Poland

Author of the project aims to make a comprehensive descriptive study on a migration process that so far has been not analyzed in detail in Polish literature - the migration from Poland to Baltic states in the interwar period. The study would tackle political, economical, social, demographic and national processes in the region in this period, by analysing the archives in Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia.

Author of the project aims to make a comprehensive descriptive study on a migration process that so far has been not analyzed in detail in Polish literature - the migration from Poland to Baltic states in the interwar period. The study would tackle political, economical, social, demographic and national processes in the region in this period, by analysing the archives in Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia.

Author of the project aims to make a comprehensive descriptive study on a migration process that so far has been not analyzed in detail in Polish literature - the migration from Poland to Baltic states in the interwar period. The study would tackle political, economical, social, demographic and national processes in the region in this period, by analysing the archives in Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia.

For many years , Poland has been one of the largest sending areas in Central and Eastern Europe and a vast reservoir of labor for many countries in Western Europe and North America, when Poland officially became a member of the European Union in May 2004, only three EU Member States immediately opened their labor markets to nationals of Poland and the seven other Eastern European accession states: the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Sweden. By the end of 2006, Polish citizens could also freely work in Finland, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. My research are connected to teenagers and young people who are working abroad. I am wondering if they improve theirs life thanks to emigration works. What emigration means to them? Are they happy? How often the visit Poland, and family who is living in Poland? What kind of job are they doing? And is it connected to their education? Why the couldn’t find a job in Poland? Knowledge transfer between countries is very important think - on the other hand, the loss of the best and brightest participants in the work force to developed countries, commonly known as the “brain drain”, may have adverse effects on source economies. In view of circular migration, the resultant transfer of human capital and knowledge represents a “brain circulation” between the host country and the country of emigration. We can say that this is “brain waste” if it is about Polish, because Polish workers are working, for example in Ireland as a kitchen porters or housekeepers even if they are masters of economics or for example mathematics. In general research says that young Polish have new better life. They say that they finally haven’t financial problems. They are traveling around the world, meeting interesting places, people and cultures, and they can afford for everything. The financial, economic reasons are the most important for them, but on the other hand thanks to migration young polish migrants believe that world is not as bad as they were thinking, that they can more, and that their life is in theirs hands.

"This proejct is part of the research-intervention-cluster ""Shifting Solidarities?"" which is funded by by the Federal Government’s Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration. The so called “refugee crisis” in the last months shows the shifting solidarities between the new EU member states – such as Poland and Hungary - who join a coalition against German liberal refugee politics. These revived and new alliances and contra-alliances are not only the domain of states. Various social movements in Poland and other countries support the German anti-Islam movement Pegida and demonstrate jointly their new pan-European solidarity against the feared ‘Islamization of Europe’. These movements use nationalistic or xenophobic rhetoric but are transnational in their form. This is supported by the free mobility of people in the EU. The so called “Monday walks” of Pegida gather Polish participants, as the placards “we welcome our Polish friends” suggest. The question is how do migrants from Poland living in Germany perceive of such new nationalistic alliances? Whom do they feel solidary with? Are they against new immigrants, among them refugees, as they fear of their jobs and status? Is their solidarity with the German white majority members who are against immigrant a sign of their successful integration into the German society? Does support of Polish migrants for the Pegida movement show a trend towards transnational islamophobic solidarity? Do the Poles in Germany feel solidary with their country of origin, as the Polish government, and parts of the society, openly reject Muslim immigration and refugees in the Christian Poland? Do they possibly feel solidary with the refugees, as they might share family history of refuge during the cold war period? Is thus their solidarity nationally, ethnically or transnationally underpinned? We use brand new data from a survey study in Germany in order to answer the above questions. Our research asks about Polish migrants’ attitudes towards other religious and ethnic groups and refugees as well as their actual engagement for refugees in Germany, Poland, or elsewhere. Migrants from Poland are a steadily growing group, by now exceeding 700.000 people. We consider also gendered differences in attitudes and practices. We observe a trend to feminisation of migration from Poland; also, Polish women in Germany are better educated than male migrants. The existing qualitative studies show that Polish female migrants more frequently engage voluntarily for others than male migrants but they learn this competence in Germany. We also know that female migrants’ social networks are ethnically more differentiated. At the same time, women feel more endangered in their drive to emancipation by what they perceive as ‘Muslim values’. It is unclear whether these perceptions translate into their decreased readiness to support Muslim refugees. The results of our survey further the knowledge on how migration and in particular its transnational form impact on civic engagement and patterns of solidarity among migrants. Considering that migrants sustain intense relationships with their country of origin, the practices and competences they learn post-migration might transfer back to Poland, and thus impact the processes of solidarity in Europe."

Despite a huge public and academic interest in post EU enlargement migrations of Polish citizens who by moving to WesternEurope take advantage of the principle of freedom of movement, there has been an almost complete silence on how these newmigration opportunities affect the Polish Roma populations. But according to Roma organizations own estimates there has been averitable exodus with sometimes over 90% of local Roma communities emigrating or otherwise engaging in internationalmobility. In that sense, scholarly and public silence on the matter is striking. This research aims at shedding some light onmigratory movements of that group taking an anthropological perspective and using qualitative methods – participant observation,interviews and spending considerable amount of time with migrating Roma, their friends and family who stay in Poland, as wellas those Polish Roma who live in Great Britain. To what extent their migrations differ from the overall patterns of migrations ofnon-Roma Polish populations? And how did transnational networks between Roma communities in Poland and Great Britaindeveloped? And what happens once they are there, how do they operate and make sense of living in global city like London orsmall English town? How the experience of their members living in Britain affects Roma communities back in Poland? These arethe questions this research aims at answering. By using so called multi-sited ethnography it will analyse Polish Roma patterns ofmigrations, the ways with which international EU mobility impacts on some aspects of their culture and what happens to PolishRoma’s sense of identity once no longer in Poland.