Between different countries and identities: the case of Polish lesbian women in the Netherlands

Since 2004, many Polish migrants have moved to the Netherlands looking for work and financial stability. Among them are also lesbian women, a long forgotten and ignored group in social research. This paper tries to overcome this shortcoming by looking into the experi-ences of Polish lesbian women in the Netherlands and in the transnational space between Poland and the Netherlands. I first examine how the life of Polish lesbian women in the Netherlands is affected by the current political and religious discourse in Poland. I then ex-plore how these women experience being a part of a transnational family. Finally I look how these women evaluate their life in the Netherlands. To understand the experiences of lesbian women, qualitative interviews were conducted. To understand and analyse how their lives are shaped by migration and by their position as homosexual migrant women of different socioeconomic backgrounds, I have used intersec-tionality as the core conceptual framework. Additionally, I used the concepts of transnation-alism, othering and sexual citizenship to analyse the implications of their peculiar identity on their experiences as migrants. This paper also engages with literature on migration, sexuality and gender (in)equality. The study reveals that the lives of Polish lesbian women in the Neth-erlands are influenced by the political situation in their country of origin, but also by the connectedness with their families. Furthermore, the intersections between their different identities are often a source of challenge, but can also become a source of opportunities.