Feeling at home in time: Polish migrant families in Manchester

This thesis investigates the workings of belonging to explore the concept’s inherently temporal nature. Through in-depth qualitative case studies of ten Polish families who have moved to Manchester since the 2004 European Union enlargement, time is revealed as a prominent theme in the search for belonging. While the field of migration studies tends to portray migrant belonging as a simple linear accumulation, my study focuses on the more nuanced and complex way in which my participants’ relationship with time as a subjective, relational and lived experience of space has impacted on their migration stories. Time-space is prominent in their tales of searching for belonging as the Polish migrant families make the decision to leave their home country, make their new homes in Britain and face the decision whether to return or remain. By exploring the way in which homely time-spaces are (re)created, negotiated, and interpreted, I highlight the significant role of a temporal framework in understanding migrant belonging.