Out of Place?

I moved to the UK from Poland in 2005 with the intention to only stay for a couple of months for a summer job. Twenty years later, I am still here. In this essay, I reflect on my migration story that has led me to an academic career as a sociologist. My research on migration has been driven by my personal migration journey. But belonging to academia has been questioned by my working-class background, intersecting with my gender and nationality. While British academic settings have given me a chance to develop my passion to studying, my stigmatised ‘East European’ working-class identity continues to mark me as different and makes me feel out of place.