Rethinking settlement and integration (Migrants' anchoring in an age of insecurity)

Rethinking settlement and integration argues that concepts well-established in migration studies such as ‘settlement’ and ‘integration’ do not sufficiently capture the features of adaptation and settling of contemporary migrants. Instead, Grzymala-Kazlowska proposes the integrative and transdisciplinary concept of 'anchoring', linking the notions of identity, adaptation and settling while underlining migrants’ efforts at recovering their feeling of security and stability.

Drawing on in-depth interviews and questionnaires with Polish migrants in the United Kingdom and Ukrainian migrants in Poland, ethnographic and autobiographical research as well as the analysis of texts from internet forums and blogs, this monograph demonstrates the applications of the author’s original concept of 'anchoring', and its foregrounding of the combination of sociological and psychological perspectives. Rethinking settlement and integration aims not only to examine the processes of adaptation and settling among today’s migrants, but highlights practical implications to better support individuals facing changes and challenges in new, complex and fluid societies.