Intimate Migrations Presentation Presented by Francesca Stella 7 Dec 2015, University of Glasgow Languages, Refugees & Migration Event

1. The language of the heart? East European
LGB migrants talking about sexuality
Francesca Stella, Moya Flynn & Anna
Gawlewicz
Language, Refugees and Migration seminar
University of Glasgow
7 December 2015

2. Introduction
• ‘Intimate Migrations:
exploring the
experiences of LGB
migrants from Eastern
Europe and the FSU in
Scotland’ (Dec 2015-
Dec 2016)
• Fieldwork: ongoing
• Focus: on researching
multilingually

3. Research questions and aims:
• What are the reasons why LGB
people from CEE and FSU migrate
to/settle in Scotland? (different
institutional contexts)
• How are individual experiences of
migration and resettlement shaped
by LGB migrants’ sexuality as well as
e.g. socio-economic background,
gender, nationality, migrant status,
age? [Intersectional perspective]
• How do LGB migrants negotiate their
sense of security and belonging
through their social networks across
Scotland and their home country?
[Intersectional perspective on social
ties and belonging]

4. Stages of the project:
Stage 1: 45-50 biographical
interviews
& sociograms (33 to date)
Stage 2: 20-25 photo diaries
& follow-up interviews
(9 to date)
Research methods: both verbal
and non-verbal

5. Language in research
• Starting point: Language as research tool
(practicalities), key to epistemology/methodology
underpinning project
• Interviewing people in their first language (more
sensitive); better, more nuanced data
• Focus of today’s paper: how language shapes
research process
– design
– recruitment
– interview interaction
– transcription/translation
– analysis

6. Language, research design and
recruitment
• Definitions:
– Why CEE? Why FSU?
– Why LGB?
• Practicalities: language
skills
(Polish/Russian/English)
• How this may impact on
recruitment?
– Complexities
– Limitations

7. The research encounter
• Positionality:
–Shared cultural/linguistic context
–Sexuality and shared
context/misrecognitions? (Krzysztof, 47, PL;
Tsveta, 40, BL)
• Linguistic integrity:
• Native language/English as empowering?
• Doing interviews in English: lost nuances?
More stark/‘dramatic’ narratives? (Blagoy, 33,
BL)
• Non-verbal communication (visual methods)

8. Positionality: shared context/language
Tomek, 37, PL (interviewed in English for pilot, and in Polish for main study):
“I arrange this interview, as well as the interview with Piotr, via emails with Tomek only (Piotr remains
silent in this email exchanges). This is interesting given that during the pilot study Francesca would
mostly contact and speak with Piotr whose English is much better. It seems that Tomek feels
empowered by the fact that we conduct the study in Polish. I have the impression that he feels he can
finally speak for himself and this motivates him to be more engaged. Throughout the interview Tomek
is very self-reflexive. He produces extremely long narratives comprising separate stories (he recalls
many memories) and it often takes him several minutes to address each of my questions.”
Agnieszka, 38, PL (Interviewed in English):
“She has been in Scotland for 10 years, and has picked up the Scottish accent (e.g. the way she uses
and pronounces ‘all right’?). She is very fluent and competent in English. She tells me before we start
the interview that this is the first time she speaks about her sexuality at length; from the interview it
emerges that she is from a small village, and when she moved to a bigger place to train as a social
worker she was very secretive about her lesbian relationship. Agnieszka never expressed a preference
for being interviewed in Polish or English; I wonder how different the interview would be if it was
conducted in Polish, or if, because of her experiences, she actually finds it easier to talk about this in
English. She feels much freer, and much more protected in Scotland” [She also mentions negative
attitudes towards LGBT people among Polish migrants]

9. Positionality: sexuality and mis-
recognitions
• And, public toilets of course! Debenhams (?) on
Argyle Street.
• I live nearby.
• Yeah, go there. Well, you can’t because they’re
gents’ toilets. I don’t know how it works for
women. Are you a lesbian?
• No. [he interrupts]
• Wait! [he is very surprised] And you know how
this works among men? [I nod] You know what it
means when I say pikieta or cruising? You know
the vocabulary? How come?
• Yes. I’ve got friends. Plus, that’s what I do – as a
researcher – I’m very interested in this issue.
• OK.
(Krzysztof, 47, PL)
• I told him “I’m poly, it’s nothing wro-, there’s nothing
wrong with this. I want to live this way and… I want to
tell you everything but… this is who I am. If you want
to stay you, it means you have to accept who I am”
and he said “yes, I’m staying and poly’s fine” and, so
yeah.
• Okay, yeah, and you keep saying, you know, you’re
poly, so is the important thing to you, is it being poly
or is it being bisexual? What’s more..?
• They’re equal. [Long pause] It absolutely doesn’t
matter to me what the gender the person I connect to
is. As long as it’s… as long as they get me and I feel
connection then that’s it, that’s all [pause]. And
(sighs)! [Pause] Andrea Zanin, the girl whose writing I
started reading first, she was genderqueer and she
[pause], […] It was not something unnatural just
because I had been conditioned and programmed to
only fall for men up to that point, and out of a sudden
I allow myself to look at women, and… it just
happened so automatically and so naturally and so - it
was no difference. I don’t have better language to
describe it.
(Tsveta, 40, BL)

10. Translation/transcription
• Multiligual team, multilingual participants:
throws up a lot of issues around ‘linguistic
integrity’ lost in translation
• Translating nuances Polish>English
– Chlopak: Boy/boyfriend
– Cultural references (e.g. quotes from films)
– Polish LGBT slang (lost in process?)
• Nuances already lost in Russian interviews?
(different levels of fluency/shared subtext)
• ‘Levelling’ effect of English as shared language

11. Analysis
• Language, how this shapes communication,
belonging and social networks
• Unpacking language and emotions: what does it
mean (in relation to our research questions)?
– Reasons for migrating/staying
– Belonging/identity, and social networks
– Important to think beyond sexuality

12. Unpacking emotional language and
dis/identifications• Iza and I were attacked once. And, I’d been carrying a pocket knife ever since.
People saw that – nobody did anything. It was evident that the reason was
homophobia. We were coming back from a party… and a guy attacked at the
subway station. Nobody helped us. The security guard shook hands with him
later on. I felt my own country spat on me that very moment [PL: opluta przez
własne państwo].
• […] I used to think that I was a patriot… that Poland was important for me… that
is was more than national symbols. But this country has, I’ll use an ugly
expression, fucked me up [PL: wydymał mnie]. It has fucked my family up. And,
it still does so. That’s why my parents have [financial] problems. That’s why by
brother’s coming here [to the UK]. […] And, I thought that it was our fault – that
we weren’t clever enough, that maybe we’re not educated enough… No. It’s the
country – it’s fucked us up. The system is as it is… I’ve got no doubts that it’ll
collapse [PL: upadnie]. If it’s governed the way it is now… it’ll collapse. And, I
don’t know if I cry when that happens. I mean… I will… but… You ask about home
– I know where my home is. It’s in Mazovia […]. It’s difficult to live there. I made
an effort… when I was in Poland I made a conscious effort not to tell my parents
how nice things were here… I wouldn’t want them to think that my head got
messed up [PL: że w dupie mi się poprzewracało] because I migrated. I know how
painful that is.

13. Emerging themes related to
language?
• Language
– And belonging
– And experiences of settlement
– And methodological issues
– And sexuality
– And social networks
– Terms in English
– Terms in native language
– Language and emotions
– Discrimination and language

14. Thank you!
www.intimatemigrations.net