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Kloc-Nowak, Weronika and Ryan, Louise (2024) 'I am afraid to fly there': informal care in Polish migrants' families immobilised by COVID-19. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 47 (14). pp. 3021-3040. ISSN 1466-4356
This paper discusses the COVID-19 pandemic as a new external challenge to transnational family life that can undermine the care arrangements and intentions developed by the families of Polish migrants following the 2004 EU enlargement. The pandemic, associated lockdowns and travel restrictions raise questions about assumed transnationalism, building upon earlier concerns about taking for granted migrants’ cross-national mobility. Based on focus group discussions with Polish grandparents conducted in July 2020 and March 2021, we analyse the pandemic’s impact on intergenerational relations with both geographically close and distant kin. We point to perceptions of risks of COVID-19 associated with ethnicised stereotypes and evolving with time. While the pandemic caused temporary restrictions to mobility, it shows the immobilising side of “unsettling events”, the consequences of which, for privileged EU migrants, will unfold in time as their parents’ age and require personal care.
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
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