The thesis analyses the discursive construction of migrants’ identities through their native language communications, using Russian-speaking migration in the UK as the case study. Material from internet forums these migrants were engaged in the years 2002-2005 forms the basis of this research. The project is concerned with the question of how Russian-speaking migrants, faced with the process of accustoming themselves to a new place of residence (UK), re-negotiate the Self, their homeland (in both real geographical terms and metaphorically through their cultural affiliations) and the Other. This study draws on theories from a range of research perspectives including hermeneutics, discourse analysis, cultural studies, and ethnography. The theoretical framework developed in this thesis combines Foucault’s analysis of discourse with Lotman’s model of dialogue between cultures. The thesis also develops sampling techniques for virtual data. By examining how the dichotomy Russia vs. Europe/the West is imagined in the researched data, this study argues that the concept of Europeanism obtains positive associations, while the concept of the West retains its ambiguity for Russian-speaking migrants. The thesis identifies Europeanism as a discursive object of knowledge and examines its categorizations. The study identifies kul`tura and tsivilizatsia as grids of specifications of Europeanism, and investigates Self/Other dialectics attached to the object of knowledge. Finally, the thesis analyses the dynamics of cultural appropriation under influences of the host context, and elaborates on semiotic “translation” of new phenomena.

Cette recherche doctorale constitue un essai de systématisation de l'analyse de la communauté ivoirienne en Hexagone afin de comprendre d’une part, les logiques agissantes dans la structuration de celle-ci à travers le fait associatif et d’autre part, rendre intelligible le processus de diasporisation auquel elle est confrontée. Pour le dire autrement, il s’agit d’interroger la dynamique diasporique au prisme du mouvement associatif ivoirien en Île-de-France afin de déceler les logiques sur lesquelles repose la fragmentation de ce champ associatif. Les analyses ont été menées sur la base d’une combinaison des approches quantitatives et qualitatives. De cette démarche, il ressort que la fragmentation du champ associatif et l’émergence d’un inconscient diasporique dans la communauté ivoirienne en Île-de-France relève d’un même processus de construction identitaire dont l’enjeu repose sur une quête d’une visibilité aussi bien dans le milieu d’installation que dans celui d’origine. / This PhD research is an essay about systemization of the analysis of the Ivorian community in France, in order to understand, first the active logic inside structure within associative actions, and second, to make intelligible the diaspora process which the community faces.This means to question the diaspora dynamism at the heart of the Ivorian associative movement in Paris area in order to detect the logic upon which the breaking up of such an associative field lies. Studies have been led on a principle, which is the combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches. According to the research, the fragmentation of the associative field and the emergence of diaspora unawareness among the Ivorian community in the Paris area belong the same process, which is the establishment of an identity whose stakes lie upon a quest of visibility at the same time, at the center of the settings and at the source.

Les décideurs politiques, appelés à gérer les relations entre les migrants, les communautés qu’ils créent et la population des pays d’accueil, répondent en élaborant différentes politiques d’intégration selon leur histoire démographique, leurs modèles d’incorporation, ainsi que leurs conditions contingentes. Mais, en dépit des déclarations d’intention, ces politiques se configurent plutôt comme des mécanismes de gestion des migrants. En effet plusieurs États soumettent l’acquisition de la nationalité à la réussite de tests évaluant les compétences en langue et les connaissances en éducation civique. Cependant une société démocratique doit adopter des politiques qui garantissent la cohésion sociale : la réalisation de ce but implique une approche intégrationniste qui met en cause les droits et les responsabilités des migrants et des sociétés d’accueil. Les migrants se définissent comme un groupe vulnérable en raison de leur condition de faiblesse. D’ailleurs ils doivent investir beaucoup d’énergie pour reconfigurer leur propre identité et pendant ce passage, le soutien public s’avère fondamental. La société d’accueil ne doit pas se limiter à reconnaître l’existence de la diversité, mais elle doit être éduquée à celle-ci, afin de développer une attitude positive à l’égard de l’inconnu. Le processus d’insertion passe par la nécessité de franchir la barrière linguistique : la définition de langue retenue fait référence tout particulièrement à sa fonction de vecteur pour l’accès à l’univers des comportements et des valeurs d’une communauté linguistique. Seul l’exercice de la citoyenneté active favorise l’autonomisation et le développement d’un sentiment d’appartenance. / The phenomenon of migration represents an important dimension of the social transformations and it constitutes a complex reality which has many consequences of historical-political, socio-legal and linguistic-cultural nature.The immigrant, often pushed by a condition of severe poverty, loses his points of reference, social recognition, the sense of autonomy assimilated in a lifetime, his own identity. All these factors put immigrant in a condition of extreme weakness. The danger for the immigrant is to be relegated to the margins of society and to be a victim of segregation and marginalization.The insertion and integration process in the new social reality is accompanied, at all levels, by the need to learn the language. This need, in fact, coincides not only with the understanding of the structure and grammatical rules, but it also refers to the need to understand the vision of the world and culture of a linguistic community. The organisation of language training is complex due to different ideologies based on national policies, territorial subdivision of courses, variety of situations and needs of the recipients, or different organization of the training, etc.The integration of immigrants is a matter to be treated with great caution, because it has an immediate impact on the political and economic level and because it directly impacts the social structure of States. The toughest challenge for national Governments is to find a balance between respect and enhancement of culture and the language of origin of the immigrant and the need to learn the culture and language of the host country.

This thesis explores how second and 1.5-generation migrants of Peruvian origin living in Turin identify themselves. The results show that second and 1.5-generation migrants have complex and multi-identities. They see themselves as Italians, Peruvians, Turinese, citizens of the world and Latinos/as and are mostly categorized as Peruvians, Italians and foreigners. From the study emerged that place of birth and age at arrival are crucial variables that affect their self-identification, while phenotype and language play an essential role in their ascribed identity. Nevertheless, second and 1.5-generation migrants are challenging the mainstream and traditional idea of what it means to be Italian connected to appearance. Italian citizenship is not an essential factor that influences their identity, even though it has the function of validating a pre-existing identity. This study contributes to increasing the academic knowledge regarding the identity of a specific group of youth of migrant origin living in a defined place.

The principle of non-discrimination is recognised as vital to the human rights field. In May 2013 the Swedish parliament passed a law that provides undocumented migrants the same limited health care as asylum seekers. In relation, the Swedish Red Cross in a partnership with Malmö University created and distributed a questionnaire amongst Swedish politicians, that in part pertains to this law and also the situation of undocumented migrants’ right to health care.In applying the perspective of non-discrimination, legal challenges to undocumented migrants’ access to health care in Sweden, and the political attitudes surrounding this issue are duly examined. This produces the observation that the non-discrimination principle’s application is of relevant use. In concluding that the legislation examined fails to meet international standards regarding the principle of non-discrimination and the right to health care for undocumented migrants, it provides examples to illustrate that this conclusion is not necessarily representative of the views held by the selected group of politicians included in the twofold questionnaire study.

Yes / In early 2021, over 5 million European Union (EU) citizens had applied for settled status to secure their right to continue to live, work and study in the United Kingdom (UK) after the country’s withdrawal from the EU (Brexit). In 2018, the Home Office launched a Statement of Intent to implement an application process for EU citizens through its EU Settlement Scheme. In the period leading to Brexit, the UK government assured EU migrants that their existing rights under EU law will remain essentially unchanged, and that applying for the settled status will be smooth, transparent and simple. However, the application process has resulted in some long-term residents failing to obtain settled status, despite providing the required information. Based on qualitative in-depth interviews with 20 EU migrants living in 2 major metropolitan areas in North East England, this article discusses the significant barriers which EU citizens face with the application process. This situation affects especially the most vulnerable EU migrants with limited English language skills and/or low literacy levels as well as those who are digitally excluded. This study contributes to the growing body of research on the consequences of Brexit to vulnerable EU migrants in the UK, focusing specifically on Central and Eastern European migrants.

This study is aimed to increase the knowledge about the Swedish immigration authorities’ assessment of the asylum applications based on particularly distressing circumstances, submitted by disabled undocumented migrants. Making an attempt to explain the reasons of asylum-seekers’ health deterioration during the asylum process, this study determines the factors in migration authorities proceedings affecting such deterioration. Documents in five personal files concerning six disabled asylum-seekers, whose applications were declined, were studied by applying two observational methods: content analysis of the documents in the personal files and non-participant observations made during receptions of undocumented migrants at the Swedish Asylum Committee. The results of the study have shown that migration authorities' way of applying the principle of child’s best interests have a declarative character, while the disability perspective is completely ignored. The migrations authorities make free interpretations of the information on the countries of asylum-seekers' origin, while adaptation to Swedish conditions does not work at all as cause for residence permit. Advocates, who neglect their prior duties, have also a negative influence on the asylum process. Analyzed from the perspective of appropriate sociological concepts, the results of this study have shown that the above mentioned observations cause disabled undocumented migrants health deterioration.

This thesis examines the lived experience of economic migration of young and degree level educated migrants from Poland to Britain. The main aim is to explore how the participants of economic migration within the borders of the European Union experience migrating. The special feature of this migration is the fact that they leave a postcommunist country and come to a country with a well established capitalist economy and long-standing democracy. The particular questions are: how these migrants construct their experience of migrating, are they faced with any problems while doing it, and if so - how do they resolve them? The data comes from twenty-two semi-structured interviews with migrants educated to degree level who were residents and worked in one of the regions of England at a professional level or below their qualifications (manual or simple clerical work). The research utilises the critical discourse analysis perspective; the data is approached with analysis focused on linguistic choices (lexical and grammatical) evident in the respondents’ statements. This kind of analysis enables observation and in-depth interpretation of the way experiences of migrating are constructed. The migrants’ narratives were full of discursive struggle while constructing their experience of migrating. Firstly, the interviewees made an effort to present their migration as rational. Secondly, they were trying to rationalise their financial needs to refute accusations of greed for money. Thirdly, the underemployed migrants justified their employment choices by distancing themselves from work below that which they were qualified for. Fourthly, the interviewees were making an attempt to withdraw from a multicultural community by constructing the negative Other. Exploring lived experience of living and working abroad reveals competitive discourses and ways of coping with ambivalence. Understanding these discursive practices requires knowledge of their beliefs and values that underpin the discourses available in the Polish postcommunist society. Overall, the narratives overflowed with dilemmas that showed this migration as more complicated on an individual level than the official discourse of free movement of people in the EU suggests. This thesis captures the migrants’ lived experience within one year after the EU enlargement; it reflects on the narratives being shaped when migrants were given the opportunity to introduce the new discourses on migration or re-think the old ones as a result of new macro-processes in the European Union. This research complements other studies exploring migrants’ voices in search of insight into what their experiences were and how they made sense out of them. However, with the methodology used, it focuses more on uncovering the struggle over arguments available to build their stories. It offers explanation to their discursive practices by analysing them against the discourses as being products of postcommunism. The study’s results may shed more light on recent processes within this group of migrants and also inform institutional policy and practice about problems affecting members of this group, reported in this thesis.

This thesis examines the migrationary processes of graduates leaving their home country and their post-migration experiences and aspirations in a receiving state. Using the case study of England, findings are presented from qualitative research with Polish graduates born between the late 1970s and early 1980s, and who moved to England after 2004. It is argued that this generation of Polish migrants is particularly important given the profound impacts of socio-cultural and economic transformation in Poland, tied to the emergence of capitalism, the preparation for accession of Poland to the European Union (EU) and EU citizenship in 2004, on current debates on the geographies of graduate migration within and beyond Europe. Several important findings are revealed by the research. First, it is asserted that perspectives of migration which focus on structure-agency relations (Halfacree, 1995) need to encompass the economic and political aspects of participants sending state at the time of migration, as well as the historical influences on migration decision-making processes. Second, the discussion shows that graduate migration to another country leads to differing approaches to career and life trajectory development after migration and this thesis conceptualises these using the following typology: Continuers , Switchers and Late Awakeners , with dynamism and slippage across the groupings. Third, the findings expose graduate migrant perceptions of becoming and being highly-skilled, and the role of university preparation, and other forms of post-graduate training and potentially strategic acquisitions of citizenship for labour market confidence to compete and undertake professional jobs in Poland and England. Fourth, the thesis stresses that migration is often a first step in graduate migrants life trajectories and it emphasises the importance of a stepping-stone migration , both socially and spatially, and which is embedded within individuals' life-phases and perceptions of home and place. It is argued that this conceptual and geographic contribution to wider studies of graduate migration across countries may have wider resonance to other graduate migrant groups in Europe and beyond.

This thesis explores Turkish migrants’ practices of diabetes care in Germany. Health statistics frequently identify minority groups as vulnerable to chronic illness and Turkish-origin Germans are said to be more likely to suffer from type 2 diabetes than Germans or Turks in Turkey. Anthropological studies on marginal population groups with diabetes explore experiences of social suffering and inequality that influence such high illness prevalence, or investigate how conflictual lay beliefs and medical encounters affect illness care. Those studies that analyse active diabetes patient and healthcare practices concentrate on the majority population. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Berlin from September 2006 to September 2007, this thesis examines how Turkish Berliners actively engage in diabetes care, and thus joins two themes seldom connected: illness practices and marginality. Initial interviews with healthcare professionals alluded to a Turkish migrant patient group living in deprivation and immobilised by high illiteracy rates, lacking language skills and health knowledge. Despite such experience of marginality, ethnographic exploration revealed that informal diabetes care, for example through a Turkishlanguage self-help group, is nonetheless individually and collectively negotiated where formal care is inadequate. On the one hand, the thesis investigates practices of diabetes control in learning, monitoring and manoeuvring diabetes. Rather than representing the common image of the inert, disadvantaged migrant patient, Turkish Berliners of the self-help group engage in deliberate “tactics of diabetes control” to make their chronic illness experience habitable. On the other hand, the thesis explores how “diabetes among Turkish-origin Berliners” can be a form of sociality, political activism and economic enterprise that involves many social actors not only patients and their healthcare professionals, in order to fill a provision gap.