'And everything is Polish': narrative experiences of 'new' migrants

The last three decades of sociolinguistic research into multilingualism and migration have brought forth a considerable body of work in the discipline. Within the context of Great Britain, the majority of studies have focused on large and well-established communities such as those of South Asian or Caribbean descent, and those in large urban centres such as London or Birmingham (Edwards, 1986; Rampton, 1995; Sebba, 1993; Rasinger, 2007). Comparatively little work has looked at migrant communities which have emerged relatively recently, and those outside large conurbations. This article aims at closing this gap by providing an analysis of how “new” migrants – those from the new European Union member states and other former Eastern Bloc countries – experience their lives in the university city of Cambridge, UK. In particular, using personal narratives, I seek to address how four migrants construct their own identities and that of others, in order to portray them as salient individuals, rather than simply parts of a homogenous group.