将探索移民利用的不同类型的资源、网络、结构和服务，以便在他们生活和工作的地方使自己在物质和情感上都有安全感。它还将梳理移民认为安全的哪些方面和观念(经济、个人、文化、社会)特别重要，以及这些因素如何影响移民在特定地点定居、移居或返回原籍国的决定。

Patterns of migration have changed dramatically over the last 20 years and increased freedom of movement for people living in countries once separated from western Europe by 'the iron curtain' has played an important part in this. The UK has seen new flows of migration coming from Central Eastern Europe and other parts of the former 'Soviet bloc'. Within the UK, Scotland presents a particularly interesting and distinctive case, due to: the specifics of its economic and demographic situation, related political discussion of the need for migration, and the division of responsibilities between UK and Scottish parliaments and local authorities for migration. Both the Scottish Executive and many local authorities have expressed a wish to attract and retain migrant workers. However, challenges have also been highlighted relating to demand for and adequacy of service provision. Meanwhile the experiences and perspectives of migrants themselves remain little understood. This project aims to study perspectives and experiences of 'social security' amongst migrants from Central Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union in Scotland. Through its long-term and deep engagement with migrant communities, the project will deliver significant new and original empirical data. It will generate important new academic insight through its innovative synthesis of existing theoretical frameworks. Moreover, the project proposes a groundbreaking approach to developing practical and policy outcomes and solutions through the use of a participatory action research approach. A first phase of research will identify key themes and areas of concern, drawing particularly on the experiences and perspectives of migrants themselves. This will be followed by the phase of participatory action research, during which we will work directly with migrants, migrant organisations, policy makers, service providers and employers to develop practical projects addressing particular issues. The process of developing these projects will be evaluated as will their short, medium and long-term outcomes with a view to determining 'best practice' and the potential for replication in broader local, regional and national contexts. We use 'social security' to mean the ways in which migrants are able to make themselves socially, economically, personally and culturally secure in a new environment and their strategies for dealing with every day risks. The project will examine the ways in which migrants' experiences and perspectives on 'social security' affect their longer term intentions regarding settlement in Scotland. Migrants' experiences and needs differ depending on their levels of education and skill, the kinds of work they do, their language abilities, their age, which country they come from, whether they are male or female and which part of Scotland they have come to live and work in. Levels of service provision, local economic and demographic needs and local community perceptions of and responses to migration differ quite markedly between, for example, large cities and more remote rural areas. These differences also impact on migrants' experiences and aspirations. The project will pay attention to these various forms of diversity. The research will be conducted in eight locations in Scotland: two cities (Glasgow and Aberdeen) two medium-sized towns (Peterhead and Arbroath) and four more remote rural locations in Aberdeenshire and Angus. In each location, the project will explore the different kinds of resources, networks, structures and services which migrants draw on in order to make themselves materially and emotionally secure within the places where they live and work. It will also tease out which aspects and perceptions of security (economic, personal, cultural, social) are deemed particularly important by migrants and how these influence migrants' decisions to settle in a particular location, to move on, or to return to their countries of origin.