Their place is here nationalism and migration in Poland

1
Their place is here! nationalism and
migration in Poland

• Michal P. Garapich
• CRONEM
• University of Surrey/University of Roehampton
• Center for European Studies
• Jagiellonian University
• Transnational identities cities unbound
  migrations redefined
• Kraków 6th 8th October 2006

2
Main themes over emigration in Polish
nationalistic discourse

• Determinism
• Fatalism and degradation
• Materialism
• Threat to identity
• Individualistic migrant vs. collective nation
• Roots moral superiority

3

• The re-birth of Polish nationalism in public
  discourse and politics in recent times is seen
  generally as a reaction to the processes of rapid
  change and socio/economic transformation of
  which migrations and growing mobility are a prime
  symptom.

4
Polish conman urban myth

• Contestation of dominant discourse strategic
  banal anti-nationalism
• De-romanticizing ethnic ties
• Praxis - warning against abuse of trust
• Prove that ethnic sentiments are vulnerable
• Rationalize interactions between migrants

5
We are hereprotest against Polish tax law
penalizing migrants London, March 2006

• photo

6

• A new, much more reflexive and individualized
  expression of relationship with the national
  community, the society and the state has
  emerged.
• Its rationality rests on the assumption that
  ethnic ties and affiliation are too vague,
  contradictory and vulnerable to abuse to be the
  sole basis of action and agency.
• physical distance isnt a barrier to access to
  public space and the state.

7

• Nationalism isnt only about identifying a
  population under a roof of a invented, imagined
  and homogenous culture against the significant
  others but about constantly fixing and
  territorializing individuals, extending the
  process of othering onto people that migrate no
  matter for their ethnic/social/cultural
  background.
• Polish migrants successfully manage to contest
  and strategically maneuver over both.
• If the recent growth of nationalistic discourse
  in Poland is partly stimulated by growing
  transnational movements of Poles, its grip on
  what people actually do, how they think and act
  both in Poland and abroad - is rather weak.