(Im)mobility Patterns among Polish Unemployed Migrants in Iceland Navigating Different Welfare Regimes

Based on fieldwork among unemployed Polish migrants in Iceland, this chapter examines how they negotiate and adapt to the social risks and changing circumstances encountered in the countries of emigration and immigration as well as how they navigate the available ‘resource environments’ emerging in conjunction with different welfare regimes. We particularly look at the European Union (EU) regulations for social-security protection vis-à-vis national welfare-protection policies on unemployment in Iceland and Poland and their possible ramifications for the mobility and immobility of Polish workers. Furthermore, we highlight some problematic interactions between the internationalisation of the labour market and concomitant transnational livelihoods, EU social policy and the welfare-assistance environment of member states. In so doing, we apply a critical approach to the commonly assumed high flexibility and extensive geographical mobility of migrant workers that tends to overlook counterfactors that influence different forms of immobility.