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The economic, social and ontological security of Polish post-accession migrants in popular media narratives

Media, Culture & Society

Published online on

Abstract

The article is based on extensive analysis of the general assumptions on the Polish post-accession migrants’ trajectories imprinted within the narratives of popular TV programmes. The depiction of migrants in the Polish media is analysed in reference to Alfred Schütz’s figures of the Stranger and the Homecomer as metaphors of the very situation of being a migrant. The empirical data come from two popular Polish productions: the docu-soap ‘Wyjechani’ (The Leavers) and the soap opera ‘Londyłczycy’ (The Londoners) in which we identified 59 migrant characters. The analysis of the narratives of their life trajectory leads one to the conclusion that migration from Poland is depicted as a source of an individual’s feeling of insecurity at the economic, social or ontological level. The article reveals the representations of migrants’ career mobility abroad, the relations to their co-ethnics and the indigenous population, and their sense of cultural identity. The final result of the study is a conceptual map with the general assumptions on migrants’ economic, social and ontological security imprinted in media narratives.