IRIMTAIntergenerational Relations In Migrants’ Transitions-to-Adulthood. Polish families with young adult children in Germany and Norway.

International migration of Polish families is one of the most important social topics in public life. While the phenomena related to Poles who migrate as adults and establish families abroad has been well studied, less attention has been paid thus far to Polish migrants from subsequent generations, especially in the European destination countries. Meanwhile, 18 years have passed since Poland's accession to the European Union, which intensified the phenomenon of family migration. The identified research gap means that we know little about how the now adult children who were born abroad to Polish migrant parents (the so-called second generation) and those young people who came to the new place as children or adolescents (the so-called 1.5 generation) are coping with transitions-to-adulthood in a migration setting. Young people representing the above immigrant generations are currently at a point in their lives where they are entering adulthood and shaping their independence from their parents and families of origin. Therefore, it is crucial to obtain information about how they are shaping their paths and identities.

During the project we will:

• Examine relationships — especially intergenerational relationships — in Polish families living in Germany and Norway, focusing on different areas of transitions-to-adulthood.
• Trace the impact of migration on the life orientations of young adults between the ages of 18 and 29, as well as indicate what type of support Polish migrants provide to young adults as parents.
• Co-developing, together with community researchers, a list of current coping tactics and understanding the role of social networks
• Drawing on the existing research, which shows that 1.5 and second generations of immigrants face greater challenges in gaining autonomy – including the experiences of moving out of the family home or educational and career paths, we will focus on the course of these processes in Polish migrant families.
• Point to the intergenerational dimension of transitions-to-adulthood in a reality marked by crisis, showing how young adults and their parents perceive and implement intergenerational support.

Including the perspectives of young migrants from the second and 1.5 generations will allow us to examine how young people seek their paths between the often-competing visions of adulthood from the sending country (Poland/parents) and the receiving country (German/Norwegian environment, as represented by peers).

The project will use an innovative qualitative approach involving a multi-sited, multi-perspective longitudinal study. In practice, this means that we will conduct eighty interviews with pairs of a young adult (aged 18-29) and a parent from a particular family. Forty of the interviews will be conducted in Germany (20 families) and another forty in Norway (20 families). In addition, about a year after the first meetings with the interviewees, we will contact them again to obtain additional information about changes in their lives.

The importance of the project lies in demonstrating the unique situation of young people whose paths to autonomy are shaped by different modes of transitions-to-adulthood, on the one hand the modes from their country of origin that may be preferred by their parents, and on the other hand the modes of transition-into-adulthood prevalent in the host society and represented by their peers. The results of the study will contribute to the sociology of youth, families and migration, and can translate into practical recommendations for public policies.