Beyond openness and prejudice: the consequences of migrant encounters with difference

Gawlewicz, A. (2016) Beyond openness and prejudice: the consequences of migrant encounters with difference. Environment and Planning A, 48(2), pp. 256-272. (doi: 10.1177/0308518X15605836)

Abstract

This article investigates the consequences of migrant encounters with difference in terms of ethnicity, religion, class, social status, sexuality and gender. While the notion of encounter has attracted much academic attention, in particular with regard to multiculture, social diversity and the challenge of living with difference, many of these debates tend to, oddly enough, overlook migrant populations. Furthermore, although they acknowledge that significant numbers of migrants to diverse societies such as the UK originate from much less diverse communities, they rarely reflect on the intricacies of production of difference in these respective places. Recognising these limitations, this article outlines the consequences of encounters with difference in the context of migration from Poland (a relatively homogeneous postcommunist society) to the UK (a ‘superdiverse’ postcolonial society). The article draws upon extensive empirical material collected among Polish post-2004 migrants to the Northern English city of Leeds. It establishes that migrant encounters result in development, revision or change of values and attitudes towards difference. This may involve a range of personal stances including favourable and prejudiced attitudes as well as, most likely, ‘complicated’ and ‘in-between’ responses.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: As part of the research programme ‘Living with Difference in Europe: making communities out of strangers in an era of super mobility and super diversity’ (LIVEDIFFERENCE), this work was funded by the European Research Council through an Advanced Investigator Award (no. 249658) to Gill Valentine.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Gawlewicz, Dr Anna
• Authors: Gawlewicz, A.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Journal Name: Environment and Planning A
• Publisher: Pion
• ISSN: 0308-518X
• ISSN (Online): 1472-3409
• Copyright Holders: copyright © 2015 The Author
• First Published: First published in Environment and Planning A
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher policy