Changes in The Ethnic Map of Warsaw in light of Poland's Migration Policy Cover Image

Zmiany na mapie etnicznej Warszawy w świetle polityki migracyjnej państwa polskiego
Changes in The Ethnic Map of Warsaw in light of Poland's Migration Policy

Author(s): Piotr Majewski
Subject(s): Cultural Essay, Political Essay, Societal Essay
Published by: Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: migrants; migration management; minorities; multiculturalism; tolerance; invented tradition

Summary/Abstract: Nowadays, almost in the blink of the eye, multiculturalism in Warsaw is gaining a new character, but this new character has older, pre-war roots. Today we witness a process in which the “old” minorities, especially Jews, are replaced by other migrants, mostly Vietnamese. Warsaw attracts, with its economic and social growth, not only people from other parts of Poland but also ethnically varied groups of migrants. Unfortunately, the Polish public sphere is ruled by diversionary issues and policies. One may have an impression then that we have entered an era of political correctness but this has been done without the proper debate concerning its postulates or even attempts to define fuzzy borders between what we can consider as only “our” (or “theirs”) and what is truly universal. If we do not engage in this debate, it is possible that one day the multiculturalists dream of “difference” and ethno-nationalists will become the reality. This means that we will wake up in a state in which alienated individuals (both “true Poles” and migrants) will be individually described only in the frames of fundamentalism with universal aspirations or ethnic ghettos, which are also artificially created with the help of national pop culture.

  • Issue Year: 2009
  • Issue No: 34
  • Page Range: 153-171
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: Polish