Paper long abstract:

Migration leads to a redefinition of strategies, practices and beliefs about body, health and medicine. In this paper I would like to present preliminary results of my research project concerning the impact of migration upon individual and social attitudes towards illness, distress and well-being. The fieldwork (in progress) has been conducted among Polish female migrants in London, Barcelona and Berlin. Main research questions are what strategies and practices are used to deal with illness and reduced health in a situation of the changed locality, how beliefs concerning health and body are questioned and negotiated in intercultural contact. Changes of social and cultural context lead to redefinition of support circle of family and friends that might lead to temporal (and sometimes permanent) crisis. In response, new support networks are sometimes generated to deal with a situation of existential and social crisis resulting from migration.