A bit overdue, this is a round-up of fieldwork for the Living Together project. First and foremost, I wish to thank all research participants for their time and dedication, and for sharing East End stories. I am grateful to each and every one of you for making this research possible!

The fieldwork took 10 intense months between July 2017 and April 2018, and involved observing and speaking to people who live in the East End of Glasgow and work with East End communities. This included 10 expert interviews with representatives of East End-based organisations (e.g. community councils, community centres, housing associations, migrant organisations), and 40 interviews and one focus group with East End residents. The resident interviews were split equally between Polish nationals (20 interviews) and members of the long-settled population (20 interviews). While the long-settled participants were predominantly White Scottish, this group included also an Asian Scottish person, a few people originally coming from other parts of the UK (e.g. England), one Italian-British and one Irish person. The focus group involved EU nationals from five different countries. In total, I spoke to 56 people.

These respondents included 34 women and 22 men between the mid-20s and late 70s. They were diverse in terms of ethnicity, religion/belief, sexuality, class as well as attitudes towards Brexit. They also had different education levels and employment statuses (although the overall sample was skewed towards the better-educated and employed). A number of Polish nationals worked below their actual qualifications, which is reflective of deskilling among Polish migrants in Scotland. But, this group included also highly-skilled professionals, business owners and students. The respondents came from different neighbourhoods within the East End too: Bridgeton, Calton, Craigend, Cranhill, Dalmarnock (and the Commonwealth Village), Dennistoun, Parkhead, Royston, Ruchazie and Shettleston. However, around a half lived closer to the city centre, in Bridgeton, Calton or Dennistoun.

I have collected an extensive material as part of this fieldwork (e.g. interview data, fieldnotes, photographs, documents, press articles) and am excited about moving to the next stage of the research process now (data analysis). I am planning to publish a research report in the second half of 2019 alongside some more academic outputs (e.g. journal articles). Check out my twitter @AnnaGawlewicz for updates!