PAR Migration Navigator was a non-commercial research project that aims to analyze processes unfolding at the crossroads of two cultures: Polish & Norwegian. In our research carried out between 2013-2016 we investigated how the similarities and differences between Polish and Norwegian societies influence the lives of individuals and couples who migrate between these two countries. The project partners were:
– University of Gdańsk (Project promoter),
– Institute of Psychology of the Polish Academy of Sciences,
– Centre for Intercultural Communication (SIK), Stavanger Norway,
– International Research Institute of Stavanger (IRIS),
– University of Stavanger (UiS), Norway
These five institutions in Poland and Norway have established an international scientific consortium coordinating the 3-year project PAR Migration Navigator (WLB_GE). Its full title is Socio-cultural and Psychological Predictors of Work-Life Balance and Gender Equality – Cross-Cultural Comparison of Polish and Norwegian Families. Our project is divided into five main work packages, each coordinated by different institutions and covering various scientific goals and methodologies.
Longitudinal in-depth interviews, joint and individual, coordinated by Magdalena Żadkowska from the University of Gdańsk (Poland), focused on everyday practices and rites. Its main goals was to recognize patterns of balancing work and life and to understand the process of migrant couples’ integration while reaching some milestones of life, such as the birth of a child, starting a new job, or maternity/paternity leave.
The longitudinal psychological part was managed by Kuba Kryś from the Institute of Psychology at the Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland) and aimed to explore the mechanisms of change in attitudes that highly differentiate Polish and Norwegian societies and may lead to problems during the acculturation process.
Psychological experiments were coordinated by Natasza Kosakowska-Berezecka from the University of Gdańsk and highlighted issues such as cross-cultural comparisons between Poland and Norway, and cultural clues in supporting work-life balance.
Studies on the conceptualization of childhood and parenthood were managed by the Norwegian team from the Centre for Intercultural Communication and were coordinated by Øystein Lund Johannessen. The main aim of this study was to gain new knowledge about how acculturation and adaptation to daily life and work in Norway influence parenthood practices. Other key-points were world views, attitudes and norms influencing migrating couples’ parenting styles and practices. The main methodological approach adopted in this sub-project was semi-structured interviews with Polish parents living and working in Norway.
The encounter and interaction between migrants and the public sector wass the focus of research for the International Research Institute of Stavanger and Gunn Vedøy. The aim of these studies was to explore how municipal public services in Norway, particularly the healthcare and education sector, met the needs of Polish migrants. In addition we askedd how values of gender and work life balance were addressed by the migrants’ employers and by public servants, and how these values were understood and adapted by Polish migrants. In this subproject the methods used were document studies and interviews with Polish couples and with public servants and official representatives of three municipalities in the county of Rogaland, Norway.
This project was funded by Norway Grants in the Polish-Norwegian Research Programme, operated by the National Centre for Research and Development in Poland. Our project (acronym WLB_GE) was highly ranked – 2nd place among all the projects funded within Core Call 2012.
See more on the project’s website.