Migration and working life trajectories in a (post-)socialist context

Using 25 life histories of Poles, this paper addresses the way in which migration has had an impact upon the trajectories of individuals’ working lives both under socialism and after 1989. In our discussion, we explore some of the connections between different waves of migration, bringing together historical and contemporary research on migration as well as engaging with current debates on post-socialism that problematize the disjuncture between socialist and post-socialist experience. Our contention here is that one way in which socialism and post-socialism might be integrated is through focusing on the experiences of individuals whose lives span these eras. We suggest that while there are continuities across the periods, there are also disjunctures created not only by the changed politico-legal context, but also through changed attitudes towards the role of migration as part of individual life trajectories.