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White, European, and Hardworking: East European Migrants’ Relationships with Other Communities in London Violetta Parutis Published online: 20 May 2011.

To cite this article: Violetta Parutis (2011) White, European, and Hardworking: East European Migrants’ Relationships with Other Communities in London, Journal of Baltic Studies, 42:2, 263-288, DOI: 10.1080/01629778.2011.569074 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01629778.2011.569074

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Journal of Baltic Studies Vol. 42, No. 2, June 2011, pp. 263–288

WHITE, EUROPEAN, AND HARDWORKING: EAST EUROPEAN MIGRANTS’ RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER

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COMMUNITIES IN LONDON

Violetta Parutis This article examines East European migrants’ relationships with other communities in the context of waged work through in-depth interviews with recent Polish and Lithuanian migrants to London. These migrants found themselves newly surrounded by greater racial and ethnic diversity. By distinguishing themselves from other workers on the basis of skin color and legal status, they present themselves as members of the host country’s ‘white’ majority, which places them in a position of power in relation to other migrant groups in London. Keywords: East European: migration; whiteness

Introduction The British immigrant population can generally be divided into settled and ‘new migrant’ groups (Spence 2005). The latter group includes post-accession migrants and all those who have arrived in the United Kingdom since 1991 (Spence 2005), which contributed greatly to the ethnic diversification of an already diverse British society. The current ethnic landscape of Britain, especially London, has been described as that of ‘super-diversity’ (Vertovec 2006). The population of London includes people from 179 countries (GLA 2005, in Herbert et al. 2008, p. 106). It is therefore understandable that such ethnic and cultural diversity may become difficult to manage. Some writers argue that ‘cultural barriers’ remain the main problem preventing social cohesion (Kundnani 2002). This has led to a considerable increase of interest in research on racism (Gilroy 1990; Mellor et al. 2001; Solomos & Back 1996) and on the construction of the identity Correspondence to: Violetta Parutis, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK. Email: [email protected] ISSN 0162-9778 (print)/ISSN 1751-7877 (online) ß 2011 Journal of Baltic Studies DOI: 10.1080/01629778.2011.569074

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of whiteness (Frankenberg 1993; Hickman & Walter 1995; Ignatiev 1995; Phoenix 1994). However, research in this area tends to focus on ‘New Commonwealth’ communities, neglecting the less established communities, despite their significant impact on Britain’s social landscape (Vertovec 2006). Recent years have seen a considerable increase in studies on East European migrants (Anderson et al. 2006, 2007; Davis et al. 2007; Eade et al. 2006; Spencer et al. 2007; Wright & Pollert 2006). The majority of these discuss migrants’ experiences in the British labor market (e.g. Anderson et al. 2007; McKay et al. 2006). While many researchers have explored the economic determinants of migrants’ experiences in the UK (e.g. McKay et al. 2006), a few have recently begun to broaden the focus of the study of East European migration to include social relations at work (e.g. Anderson et al. 2007; Eade et al. 2006). This article aims to contribute to this growing literature by focusing on the interactions of ‘white’ Polish and Lithuanian migrants in London with their colleagues and employers of differing ethnic groups.

Construction of ‘Whiteness’ Much of the debate on the construction of ‘whiteness’ has focused on how different European groups became ‘white’ in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century United States (Brodkin 1998; Ignatiev 1995; Roediger 1994, 1999; Vecoli 1995). These studies show how European immigrants (such as Irish, Italians, and Jews) were initially marginalized and excluded from the ‘Anglo-American elite’ (Bonnet 2000, p. 22), but with time learned to construct an image as superior to ‘other’ workers and belonging to the dominant white population. Ignatiev (1995) discusses how Irish immigrants came be to ‘white’ and American through anti-black discrimination. He argues that this was made possible by these migrants’ increasing economic power and their inclusion in a racially based American labor market as part of the white working population. Upon their arrival in America, the Irish ‘were thrown together with black people on jobs and in neighborhoods’ (Ignatiev 1995, p. 40). In the early years of the nineteenth century they were often referred to as ‘niggers turned inside out’, while black people were sometimes called ‘smoked Irish’ (Ignatiev 1995, p. 41). Therefore, their whiteness had to be demonstrated and earned, as it was far from being understood as obvious. As Bonnett notes, inferior images of the Irish migrants were also widespread in the post-war and even present-day Britain, in which Irish people are often viewed as uncivilized and primitive colonial subjects (Bonnett 2000, p. 23; Cohen 1988; Innes 1994). A parallel set of histories of the working class is also described by Roediger (1994, 1999), who argues that ‘working class formation and the systematic development of a sense of whiteness went hand in hand for the U.S. white working class’ (Roediger 1999, p. 8). Workers fought for their identification as white because, in Roediger’s (1999, p. 13) words, the ‘pleasures of whiteness could function as a ‘‘wage’’ for white workers. That is, status and privileges conferred by race could be used to make up for alienating and exploitative class relationships . . . White workers could, and did, define

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and accept their class position by fashioning identities as ‘‘not slaves’’ and as ‘‘not Blacks’’’. Another commentator who studied the development of race was Williams (1990). Following Williams’s (1990, p. 2) argument that ‘ethnicity cannot exist without race’, Ignatiev (1995, p. 186) notes that ‘because blackness was the badge of the slave in America, people from Ireland who went there entered the free labor system, which made them part of the dominant race’. To answer the question of ‘what did it mean to the Irish to become white in America’, Ignatiev (1995, pp. 2–3) demonstrates that: it did not mean that they all became rich, or even ‘middle-class’ . . . ; to this day there are plenty of poor Irish. Nor did it mean that they all became the social equals of the Saltonstalls and van Rensselaers . . . To Irish laborers, to become white meant at first that they could sell themselves piecemeal instead of being sold for life, and later that they could compete for jobs in all spheres instead of being confined to certain work; to Irish entrepreneurs, it meant that they could function outside of a segregated market. To both of these groups it meant that they were citizens of a democratic republic, with the right to elect and be elected, to be tried by a jury of their peers, to live wherever they could afford, and to spend, without racially imposed restrictions, whatever money they managed to acquire. In becoming white the Irish ceased to be green. To free themselves from their inferior social identity, European immigrants identified themselves completely with the Americans by abandoning their national identity (Roediger 2002, p. 167). Renton (2007, p. 11) opposes the idea of migrants’ assimilation as the remedy for solving the problem of racism, arguing that ‘any society that insists on assimilation will begin by discriminating against those who are in no hurry to assimilate, and end up by doing something worse’. Renton (2007) also challenges the idea that migrants’ success in establishing a good relationship with the host population depends only on the migrants’ behavior and willingness to assimilate. Some commentators argue that this also depends on the cultural proximity between the immigrant and the local population, which makes some groups of arrivals more welcome than others. In her research on Italian migrants to the UK, Fortier (2000, p. 22) shows how a European identity can be an important positioning tool that makes migrants both equal to and different from the British. Linguistically, culturally, and religiously, Italians (like Poles and Lithuanians in my study) are a minority in Britain similar to the wider white European majority (Fortier 2000, p. 2). Thus, a shared European identity results in greater tolerance by the host population. In the recent decades, the idea of Europe and a European identity has become increasingly assimilated with the process of European integration (Dunkerley et al. 2002, p. 123). Some commentators argue that the European Union (EU) has contributed to the racialization of Europe through its vision of a European identity based on a common cultural heritage such as Christianity or Graeco-Roman (Dunkerley et al. 2002, p. 123). Recent surveys show European citizens’ concerns about ‘foreigners’ (Dunkerley et al. 2002, p. 123). Shore (1996) suggests that by ‘pitting Europe competitively and hierarchically against its supposed rivals, commercial (as with American and Japan) or conceptual (as with Africa, Asia,

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and Islam), the EU also fuels xenophobia and makes racism more respectable’ (cited in Dunkerley et al. 2002, p. 123). Therefore, due to the fear of sounding too exclusive and the difficulties defining a common cultural heritage, the EU prefers now to emphasize such universal concepts as tolerance, the rule of law, and respect for human rights (Dunkerley et al. 2002, p. 124). Some researchers turn their attention to the gender aspect of the construction of whiteness (Dyer 1997; Frankenberg 1993; Ware 1992). Commentators in this area agree that women have been assigned specific functions ‘within the racial ideal, namely of chastity, purity and as biological reproducers’ (Bonnet 2000, p. 23). McDowell (2007, p. 87) studied Latvian immigrants in the UK in the post-WWII reconstruction period and argues that hierarchies of whiteness are related to the demand for labor. Factors such as young age, lack of dependents, and middle-class social background made Latvian women workers more desirable in the eyes of the British state than their white Irish counterparts, despite their refugee status and differences in terms of language and religion. They enjoyed preferential treatment by their employers and by the British state, which regarded them as potential wives and mothers of the future generation of Britons. McDowell (2007) notes how this situation disrupted the long-established hierarchy of desirability for migrant labor in Britain. Refugees from Latvia, who were typically regarded by the British society as temporary migrants with few social rights and no citizenship rights, came to be highly desirable as laborers. Following them were the Irish economic migrants, with long traditions of migration to the UK, and New Commonwealth migrants, who were British citizens but, due to their skin color, were still regarded as ‘foreigners’ (Gilroy 1987). The importance of immigration status in making migrant workers in the US or the UK ‘less-than-fully-white’ (Roediger 2002, p. 22) or ‘in-between people’ (Roediger 2002, p. 34) is also discussed in the literature. Paul (1997, p. xii) explores the significance of whiteness in the UK post-war migration policy: Continental aliens were recruited from refugee camps to work in Britain’s basic industries. Irish citizens were encouraged to migrate to Britain and given all the privileges of citizenship despite their alien status. And colonial citizens migrating in search of work found that they were not wanted by their citizenship country. Different migration status means different access to legal and social rights. For example, while refugees had very few rights in general and no citizenship rights, Irish economic migrants were given rights of citizenship. Similarly, as part of the New Commonwealth, Caribbean immigrants migrated as British citizens. Southern and Eastern European immigrants in the early twentieth-century USA were treated as ‘in-between people’, but were usually allowed to be naturalized as ‘white’ citizens. Moreover, Asians were usually declared by the courts to be unambiguously ‘non white’ and therefore ‘unfit for citizenship’ (Roediger 2002, p. 145). Class is yet another dimension of the construction of whiteness. For example, Bonnett (2000) explores how the British working class became white in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. As he notes, ‘the working class ‘‘took up’’ whiteness from the available repertoire of colonial and hierarchical terms in ‘‘response to’’ the presence of non-white Britons’ (Bonnett 2000, p. 38). Bonnett argues that this

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process of whitening the British working class is closely related to the ‘formation of popularist imperialism’ and the ‘transition from liberal to welfare . . . capitalism’ (Bonnett 2000, p. 28). Similarly, the nature of the ‘in-between’ jobs also inhibited new immigrants to the USA from being considered fully white. Concentrated in the lowest levels of the American economy, European immigrants at the beginning of the twentieth century had to compete for jobs with African Americans. As Roediger (2002, p. 151) argues, the ways in which capital structured workplaces and labor markets contributed to the idea that competition should be both cutthroat and racialized. New immigrants suffered wage discrimination when compared to the white native-born. African Americans were paid less than immigrants for doing the same jobs. In the early twentieth century, employers preferred a labor force divided by race and national origin. This competition was designed ‘not only to undermine labor unity and depress wages in the long run but also to spur competition and boost productivity every day’ (Roediger 2002, p. 151). Some jobs, such as the blast furnace, were ‘Mexican jobs’ or pan-Slavic ‘hunky’ jobs and were, as one steel industry investigator was told, ‘too damn dirty and too damn hot for a white man’ (cited in Roediger 2002, p.151). Speculating about the future of ‘whiteness’, some commentators argue that in the current age of globalization and transnationalism, the concepts of ‘whiteness’ and ‘race’ lose their importance. For example, Crouch and Petterson, cited by Roediger (2002, p.7), argue that ‘the movement of immigrants, the demographics of intermarriage, and the global consumption of commodities associated with exotic others signal that ‘‘race’’ is over, or at least doomed’. However, concluding his essay on how the British working class became white, Bonnett (2000, p. 44) challenges this opinion and suggests that whiteness continues to be the main cause of inequalities between people today: Although the scale of contemporary reorganisation, and the emergence of socioeconomic gulfs comparable with those of Victorian Britain, may suggest the potential for movement within the symbolic constitution of whiteness, it is premature to announce the death of racialised welfare capitalism. Not unrelatedly, whiteness remains, at present, available as a mass identity. It is something claimed by, and claimed for, all European-heritage Britons. It may, one day, retreat back to an elite identity or, more hopefully, lose it connotative power and fade into insignificance. One day maybe, but not yet. The remainder of this article will show how Polish and Lithuanian migrants construct the concept of ‘whiteness’ through their relationships with other workers in the British labor market.

Studying Polish and Lithuanian Migrants in London This study is part of my PhD project on social practices of constructing ‘home’ among Polish and Lithuanian migrants in London. I chose to study Polish and Lithuanian

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migrants in order to explore which experiences these two groups of migrants share (both being ‘white’ East Europeans coming from new EU accession countries) and which experiences make them different. I studied how migrants make themselves feel at home in their immediate living and working environment as well as in wider British society. The thesis also considered their relationship with the home country while in the UK and after return. I used a mixed-methods approach by triangulating contextual/secondary data analysis with in depth interviews and ethnographic research. Between May 2006 and May 2007, I conducted 64 interviews with young (20–40 years of age) Polish and Lithuanian migrants in London and return migrants in Poland and in Lithuania. Interviews in London were conducted face to face in public spaces, such as cafe´s or parks, or in the interviewees’ homes. Interviews with return migrants were conducted over the phone. Most interviewees are in their twenties and early thirties. Given the age of my interviewees, it is not surprising that the majority of them are single and have no children. With regard to education, the majority have completed at least the first level of tertiary education. Most of the remaining group reported lower or higher secondary education or education at the post-secondary level but short of a degree. In spite of relatively high levels of education, a majority of my interviewees work in low-skilled occupations (e.g. in hospitality: waiter, kitchen porter, cashier, barista, and the like) and skilled trades (e.g. in construction: carpenter, welder, painter, and the like). However, some have secured highly skilled positions such as restaurant manager, receptionist, or office worker. As a Polish-Lithuanian student studying Polish and Lithuanian migration to the UK, I had the advantage of being an insider in each of these communities. This provided me with privileged, context-specific information over a long period of time as well as access to my respondents. The main ethnographic sites for my study included both formal and informal Polish and Lithuanian social venues (e.g. embassies, churches, and birthday parties). Observations from the ethnographic fieldwork were recorded in a research diary. Both Poles and Lithuanians resided in the UK long before the EU accession, but the first significant twentieth-century immigration wave from these countries to the UK took place in the period during and after WWII. Some 200,000 Polish soldiers came to the UK as part of the Anglo-Polish Alliance to fight for the Allied cause. Later, they brought their families and received major assistance from the British government in settling down in the UK, as they would not be returning to newly communist Poland. This assistance included the creation of a Polish Educational Committee, which was responsible for managing Polish primary and secondary schools as well as Polish universities in the UK. This and other initiatives (parishes, social, political, and professional organizations) resulted in the development of a strong Polish e´migre´ community (Friszke et al. 1999). Lithuanian migration to the UK during the post-war period originated from Displaced Persons’ camps (DPs), mainly from Germany. In 1952, the Lithuanian Association in the UK had 5,000 members (Bare˙nas 1978). A great proportion of them (as well as of Polish migrants) migrated further to Canada and the USA. Those who stayed did not manage to create long-lasting social, educational, or

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political structures within UK society as a whole. Cultural activity was concentrated in many small centers based in different towns and cities of the UK and consisted mostly of social gatherings and national celebrations. On this basis I argue that today, while Polish newcomers to the UK find an effectively operating ethnic infrastructure in this country, Lithuanians did not historically organize themselves within UK society. However, new Polish immigrants find it difficult to be accepted by the already existing Polish community in the UK. They face a dual adaptation, needing to adapt not only to the UK but also to the older-generation Poles and Lithuanians. Another reason for choosing these two groups of migrants is the similarities and differences between their home countries. First of all, they come from historically similar, but at the same time different, backgrounds. Poles and Lithuanians share a period of history known as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (fifteenth–sixteenth centuries) created from a successful union of these two countries. Their later history was less glamorous when Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, was inhabited by the Polish minority and later annexed by Poland (or freed from the Lithuanian rule, as most Poles interpret this event) in 1923. Although Lithuania later regained Vilnius, total trust between these two nations has never been re-established (Butkus 2008). As such, it is interesting to explore the relationships between Poles and Lithuanians abroad. Although there are some studies exploring migration from Eastern Europe to the UK in the 1990s (Duvell 2004), the interest in immigration from this part of the world increased remarkably after EU accession in May 2004. Since then, nationals of the eight East European countries (A8)1 can travel freely between the UK and their home country and take up employment in the UK. Although they are legally required to register with the Home Office once they start working in Britain, they do not need work permits. These conditions resulted in a significant increase in numbers of East European immigrants entering the UK. Between 1 May 2004 and 31 December 2008, a cumulative total of 965,000 applicants registered with the Worker Registration Scheme (WRS). The majority of applicants were Polish (66%), followed by Slovaks (11%), who have recently outnumbered Lithuanians (9%) (Home Office 2008). In January of 2007, two other East European countries (A2), Bulgaria and Romania, joined the EU. In contrast to the A8 nationals, Bulgarians and Romanians do not have free access to the British labor market and require work permits.

Attitudes Among the Settled Community In general, interviewees reported that British employers seem to favor East European workers over others because they view them as hard-working people. They are happy to find that, as one 27-year-old Polish hospitality worker, Eliza, explains, East Europeans earn their respect by preferring hard work to social benefits: One of my colleagues told me that his English colleague came and said: ‘Where are you from?’ ‘From Poland.’ ‘We like you very much.’ ‘Why?’ ‘For three reasons.’ I can’t remember all three, but he said: ‘First of all, because you are white and because you are hardworking’. I see that many people think that we are hardworking and don’t ruin their economy. They thought that if we came

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here, we would want their benefits . . . but only 20 something people applied for them. This quotation indicates that East European workers’ ‘whiteness’ provides an advantage for them over other non-European workers in the British labor market (see McDowell 2007). This has also been reiterated by the British press. For example, in the online magazine Suite101.com, Tilles writes that ‘although it is not politically correct to mention it, the fact that they are white, Christian Europeans also surely helps them avoid standing out and attracting hostility’ (cited in Cekalova 2008, p.3). However, the views expressed by employers to their workers should be treated with caution, as they may not accurately reflect their actual decisions regarding selection of the labor force. These decisions should be explored on the basis of interviews with employers rather than workers. From interviews with migrant workers it is, however, possible to infer that personal attributes such as skin color, gender, language, or appearance may be more significant in certain sectors than others. For example, these qualities are crucial in interactive work in the service sector, but less important in manual work in construction or cleaning. East European workers’ origins become associated with a particular work ethic, which British employers find especially agreeable. In a research project carried out by the University of Oxford, one employer notes that ‘the Poles have a strong work ethic, they are northern Europeans, they are Christians, their whole ethos – not to be racist – it’s a hard working culture that they come from’ (Anderson et al. 2006, p.78). East Europeans’ readiness to work long hours makes them highly popular among their British employers.2 However, the reference to ‘work ethic’ should be treated with caution when applied to migrant workers, as it is likely that what matters is migrants’ age and status as recent arrivals rather than being of a particular nationality. Anderson and Ruhs (2008) argue that the term ‘work ethic’ that is frequently used by employers to explain their preference for migrant labor compared to local workers is, in fact, ambiguous. Citing evidence from previous studies on labor migration, Anderson and Ruhs (2008, pp. 30–31) show that the term captures a range of factors reflecting employers’ ‘subjective needs and job requirements’ such as submissiveness, flexibility, or even a smaller size of family and social networks. Similarly, other researchers indicate that East European workers’ personalities and individual qualities are as important for British employers as their skills. Research conducted by Datta and Brickell (2009) on Polish construction workers in London also reveals that, according to the respondents, Polish builders have a ‘refined sense of aesthetic and taste’, which makes them superior to British workers. They are liked also because they are legal (therefore easily employable) and because they pay taxes, like the British workers. These characteristics help East European workers project what Datta and Brickell (2009) call an ‘image of themselves as excellent market actors, [who] have adapted to the new culture as mobile, flexible workers, and now demand full rights as European Union citizens’. In spite of these positive characteristics of East European migrants, interviews show that these migrants are not always treated on equal terms with other workers. My research suggests a number of cases where East European migrants feel discriminated against in the work environment. For example, Jason, a 30-year-old

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Polish waiter, tells a story about how he became deeply disappointed with his employer in a restaurant which he consequently left:

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I started to work as a waiter, after half a year I became a supervisor . . . then I worked as a manager, but . . . I never had the formal title of manager. The one who worked there before me did, and one who came after me did too. The general manager wanted to please everyone, he was not a boss with a firm hand. Jason worked hard and expected to be rewarded through promotion; this never happened, even though his predecessor and his successor, who had the same job description, had the title of manager. He believed this was because he was Polish, as opposed to his predecessor and successor, who were both British. A similar division of labor along ethnic lines was noted by McDowell et al. (2007) in their study on migrant workers in a London hotel. The researchers noted that managerial positions in the hotel were dominated by ‘migrants from developed nations, largely from western Europe, but also from southern Africa and North America’ (McDowell et al. 2007, p. 12). Jason refused to tolerate this unfair treatment and left the restaurant in which he worked. This is also an illustration of how East European migrants actively engage in creating their work experiences rather than passively tolerating an unsatisfying current situation. Interviews also show that British employers seem to demand more from East European workers than from British workers for the same reward. Migrants in construction frequently mention this, as they often feel constantly watched and nagged by their supervisors while their British colleagues are allowed to take a more relaxed approach to work. This notion is apparent in the interview with Graham, a 26-year-old Lithuanian returnee, who worked in a construction company in the UK but decided to return to Lithuania, where he opened his own construction business: They won’t tell you [anything bad], but simply, you do the same job with another Englishman and the English person works less, but gets the same respect, and you work more. And you, as they say, are equal. But if you didn’t work and it was the other way round, you would be fired. One has to work more to show off that they can do better than others, otherwise I wouldn’t have survived there, you know? I wouldn’t have achieved what I have achieved. Graham was a useful addition to the company for which he worked in the UK. He noticed that he was often sent to do the jobs that others could not do because they did not have the necessary skills. Nevertheless, he saw that the British employers did not appreciate him any more than the other workers. On the contrary, he felt that his employers ignored his efforts and treated him as an average worker. When he asked his employers to support his aspirations for studies in construction management, he was rejected. Graham realized that they only needed his labor and had no interest in supporting his development. Therefore, he moved back to Lithuania, where he is his own boss. Furthermore, other migrants notice that discrimination exists not only between migrant and British workers, but also between West European and East European migrant workers. Some interviews reveal that employees’ being East European rather than West European has a negative influence on the employer’s attitude towards them.

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Peter, a 26-year-old Lithuanian, who used to work in a bar but currently works as a company consultant, discusses this:

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Peter: You can tell by how I and the Albanian guy were treated compared to, for example, two Swedish girls. VP: Could you give an example? Peter: I don’t know, simply, how much attention they give [us and them], how much patience they have when they explain something to us [and them] . . . [Officially] it is not different, but it feels different. Peter noticed that his Swedish colleagues were treated better by his employer than him and his Albanian colleague. He concluded that this was a sign of British discrimination against East European migrants. The interviews do not reveal whether there was a difference between East and West European employees in terms of English language skills, which might have had an impact on their relationship with the employer. Lithuanian media reports suggest that people who are discriminated against or are exploited usually do not speak English (Lietuvos Rytas 2007). Other studies show that English skills are an important factor influencing migrants’ perceptions of British people or British perceptions of migrants and the likelihood of migrants mixing with them (Spencer et al. 2007). Peter also highlights that discrimination in the UK is subtle, a fact that is often repeated in the interviews where similar cases of differential treatment are reported. Discrimination is not expressed in the language used by the employer or in the responsibilities assigned, but is evident in his or her look, tone, and general attitude towards workers. However, it is necessary to acknowledge that the distinction between Swedes and Lithuanians discussed in this interview may also be based on gender. Further research is needed to explore this issue.

Negotiating Social Status In striving to be equal with the host working population, migrants employ certain strategies that help them to negotiate their social status in the host society, despite the fact that they may be employed in low-skilled jobs that are usually associated with a migrant rather than indigenous population. In his study of clerical workers, Lockwood (1958, pp. 15–16) called this ‘status situation’, i.e. one’s position in the hierarchy of prestige in the society at large. Interviews with cleaners who work in the private houses of their British employers further explore this concept. Working in private households makes some migrants feel that they can preserve their social status better because they are not exposed to the public eye. Susan, a 35-year-old Lithuanian woman who currently cleans private houses, describes her experiences when she used to work as a cleaner in a hotel: It was horrible [in the hotel], [the] first [few] times when I was walking with a big trolley . . . I was exhausted and was looking terrible, and I met people who had just signed in the hotel. At first this was very difficult, you know. The quotation reveals that Susan feels uncomfortable when she is seen by guests in her work uniform and covered with sweat in the hotel corridor where she believes

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she does not belong. Her experiences echo those described by McDowell et al. (2007, p. 19) in their study on migrant workers in a Greater London hotel. From the narratives from their interviewees, including Polish and Lithuanian women, the researchers conclude that,

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these types of jobs [housekeeping] are perhaps the closest of all the jobs in the hotel to the traditional servant class. Thus, the invisibility and femininity that characterize this type of work combine with pervasive notions of servitude to reinforce its low status in the hotel and its poor remuneration, reinforcing the view that these workers do not deserve dignity and respect. Susan resolved her status discomfort regarding her work by becoming a cleaner in private houses. The advantage of the new situation is that she works on her own, as her employers usually leave her alone to do the cleaning. In this way, as she points out, she preserves her dignity: ‘I wouldn’t like now anyone to watch me when I work, what I do. On the street nobody knows what I do’. Susan makes the distinction between the public space (a street), where she is perceived as an average Londoner, and the private space of her employers’ houses where she becomes a cleaner but is seen by no one. In spite of doing a low-skilled job, she avoids the humiliation she felt working in a hotel. On the other hand, the invisibility of domestic workers strengthens the difference between themselves and their employers. This division is noted by Anderson in her discussion of Filipino domestic workers in Europe: ‘Citizens, whether male or female, go out and participate in ‘‘society’’, and behind them are the ghostly, racialized figures of non-citizens, facilitating their participation, but also reproducing their social status’ (2001, p.7). In a previous work, she even uses the term ‘slavery of domestic work’ (Anderson 2000, p. 2), which approximates the status of a domestic worker to that of a slave. This ‘non-white’ status is achieved by low-status work, isolation, poor pay, lack of benefits associated with domestic work, or ‘asymmetrical’ relations between employers and domestic workers (Childress 1986; Romero 1992). In her book, Anderson (2000, p. 2) argues that ‘the domestic worker, whether ‘‘cleaner’’, ‘‘nanny’’, or ‘‘servant’’, is fulfilling a role, and crucial to that role is her reproduction of the female employer’s status (middle-class, non-laborer, clean) in contrast to herself (worker, degraded, dirty)’. Conscious of their low status as domestic workers and aware of their legal position as European citizens, East European domestic workers employ certain strategies that help them increase their social status from their individual point of view. One way in which the cleaners coped with post-migration changes of social status was by enlightening their employers about their ‘true’ identity and skills. For example, Ruth’s employers know that cleaning is not her main job; she is also a student in the UK and a professional in Lithuania. The 33-year-old Lithuanian woman suggests this changes their perception of her: I think . . . people, in whose houses I work, they all know my . . . I mean, what I did in Lithuania and that I study and what my plans are [to become a professional in London], and I think they view me differently than just a cleaner.

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A personal relationship with her employers allows Ruth to project an image of herself as a qualified individual who undertakes unskilled work in order to pay for courses that will eventually help her find a skilled position. This negotiation of her current social position in relation to her pre-migration occupation and qualifications illustrates the ‘transnational construction of class’ described by Eade et al. (2006, p. 13) in their study of Polish respondents in London. Ruth and other interviewees working as cleaners in private houses often talk about friendly conversations with their employers over a cup of coffee. This friendly relationship with employers makes workers in private houses different from those working in other sectors, such as construction, where interaction with employers and even colleagues is strategic (i.e. limited to the matters related to the job) rather than personal. During such conversations with their cleaners, employers express their interest in their cleaners’ lives beyond the workplace, which helps migrant women feel that they are perceived as individuals and even ‘friends’ rather than ‘servants’. These personalized relations and ‘non-work bonds of attachment that commonly and indeed often inevitably exist between employers and employees’ are typical of paid domestic service (Bakan & Stasiulis 1997, p. 10). In the cases of live-in domestic workers, these relationships are often described as making household workers like part of the family (Romero 1992). Further into the interview, Ruth reveals other advantages of working in private houses, such as having a unique opportunity to visit British homes and learn about the life of ‘wealthy’ British people from inside: VP: Ruth:

Did you experience any difficulties when you started working as a cleaner? No, I didn’t because I like those people at whose place I work, and through that work I can get to know people’s life better, which I wouldn’t have an opportunity for if I did something else.

By studying the material culture of British homes, Ruth learns more about the host society in general. This is often the only occasion for them to encounter ordinary domestic lives of British people. Other interviewees often describe how they regret not being able to visit British homes, either because they do not have British friends or they are not invited to their homes. From this point of view cleaners feel, to a certain extent, ‘privileged’ working in homes of the wealthy British middle class3 and view the situation as an opportunity to become included in the British society. This striving for inclusion in the middle class environment symbolizes the cleaners’ attempts to become ‘white’. In reality, however, the closer they come to observe the lifestyle of their employers, the more aware they become of their divergent positions in the hierarchies of class and racial ethnicity (Bakan & Stasiulis 1997). After all, they are required to do work that their employers themselves would never consider doing (Anderson 2000, p. 17). Similar to cleaners, some migrants working in hospitality or catering also negotiate their social status by emphasizing the high status places in which they work are open only for high status British people. Instead of focusing on the nature of work,

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migrants focus on providing catering services for high profile events which provides them with an opportunity to ‘take part’ in the life of the British elites. This is how Nick, a 26-year-old Lithuanian returnee, remembers his work in catering in London:

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I quite liked it because it was working for good companies, banquets, different state meetings, different events, music awards, all sorts of royal receptions and so on, I mean, for someone like me, a person who came from Lithuania, all this made a great impression . . . sometimes I would take part in events that were closed for the wider public. Nick is currently living in Lithuania, but he remembers working in catering with nostalgia because he had the rare opportunity to witness events that he would not have had access to in other circumstances. He also emphasizes the fact that he would never have had a similar opportunity to observe these world-class events if he had stayed in Lithuania, which contrasts the global experience of London with provincial life in Lithuania. Regardless of their current position in the British labor market, migrants often undertake additional education that will improve their chances of obtaining a desired job, which in turn will increase their social status. Therefore, some interviewees (eleven) entered British universities or enrolled on other professional courses, even though they previously may have graduated from a university in their home country. Data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) show that the number of students from new accession countries that joined the European Union (EU) in 2004 continues to rise. For example, the number of Polish students in British higher education institutions increased by 56% from 4,325 in 2005–2006 to 6,770 in 2006–2007 (HESA 2008). Similarly, the number of Lithuanian students in British higher education increased by 53% (HESA 2008). Cecilia, a 34-year-old Polish law graduate, describes the positive social status changes that were facilitated by her entering the British higher education: VP: Did you start feeling better after you graduated? Cecilia: Yes, definitely, I’m more self-confident now. I have noticed that if I tell people that I have graduated in law, they see this as something extraordinary . . . But my social status has increased . . . I feel better now because I have a job that is recognized in a sense, it’s a position of some kind that opens doors to the future. I feel part of the society because at my workplace I am among society. Having worked as a painter, decorator, and translator for several years in London, Cecilia decided to study law, and during her studies she started to work in a legal office. University education facilitated her access to high status positions and the middle class British society, which has increased her self-esteem and made her feel better and more ‘at home’ in the immigration country. In contrast to the experiences of domestic workers, migrants like Cecilia who are graduating from the British universities have a real opportunity to become visible, and therefore ‘white’, and work alongside their British colleagues.

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Relationship Between Polish and Lithuanian Migrants Apart from their contact with their British employers and colleagues, Polish and Lithuanian migrants also form relationships with their migrant colleagues. Polish and Lithuanian migrants are the two largest groups of East European post-accession migrants coming to the UK. They usually work in the same kind of sectors and do similar jobs, making them an excellent case study for migrant-to-migrant relations in the UK. Moreover, given historical tensions between the Polish and Lithuanian nations,4 it is important to investigate whether any traces of national tensions can be picked up in the attitudes of one group of these migrants towards the other. Interviews show that the historical antagonism among Poles and Lithuanians is diluted among the young generation. In migration circumstances, it is substituted by competition for jobs. Below, I will discuss how the construction of whiteness is mediated by social characteristics of East European workers such as nationality, English language skills, and length of stay in the UK. Lithuanian migrants regard Poles as more close-knit than their own community. This conclusion is often made on the basis of the perception that Polish migrants are involved in helping other Poles to find jobs. However, the solidarity among Polish migrants is not necessarily beneficial for other nationals such as Lithuanians because, as Poles help their co-ethnics to find employment, workers of other nationalities at the same workplace feel threatened that they will lose their employment, as pointed out by a 24-year-old Lithuanian returnee, Sophie, who used to work in a flower factory in the UK: Sophie: I worked with the English and Poles, so the English seemed even friendlier than Poles, they talked more than Poles, maybe it’s competition or something. ‘How did you get there if we wanted to get our friend or cousin employed here?’ VP: Do they actually ask this? Sophie: No, they don’t but they let you know, but communication is not very good, they have their own circle. In the quotation above, Sophie refers to the competition for jobs between Polish and Lithuanian migrants, most of whom work in the British labor market in the same sectors. A similar opinion is expressed by Luke, a 27-year-old Lithuanian entrepreneur: VP: Luke:

What have you heard about Poles? That there are very many people from Poland, that they work almost for free, that they take other people’s jobs. Those who work in construction say that they agree to work for a cheaper price and so take others’ jobs.

Luke’s rhetoric about Polish migrant workers echoes British construction workers’ opinion about migrant workers in general, who are believed to take their jobs because migrants do the same work for less than the British. This is more beneficial for the employers, but certainly not for the indigenous workers, who cannot afford to work for less because they are responsible for mortgages and families.

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Similar arguments about the negative impact of recent immigrants in the British labor market are heard from those East European migrants who have lived in the UK for longer. Derek, a 31-year-old Polish builder, is one of these workers, and he expresses his dissatisfaction with the fact that recent newcomers work for ‘cash in hand’ and do work of which they often have no experience: For example, students come or pseudo-construction workers who [e.g.] was a barber in Poland for the last 15 years and when he noticed that there was no work for him [in the UK], . . . he got into painting for £4/h or he paints a room not for £500, but for £150 because this will allow him to pay rent and he will survive the period [until he gets a better job]. But we work for a big construction company, it’s OK because it’s big sites so price is always the same because people like that [pseudo-construction workers] do not even dream about such jobs. For example, now we have a job worth £200,000 so Poles like four students for two months do not count . . . This group of construction workers [like us] needs to be treated differently than the pseudo-construction group. In this price range nothing changes because it’s not one person who talks to someone privately in the kitchen over a cup of coffee. It’s a contract between companies. Although the above quotation refers to the competition between Polish migrants, the attitudes expressed here can apply equally well to the competition between Poles and Lithuanians or between Eastern European migrants in general. According to Derek, there are two groups of construction workers: permanently employed professionals and ‘pseudo-construction workers’, who have never worked in construction but are desperate for money and look for any job in the sector for any wage. However, if migrants work for a solid construction company, as Derek does, they are not affected by the influx of pseudo-workers because their work and payment is protected by a contract and because the employer values their skills. This again resonates with British construction workers’ opinions of the migrant labor force in general. Competition between A8 workers themselves, as well as between East Europeans and the white settled population, has also been noted by other researchers such as Datta and Brickell (2009), Jordan (2002) and Grzymala-Kozlowska (2005). In their study on Polish migrants in London, Eade et al. (2006, p. 15) report that competition between migrants is especially an issue for male respondents in construction. It can lead to ‘inequality’ and ‘exploitation’ (Eade et al. 2006, p. 15). Even though some interviewees do not complain about the competition between Polish and Lithuanian workers, there is no sign of close, friendly relationships between these two groups of migrants. One of the main reasons is the presence of frequent problems with English among both Polish and Lithuanian workers, which prevents communication between the two groups. Edgar, a 28-year-old Lithuanian builder, provides his own illustration of this situation: Edgar: I really don’t like Poles. VP: Why? Edgar: They, I don’t know, there are many of them and they don’t speak English at all. I’ve asked them for a hammer once, a group of them was standing there, a..a . . . a, they talk to me in Polish, I say, but I don’t

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understand Polish, speak English or Russian, they still talk in Polish and that’s all. VP: So you can’t communicate? Edgar: No . . . The quotation vividly shows the communication barrier between Polish and Lithuanian nationals. Lithuanians can usually speak Russian, which is one of the Slavic languages, but not close enough to Polish to aid communication. Poles, on the other hand, do not usually speak Russian.5 English is the obvious solution, and when it is not spoken, no communication is possible. Lithuanians thus find it easier to communicate with Russian-speaking migrants (from Ukraine, Estonia, etc.), who often become their close friends, unlike Polish migrants. However, there are a couple of interviewees who suggest that language is not the only issue in Polish-Lithuanian communication. Through different historical backgrounds, these two nations developed different mentalities. Lithuanians feel that culturally Russians are closer to them than Poles because they have lived with this nation for a long period of time (during the Soviet Union). This is described by Richard, a 20-year-old Lithuanian returnee who used to work in a factory in the UK: [At work] there was another Lithuanian . . . and a Ukrainian . . . they are all people from our countries . . . from former Soviet Union so we are all similar and we find a common language. And Poles, they fit neither here nor there. They fit neither with the Westerners, nor with our group. They are on their own. Richard points to the fact that Lithuanians are culturally closer to other East European than to West European nations. Poland is in central Europe and therefore belongs to neither Western nor Eastern Europe.6 In fact, other migrants in the sample point out that Poles sometimes find a common language with Czechs and Slovaks, who are also Central Europeans and whose languages are similar enough to Polish to aid communication even when English is not spoken. This section shows that although there is no evidence of any historical tensions affecting the relationship between young Polish and Lithuanian migrants, these two groups do not usually mix, mostly because of the linguistic barrier. Instead, suspicion is raised by a sense of competition for jobs among East European migrants including co-ethnics in the British labor market.

Relationships with ‘Other’ Migrant Workers Apart from British people and East European migrants, those interviewed often worked with members of African and Asian communities. The biggest challenge for Polish and Lithuanian migrants in terms of contacts with other nationals comes from dealing with individuals they see as ‘black’. In London they find that it is easier to believe that one is tolerant when one is not physically faced with difference. Their tolerance is challenged when they find themselves working alongside black people.

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Roman, a 29-year-old Polish waiter, denies he is racist but nonetheless finds conclusive proof that ‘black’ people are lazy:

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I was wondering because in most cases I form my opinions on the basis of what I see. So, if, for example, I see that I have whites and blacks at work and I see that, for example, blacks don’t want to work, and I see this day after day, so what opinion I can form about this? Most East European migrants come to the UK without any prior experience of the black community and bring with them preconceived racial prejudices. This is why they find it difficult to change their opinion and in the interviews often repeated that black people were lazy. Similar negative attitudes towards non-white co-workers were noted by McDowell et al. (2007, p. 20) in their interviews with East European hotel workers in London. Special attention in the interviews is also devoted to the situations when interviewees have black supervisors. This sometimes leads to tensions and demonstrations of power, as interviewees find it uncomfortable to be given orders by black people whom they often consider inferior. An illustration of this is provided by a 23-year-old Lithuanian bartender, Barbara: I am not submissive enough to my new manager [a black woman]. She’s not very friendly and so nothing goes well. She asked me yesterday: ‘Are you off tomorrow? Can you work?’ I said ‘No’. [she asked] ‘Why?’ I smiled. [she asked] ‘I am asking you why?’ I said, ‘It’s very personal.’ She got upset and left. The quotation captures Barbara’s attitude towards her new manager. She finds it difficult to be submissive to a black supervisor. Therefore, when a situation arises where her contract does not require her to be submissive (i.e. agree to work on a day off), she takes advantage of the opportunity to tease her manager. She is a legal European worker now, so she feels able to resist her manager’s pressure. Before the EU accession, when many East Europeans were illegal, they were completely submissive and silent. With EU accession, East European migrants became more confident in demanding fair treatment. In their study on migrant workers in the hotel industry in London, McDowell et al. (2007, p. 16) found that managers regarded Polish employees as generally ‘more aggressive than compliant Vietnamese workers’. Similarly, the Polish and Lithuanian press report a number of cases when new accession nationals take their British employers to court for violation of their workers’ rights (Kadłuczka 2007). Coming from ethnically and racially homogeneous societies,7 Polish and Lithuanian migrants are struck by the variety of cultures in London and feel unprepared to deal with this in the work environment. Their surprise is expressed in the interviews in the form of strongly racial language. For example, Laura and Frank, a Lithuanian couple in their early twenties, do not hide their disapproval of the racially mixed families: Laura: I don’t like this variety [of cultures], I must admit. I am not a racist, but I think there are much too much . . . too many different mixtures. Here goes a white girl with a black guy and a hybrid child . . .

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Frank: It’s quite horrible actually. I work with a Pole, and after half a year we learnt that his wife was black. I said: ‘Show me a photo’. He showed it and I said: ‘Wait, how old is she?’ ‘39.’ ‘And you are 29?’ So what’s the color of your baby? He said: ‘Mulatto’. ‘Show me a photo.’ He did and I said: ‘But he’s black, not mulatto, purely black. Why do you pretend that he’s mulatto?’ He was very angry. I said: ‘What did you do? Laura works in a cafe´, and most of her experience with black people comes from dealing with colleagues and customers. Frank, on the other hand, is a carpenter, and most of his experience with black people comes from the construction site. The manner with which Laura and Frank describe their attitudes towards black people, as well as the implied disapproval against the two races mixing with each other, points to extreme racism. This is one of the most racist quotations among all of the interviews with migrants. This negative attitude may be partially related to the fact that Laura and Frank come from a rather provincial town in Lithuania. Interviewees from larger cities and capitals of Poland and Lithuania are usually less racist in their language, just as more educated migrants use less racist language than less educated ones. In the study on Polish migrants in London conducted by the Center for Research on Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Multiculturalism (CRONEM), racist views featured in the narratives of about one-third of the respondents (Eade et al. 2006). According to the researchers interpreting the results, Polish migrants use racist language to reaffirm their whiteness, which is their ticket to the membership in the dominant English group, which also occupies higher social class (Eade et al. 2006). My interviewees share this view and, being European workers, as McDowell et al. (2007, p. 20) note, ‘expect to find that their white skins bring associated advantages in the labor market’. When reading interviewees’ accounts of their first impression of London, it becomes clear that many of them experienced a culture shock. It takes time to get to know other cultures around them and to get rid of prejudices or conceal them. Other studies suggest that migrant attitudes towards ethnic minorities change as a result of personal contacts (Spencer et al. 2007). Datta (2009) argues that East European attitudes towards others are constructed on the basis of two contradictory factors: their marginalization resulting from their lack of English, which leads to a lack of access to cultural capital; and their empowerment resulting from their legal status. Some East Europeans do not get used to the multicultural environment at all and prefer to return to their home country where the society is homogeneous. This is explained by 26-year-old Nick, who returned to Lithuania after three years of working in catering in London: VP: Nick: VP: Nick:

How did you like multiculturalism in London? Not too much. I didn’t feel good among all those people of different colors. I personally didn’t like this. Do you like it better in Lithuania? Yes, in Lithuania, I don’t know, in Lithuania people are all white, normal, simple, I don’t know, as I said, many colors. I’m not a fan of it. Too many people from different countries, different religions, with different misunderstandings.

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Nick found it difficult to adapt to a society so different from his own, so he decided to leave. One of the conclusions that Nick drew from his life in London is that in a multicultural society there are more conflicts than in an ethnically homogeneous one. It is, however, highly possible that this was not the main reason for his return, given his low social status in the UK and the opportunities for an increased social status in returning to Lithuania. Other interviewees learn to deal with their prejudices, and although they do not necessarily like living and working with other races, they treat it as a compromise they have to make in order to reach their goals in London. This approach is taken by George, a 26-year-old Lithuanian meter reader and entrepreneur:

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I don’t like all this blackness [juodulynas in Lithuanian] and so on, but we still live here from our own free will. Nobody forces us to be here. George does not hide his negative attitudes towards black people, but he realizes that he is also an immigrant and decides to simply tolerate it. Datta (2009) describes this attitude using Werbner’s (1999) term of ‘working class cosmopolitanism’, defined by a person being ‘open to difference neither as an ethicopolitical project, nor as conscious choice, but as a practical orientation towards ‘‘getting by’’ – one that requires a strategic engagement with others through coerced choices in order to survive in new environments’ (Datta 2009, p. 353). However, on the basis of experiences and narratives of Polish construction workers in London, Datta (2009) argues against a strict division between working class and elite cosmopolitanism. Even though they are working class, Polish construction workers also show signs of the cultural consumption of ‘others’ that is usually attributed to elites. Apart from black people, Polish and Lithuanian migrants appear to be prejudiced against Muslim immigrants such as Arabs, Turks, and Albanians. Female interviewees often make negative comments about these groups because of the subordinate way in which they feel that these people treat women. This point is made by a 27-year-old Polish hospitality worker, Eliza: Turks, Albanians, I had problems with Albanians. My [female] friend exchanged a couple of words with an Albanian guy and he already wanted to marry her . . . and then he threatened that he would kill her, he could not believe that a woman said no to him . . . He threatened us that he would put our house on fire, so I will tell you that I don’t want to have anything to do with Albanians any more in my life . . . Similar opinions are expressed about Arab and Turkish colleagues who, according to the interviewees, find it difficult to tolerate non-submissive women. A working team that comprises East European women and Muslim men can thus be considered ‘a bomb which will eventually explode’, as explained by a 25-year-old Polish waitress. The conflicts become even more difficult to control when these Muslim male workers are supervised by East European women (usually in hospitality). One such case is described by a 23-year-old Lithuanian woman, Laura, who works as a supervisor in a cafe´ where employees come from different countries, including one man from Algeria: There is a mixed team in our cafe´ and one man from Algeria, one Arab . . . We didn’t get along from the very beginning, we fought a lot because he didn’t like

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me and I didn’t like him. I had to teach him how to make coffee . . . If you tell him anything, for example, ‘You did this wrong’, he fires . . . I tell him: ‘Go outside and cool off’. But now he obeys me, he told me to bugger off once, but I told him that ‘I’m like a manager here, when the manager is not around, I’m the manager’ so he had to apologize. The quotation illustrates how Laura negotiates power relations with her Algerian colleague who, she believes, finds it difficult to be in a subordinate position to a female supervisor. In her research on work practices in a fast food outlet, Newman (1999) found that young male workers, especially those of the working class, generally found it difficult to accept a position of deference and servility in a workplace, which is typically associated with femininity (cited in McDowell et al. 2007, p. 19). The interviews also reveal especially frequent negative comments made by both male and female interviewees concerning Turkish, Arab, and Indian employers. They are presented as exploiting other migrants by employing people illegally, paying low wages, and forcing them to work long hours. An illustration of what happens when a migrant’s relationship with employers is not legally binding is provided by a 26-year-old Pole, Ian, who worked for a Moroccan employer: The job wasn’t registered . . . I worked 70 hours a week. I was supposed to be a waiter, but the Moroccan said that for now I would be a training manager. I did everything there from washing pots, to cleaning . . . Later he told me that he was going to pay me £130/week so you can calculate how much it was per hour. I had no choice, had to stay because I had no time, job or money. Ian worked for an employer who owned a restaurant. It was a bad experience because it involved doing everything as opposed to having a clear set of responsibilities detailed in the employment contract. First, Ian was employed to work in a restaurant, but when his employer was building another restaurant next to it, Ian was told to help construction workers as well. When he got sick and could not work, he was refused sick pay. After five weeks, Ian left. Since then, he distrusts Arab employers and would never work for one again. A problem that should actually be attributed to the person being an employer is here attributed to them being Moroccan. Employers who employ workers illegally are generally regarded by interviewees as cheaters and exploiters and therefore should be avoided. It is interesting to note that similar prejudices against nationals from Muslim countries are reported by opinion polls from Poland and Lithuania.8 This suggests that the respondents of the study have imported certain attitudes towards other nationals from their home countries. Similarly, a very bad opinion about Indian employers was also reported by Polish construction workers in Datta and Brickell’s (2009) study. According to interviewees in their study, the best employers are English, while the worst are Indian, followed by Polish. However, interviews show that migrants’ attitudes towards black and other migrant workers change over time as they become more familiar with other cultures and more used to living in a multicultural environment. For example, a 28-year-old Lithuanian, Andrea, who works as a manager in a fast food restaurant, admits that she was prejudiced toward other ethnicities when she first came to London, but after

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working with people from different parts of the world, she successfully overcame her prejudices:

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VP: How do you find working with other ethnicities? Andrea: I’m telling you . . . I acquired the understanding, I mean, that [it doesn’t matter whether they are] Indian or Black people, perhaps because they were my co-workers. I have a good relationship with all of them and I have no problems with that. I started to look at a person like a human being, not seeing their color or where they are from. The quotation clearly shows that exposure to different ethnicities at work can have a positive long-term effect on migrants from Eastern Europe. Having close contacts with an international team of co-workers on a daily basis results in migrants learning to treat others on equal terms, regardless of their skin color. Moreover, through work they discover commonalities with other migrant workers. For example, Peter, a company consultant, who previously worked in a bar (quoted above), found that both he and his Albanian colleague were discriminated against by his employer because he believed that they both were Eastern Europeans.

Conclusion In his discussion on social class, Lockwood (1958) rightly notes that ‘market situation’, i.e. income, upward mobility opportunities, job security, etc., alone cannot explain industrial behavior and attitudes. It is necessary to pay attention to particular features of particular waged work and especially to social relations in which a person is involved by virtue of their position in the division of labor. This article intended to explore East European migrants’ ‘work situation’ and the ways in which migrants’ social relations are shaped by their construction of ‘whiteness’. The literature tells us that ‘whiteness’ is socially constructed and is not simply about some notion of objective ‘skin color’. However, East European interviewees attempt to reconstruct whiteness in accordance with skin color in order to bolster their position in a racially defined host society. This process is impacted not only by immigration controls that favor ‘white’ East Europeans, but also by public discourse, which is increasingly hostile to migrants, including East Europeans. According to my East European interviewees, migration to London resulted in a specific set of experiences whereby they found themselves surrounded by greater racial and ethnic diversity than they had previously encountered. These circumstances forced them to reconsider and redefine their identity, and they found that their skin color matters more in English society than their nationality. Through distinguishing themselves from other migrant workers on the basis of skin color, they presented themselves as members of the white majority of the receiving population, which put them in a dominant or power position in relation to other migrant groups. As Dyer (1997, p. 45) notes, whiteness ‘represents goodness and all that is benign and non-threatening’. The urge to reaffirm this position sometimes leads East European migrants to exhibit racist behavior and remarks. My interviewees’ ‘whiteness’ is closely related to their European identity. Being European makes Polish and Lithuanian migrants similar to the indigenous British

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population in terms of culture and religion. However, despite the widely spread ‘myth of homogeneity’ of white people in Britain (Hickman & Walter 1995), not all white workers there enjoy equally ‘powerful’ positions, especially if they are immigrants. Many migrants are stuck in the lowest sectors of the British economy or in what my interviewees call ‘black jobs’. It is precisely in these low levels of the economy that a strong competition for jobs becomes visible not only between migrants themselves, but also between those settled and the recent newcomers, as well as between the indigenous workers and the arrivals. Competition in low-waged labor markets becomes especially strong at the time of an economic recession and is accompanied by increased nationalism and racism. My study argues that migrants’ social relations at work are strongly mediated by their legal status of EU citizens. Social and labor rights accorded to newcomers constitute a powerful marker of difference (Paul 1997). The EU enlargement provided East Europeans with self-confidence and choices, in contrast to other migrants whose freedom of action was limited by visas and work permits. My research shows ways in which East European women, unlike their counterparts coming from Asia and Africa, take advantage of their European status in order to demand fair treatment, increase their social status, and improve their career opportunities. Some researchers argue for the existence of a ‘hierarchy of desirability’ of immigrant workers in the UK based not only on skin color, but also on qualities such as age, education, and family status (McDowell 2007, p. 88). My study partially confirms these findings as young, single, and relatively well-educated East European migrants are favorably received by the British society, which values their ‘work ethic’ and the low percentage of them claiming social benefits. This, however, is likely to change as migrants have families and the British economy slides into recession. Therefore, further research is needed to address such a change.

Notes 1 2 3

4

5 6

A8 refers to countries that joined the EU in 2007 (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Slovenia). For further discussion on East European migrants’ work ethic see Ruhs 2006; McDowell 2007; and McDowell et al. 2007. ‘Wealthy British middle class’ refers here to the migrants’ perception of their British employers, who can afford to employ domestic workers. This social class, which is here viewed as homogeneous, is, in fact, stratified between different levels of income, education, and lifestyles. A recent opinion poll carried out in Poland shows that in general Poles do not like their Eastern neighbors, although they like Lithuanians more than other East Europeans (e.g. Belarusians) (CBOS, 2007). Lithuanians (53%), on the other hand, consider Poland the second most friendly country to Lithuania (Ramonaite˙ et al. 2006). This is due to the fact that Poland was not part of the Soviet Union, whereas Lithuania was. This reconfiguration of Poland as part of central Europe is a matter of perspective and different from British views, which see Poland as East European.

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Similarly, while officially Lithuania is usually classified as Central European, the public discourse in the UK often treats it as East European, associating it with part of the former Soviet block. It is the perception of the interviewees, although it may also be heard in the public discourse in Poland and in Lithuania, that societies in these two countries are ethnically homogeneous. In fact, there are significant ethnic minorities living in both countries. According to the public opinion poll CBOS (2007), 50% of Poles declare a dislike towards Arabs. An opinion poll conducted on behalf of the Institute of Civic Society (Pilietines Visuomenes Institutas) (Ramonaite˙ et al. 2006) in Lithuania shows that Lithuanians consider Turkey (0.3%), Iraq (0.0%), Iran (0.0%), and Afghanistan (0.0%) the least friendly countries for Lithuania.

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