ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the roles of consumption and material culture in rooting the lives of recent Polish migrants in London and the Midlands. The importance of food for migrant experiences and identities exemplifies a much wider connection between consumption and material culture and social, cultural, economic and even political processes. The chapter seeks to add to migration researchers debates by bringing together two separate projects on the materiality of recent Polish migration. Firstly it draws on in-depth interviews undertaken by Burrell with ten post accession migrants across the Midlands region, as part a larger historical study also considering Polish migration to the area during and immediately after socialism. Secondly, Rabikowska's research focuses specifically on different types of shops selling Polish food in London an in-depth ethnographic study incorporating twenty interviews with Polish immigrants living in London, and eight with shop owners, undertaken between January 2006 and December 2007.
