Who Are We? Cultural Valence and Children’s Narratives of National Identifications

The article provides a sociological analysis of national identities of Polish children growing up in Norway. The research results presented are unique in the sense that the portrayals of national identifications constructed in the process of migration are shown through direct experiences of children. The analysis is based on semi-structured interviews with children, observation in the research situation (children’s rooms) and Sentence Completion Method. Adopting Antonina Kłoskowska’s analytical framework of national identity and her terminology of the so called ‘cultural valence’ (adoption of culture), we argue that identities are processual and constructed, a result of the fact that mobility took place at a certain moment in time and in a specific geographical space. In addition, we see identities as conditioned by a plethora of identifiable objective and subjective reasons. The intensified mobility of children due to labour migrations of their parents leads to multiple challenges within the (re)constructions of children’s identities in their new place of settlement.