Staying connected: low cost airlines in the lives of Polish migrants

This chapter explores the hugely important role that low-cost airline carriers have been playing in the lives of Polish migrants to the United Kingdom (UK) since Poland joined the European Union in 2004. First, it will analyze the enormous growth and changes in the geographic distribution of new low-cost routes as they appeared, and sometimes contracted, in the aftermath of EU expansion—reshaping continental geographies; creating new mobility infrastructures between East and West; linking different towns, in Poland and the UK in particular, in new ways; and facilitating new migration movements as a result. Second, it will consider what this new low-cost aeromobilities infrastructure has meant for the people who have been migrating between Poland and the UK, thinking about the emotional dynamics of these new connections, as well as their limitations for keeping in touch across long distances. Finally, the chapter takes a step back and assesses the wider geopolitical contexts of these flight infrastructures and the lives caught up in them, asking to what extent they are dependent on certain geographical, political, and legal alliances and arrangements, and thinking about what Brexit especially will mean for these routes and connections. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.