Intra-European Mobility of Skilled Expatriates and Place-Identity: Interwoven Social Representations of Rome and Warsaw

Abstract

This paper discusses the influence of social representations of a destination city on the motivation and development of individual mobility patterns, using questionnaires with a projective technique and guided interviews. The participants were 60 skilled expatriates in two different European capital cities: Italians residing in Warsaw and Poles residing in Rome. The study demonstrates the relevance of place-identity for the meaning of place within urban culture, in the context where global and local issues are interwoven. It also features the transformation of social representations of the two cities.