Publications
Jendrzey, Katarzyna (2025): Representation of migrating mothers in children’s and young adult literature on transnational families. Families, Relationships and Societies, 14(1), 8-25. https://doi.org/10.1332/20467435Y2024D000000042
Abstract: This analysis examines literary representations of migrating mothers in seven Polish children’s and young adult books on transnational families, evaluated through grounded theory. While media discourse oversimplifies migration as a deviation from the normative ideal of the present mother, resulting in the deprecating label ‘Euro-orphans’, literary depictions offer a more nuanced perspective. The study identifies three distinct types of mothers – ‘deviant’, ‘incomplete’ and ‘complete’ – with migration portrayed as a juncture in family life that challenges their maternal status. The narratives reveal different family trajectories and obstacles while offering nuanced portrayals of mothers, including their biographies and character traits. Ultimately, however, they reinforce conventional norms of ‘good’ motherhood by portraying transnational family and motherhood as deviations from the norm. Nonetheless, the narratives acknowledge children’s active roles in co-shaping their family arrangements and the evolving status of the ‘good’ mother, emphasising that children are not merely victims of their circumstances.
Schwittek, Jessica/König, Alexandra/Ducu, Viorela (2025): Living apart together: growing up in transnational families. Families, Relationships and Societies, 14(1), 2-7. https://doi.org/10.1332/20467435Y2024D000000053
König, Alexandra/Schwittek, Jessica/Jendrzey, Katarzyna (2024): “Good childhood”: children’s perception and evaluation of transnational families. Frontiers, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2024.1470541
Abstract: In public debates, transnational families are portrayed as a deviation from the norm of “good childhood.” In Europe, this is emphasized by the term “Euro-orphans,” branding parents’ (especially mothers’) absence as a violation and scandalizing it. Children’s voices are rarely heard in public discourse, and although research is now turning its attention to the “stayer children,” they and their perspectives on transnational family life remain underrepresented, especially in Europe. In a German-Polish project, we investigate how children perceive and evaluate transnational family life based on 27 group discussions with 12-14-year-olds (with and without own transnational family experience) in Poland. The analysis shows that (1) the presence of parents is central to the normative pattern of a good childhood from children’s perspective, but (2) they use differentiated criteria when assessing (temporary) parental migration, i.e., they do not refer to “universal” needs of children. Additionally, (3) children request that they be informed about the migration-decision early on and involved in the organization of the time of separation to make it as acceptable as possible for them. Thereby, they offer interpretations of transnational families that contribute to erode the norm of good childhood. We see our paper as a sociologically and socio-politically relevant contribution to expanding the discussion on transnational families, both from the perspective of children who discuss and problematize transnational family life as more than merely a question of violating the norm of parents’ presence, and with our focus on the European region, which provides specific contextual conditions for transnational families.
Michułka, Dorota (2024): Migracja afektywna. Czuły narrator wobec dorastania w rodzinie transnarodowej – listy do literackiej bohaterki i odkrywanie siebie (Kasieńka Sary Crossan). In: . A. Gis, K. Koc (Ed.), Dobra szkoła. Edukacyjne rozważania nad pewną nieoczywistością (2011–242). Poznań: UAM.
English title: Affective migration. The tender narrator in the face of growing up in a transnational family – letters to a literary heroine and self-discovery (Sarah Crossan's Kasienka)
Abstract: This text is based on theoretical and practical research on migrant identity, the literary image of the child and childhood in the face of migratory experience and growing up in transnational families. The reflections are carried out in the article in the context of the new sociology of childhood, family studies, cognitive narratology and affective 'reflections' of reality. As is evident from the work on Crossan's novel Kasienka and the reactions of young readers to the story of contemporary migration and the transformation of the teenage protagonist, the formation of migratory identity, and the affects associated with it, is a processual and time- varying phenomenon. As a form of self-definition, on the one hand, it is shown as an internal coherence - on the other hand, it always exposes a sense of separateness. The story of Kasieńka searching for her place in contemporary transnational reality proves that identity can thus be discussed in relation to three categories: its psychological aspects, its relations with other people and its confrontation with socio-cultural values.
Zając Justyna/Michułka Dorota (2024): Who am I really? Contemporary Narratives of Migration as an Inspiration for Self-discovery. Journal of Literary Education, 8, 157–175.
Abstract: The aim of this article is to present the results of a study of children's reception of Sarah Crossan's novel The Weight of Water ([2012] 2019). The book shows the process of emotional and social maturation of a girl coming from a Polish family affected by the experience of migration. Letters written by primary school pupils to Kasia, the fictional protagonist, bravely struggling with family problems and peer bullying, were analysed. The text demonstrates that the cognitively discussed literary work, depicting the teenage girl's journey of self-discovery, prompts young readers to self-analysis and thus can serve their self-discovery.
Zając, Justyna (2023): Motyw samotności we współczesnej literaturze dziecięco-młodzieżowej poświęconej migracjom zarobkowy. Annales UMCS Sectio N Educatio Nova, 8, 277-293.
English title: Motif of Loneliness in the Contemporary Children-Adolescent Literature Devoted to Labor Migration
Abstract: Books that focus on the topics of the consequences of Polish people’s labor migration introduce young readers to the issues related to the functioning of transnational families and present pictures of migration seen from the children’s perspective. This article analyses selected literary narrations for children and adolescents. The analysis shows the unsettled and broken relations of parents with their offspring, and how harmful this loneliness may be to the youngest.
König, Alexandra/Bühler-Niederberger, Doris/ Jendrzey, Katarzyna (2021): Good mothers — good children: temporary labour migration of Polish women. In: C. Dreke andn B. Hungerland (Ed.), Kindheit in gesellschaftlichen Umbrüchen (204-221). Beltz Juventa.
Abstract: In times of economic upheaval, family members must be capable of readjusting their mutual expectations and obligations in order to secure the existence and health of each other. Gender and generational order must be adapted to the circumstances. This has already been shown by Angell's classic study (1939) of the American family in the Great Depression. This chapter examines how this is organized and legitimized in Polish families, where mothers migrate to Germany temporarily and often repeatedly to work as caregivers. The discussions of mothers in relevant internet forums show that adaptive capital is needed: legitimizing arguments, strategies to bridge the absence and benefits from other family members.