Recognizing the national identity : cultural intimacy and the Polish migration to Norway

The article aims to explore the inter dependencies between particular social and cultural imaginaries and the recognition of national identity among post-accession migrants living mobile lives between Poland and Norway. By introducing the context of two different kinds of habitus constructed by Polish migrants along the lines of social class belonging. I move further to analyze a wider, yet pervasive, interplay between national identity and its self and public recognition. Therefore, throughout the article, I draw on Michael Herzfeld's concepts of "cultural intimacy" and the "global hierarchy of value" in order to theorize ethnographic details and indicate how and in what ways certain Polish migrants are imagined and perceived as "embarrasing" by other co-nationals.