The pushed-back migrants are the main subjects of the humanitarian crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border; however their presence as public discourse producers are rather scarce. The aim of this research is to trace the narrative agency of these people and explore its link to their emancipation. Drawing on the postcolonial theory, we address the question of how the subaltern(ised) subjects produce their discourse. With the analysis of media content, literature, and artistic materials, we argue that the discourse production of pushed-back migrants in Poland is heavily limited, restricted, and often interrupted, however they manifest agency by manoeuvring victimisation and contesting the enemisation of themselves. Using these results, we conclude that the researcher’s role during this crisis should be a mix of translation and representation of what the pushed-back said and were forbidden to say.

Within the framework of global mobility regimes, some bodies are encouraged to move while others are pushed back. Nation-states create control mechanisms to block those who are “undesirable”. Apart from political utility, the colour of the bodies is indicated by the critics as the main criterion of division. However, one more important dimension that intersects with race here is the gender of these bodies. A woman fits the figure of an ideal victim better due to the nationalist patterns of femininity: she is vulnerable, submissive, and deprived of agency. Contrary to a man: his duty in the context of war is to remain in his homeland and fight for it. A man who does not do that, seeking asylum in Europe, is morally doubtful: he is a migrant posing a threat to “our” prosperity and security. This is how people crossing the Polish-Belarusian border are presented to public opinion and contrasted with female Ukrainian refugees. The article offers a critical analysis of gender representations of refugees in the Polish public debate through the prism of postcolonial theory, demonstrating that gendered and racialised colonial discourses underpin rationalisations about who has and who does not have a right to be a refugee.

Families, including those with children, constitute a significant group of people crossing the Polish-Belarusian border. The aim of this article is to analyse the discourse on the Polish-Belarusian border in the context of the place that the category of “family” finds in it, and what role and responsibility is assigned to children and parents. The theoretical framework for these reflections is primarily critical childhood studies. For this purpose, the author analyzed Polish-language online statements about the humanitarian crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border published between mid-August 2021 and the 1st of January 2023. The research included statements by institutional actors (e.g. Border Guard), media publications as well as public comments by social media users (Twitter). In the case of the humanitarian crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border, the term “family” is used in a variety of ways – from building a sense of symbolic solidarity (the “Families Without Borders” group), through referring this term to the presence of particularly vulnerable people among migrants, to attributing responsibility for the risks regarding the situation of children at the border to either parents or state institutions, depending on the discourse. Reflections on the Polish-Belarusian border seem to be part of the tensions related to the concepts of “family”, “parenthood” and “children”.

This study deploys a narrative analysis of stories on the topic of the so-called migration crisis on the EU-Belarus border published on the website of the key Belarusian publishing house Belarus Segodnya between the 1st of June 2021 and the 31st of March 2022. The key eleven narratives were deconstructed through a close engagement with and interpretation of over 1,500 topical publications. The ongoing humanitarian crisis at the EU-Belarus border which peaked in late 2021 followed from the Belarusian regime’s attempt to attain foreign policy goals, foremost the suspension of EU sanctions. The study applies the concept of coercive engineered migration proposed by Kelly Greenhill and finds that the content of most identified narratives fits Greenhill’s predictions that coercing actors focus on manipulating the ability and willingness of targeted states to accept groups of migrants and that challengers tend to impose hypocrisy costs on targets to increase coercive power. The analysis suggests that some of the major state media narratives fit into two groups of coercing strategies proposed by Greenhill while others can be accommodated in the category related to hypocrisy costs. These “blame shifting” narratives cast full responsibility for the origin and persistence of the migrant crisis on the targeted actors. An additional “triggering catastrophe” category is proposed which includes narratives which project cataclysms for the targeted actors and high cost of not hosting migrants for them.

Given that two dramatically different refugee regimens have developed along Poland’s eastern border, this essay explores the social conditions and discourses that facilitate such a radically different treatment of people. The Polish state’s violation of human rights on the Belarusian section of the border and the celebration of these rights on its Ukrainian section have become part of media spectacles. This text analyses both the technical and content-related issues of communication about migrants and refugees from the Global South. It includes typologies of attributional biases in the media towards people on the move, discusses their functions and the ways towards a normalisation of violence. The final section historicises the current negative responses to refugees and sets them in the wider context of the uneasy obligations imposed on the “West” by its professed values. In doing so, this essay touches upon questions not only of a sense of social responsibility, but also of actual responsibility for the people who have died in Polish forests and rivers.

Artykuł skupia się na analizie ewolucji prac nad polską polityką migracyjną w okresie 2016–2022. Zwracamy w nim uwagę na znaczenie braku określenia jednoznacznych celów polityki migracyjnej państwa oraz wyznaczenia zasad ich realizacji. Dotyczyło to braku wypracowania kompromisu między celami związanymi z interesami gospodarki i potrzebami demograficznymi społeczeństwa a wąsko rozumianymi priorytetami zachowania bezpieczeństwa państwa. Rodziło to zarówno wewnętrzną konkurencję między poszczególnymi instytucjami w ramach administracji centralnej, jak i sprzyjało wysokiej wrażliwości politycznej prac nad wypracowaniem programu tej polityki. Jej efektem było to, że polityka migracyjna państwa przybrała charakter polityki publicznej „bez polityki” (ang. policy without politics), tj. prowadzenia konsekwentnych działań na różnych polach migracji (takich jak rynek pracy, polityka polonijna, ochrona granic i polityka uchodźcza) bez szerszej politycznej i oficjalnej dyskusji o jej celach w dłuższej perspektywie czasowej.

Migration policy “without policy”. Antinomies of migration policy-making in Poland in the period 2016–2022

The article focuses on the analysis of the evolution of work on Polish migration policy in the period 2016–2022. In it, we draw attention to the importance of not defining clear goals of the state’s migration policy and setting the rules for their implementation. This concerned the failure to work out a compromise between the goals related to the interests of the economy and the demographic needs of the society and the narrowly understood priorities of maintaining state security. This gave rise to both internal competition between individual institutions within the central administration, and was conducive to high political sensitivity of work on developing the program of this policy. Its effect was that the state’s migration policy took on the character of a public policy without politics, i.e. consistent actions in various fields of migration (such as the labor market, Polish diaspora policy, border protection and refugee policy) without broader political and official discussion about its long-term goals.

W niniejszym artykule dokonano analizy procesu migracji z Białorusi do Polski w drugiej dekadzie XXI wieku. Celem artykułu jest ujawnienie społecznych i demograficznych cech ruchu migracyjnego z Białorusi do Polski oraz ukazanie specyfiki motywacji i adaptacji białoruskich imigrantów w Polsce jako w nowym miejscu osiedlania się. Dla osiągnięcia zamierzonego celu w artykule zostaną udzielone odpowiedzi na następujące pytania: jakie są cechy społeczno-demograficzne ruchu migracyjnego z Białorusi do Polski? Jakie są motywy migracji obywateli Białorusi do Polski? Jakie są specyficzne cechy adaptacji białoruskich imigrantów w nowym miejscu osiedlania się? Do uzyskania odpowiedzi na postawione pytania zastosowano kompleksową metodologię: analizę zastanych danych statystycznych oraz badanie jakościowe przeprowadzone techniką indywidualnego wywiadu pogłębionego. Analiza zastanych danych statystycznych stworzyła perspektywę do przedstawienia specyfiki migracji, przede wszystkim jako fizycznego ruchu przestrzennego z Białorusi do Polski, a także umożliwiła uszczegółowienie profilu społecznego białoruskich imigrantów. Jednocześnie dane zebrane w ramach badania jakościowego stanowiły podstawę do określenia specyfiki procesu adaptacji oraz poznania motywacji migracyjnej wśród białoruskich imigrantów.

Social and Demographic Features of the Migration Process from Belarus to Poland in 2016–2020

This article analyses the process of migration from Belarus to Poland in the second decade of the 21st century. The aim of the article is to reveal the social and demographic features of the migration movement from Belarus to Poland and to show the specific motivation and adaptation of Belarusian immigrants in Poland as a new place of settlement. In order to achieve the intended purpose, the article will answer the following questions: what is the socio-demographic features of the migration movement from Belarus to Poland? What are the motives of migration of Belarusian citizens to Poland? What are the specific features of adaptation of Belarusian immigrants in the new place of settlement? In order to obtain answers to the questions posed, a comprehensive methodology was used: analysis of found statistical data and qualitative research conducted with the technique of individual in-depth interview. The analysis of the found statistical data created a perspective for presenting the specifics of migration, first of all as a physical spatial movement from Belarus to Poland, and also made it possible to detail the social profile of Belarusian immigrants. At the same time, the data collected as part of the qualitative study provided a basis for defining the specifics of the adaptation process and learning about migration motivation among Belarusian immigrants.

W niniejszym artykule po krótkim scharakteryzowaniu mniejszości polskiej w Litwie, opisuję media, które są dostępne w języku polskim w tym kraju, a następnie pokazuję, dlaczego polskojęzyczne kanały medialne nie stanowią atrakcyjnego źródła odniesienia dla młodych przedstawicieli mniejszości polskiej. Jednocześnie wyjaśniam, skąd bierze się niechęć osób młodych wobec mediów etnicznych i co powoduje ich odpływ ku mediom litewsko- i rosyjskojęzycznym. W szczególności przedstawiam kulturowe i historyczne powody atrakcyjności mediów rosyjskojęzycznych, które wiele młodych przedstawicieli wybiera jako alternatywę wobec polskich mediów etnicznych. Na koniec zastanawiam się nad konsekwencjami odchodzenia od polskojęzycznych przekazów medialnych i przyszłością samej mniejszości bez nich.

W artykule opieram się na wywiadach narracyjnych przeprowadzonych przeze mnie z młodymi przedstawicielami mniejszości polskiej w Litwie, którzy do Polski przyjechali w celach edukacyjnych, głównie na studia. Dodatkowym materiałem są również wywiady swobodne z listą poszukiwanych informacji z dziennikarzami pracującymi w mediach mniejszościowych. Korzystam również z analizy danych zastanych i przeglądu literatury.

Why is Polish-language media content not interesting for young representatives of the Polish minority in Lithuania?

In this article, after briefly characterising the Polish minority in Lithuania, I describe the media that are available in the Polish language in Lithuania and then show why Polish-language media channels are not an attractive source of reference for young representatives of the Polish minority. At the same time, I explain the origin of young people’s aversion to ethnic media and what causes their exodus towards Lithuanian- and Russian-language media. In particular, I present cultural and historical reasons for the attractiveness of Russian-language media, which many young representatives choose as an alternative to Polish ethnic media. Finally, I reflect on the consequences of moving away from Polish-language media coverage and the future of the minority itself without it.

I use narrative interviews conducted by me with young representatives of the Polish minority in Lithuania who came to Poland for educational purposes, mainly to study. Additional material also includes interviews with journalists working in minority media. I also use desk research analysis and a literature review.

While there are many studies concerning different aspects of migrants’ occupational trajectories, little attention has been dedicated to migrants’ own views on career success. In this paper, drawing on qualitative interviews with Polish migrants, we aim to bridge this gap in migration studies by examining how the migrants themselves understand and experience the concept of career success. We also took into consideration factors contributing to migrants’ occupational success, with a particular focus on the role of migration in their occupational biographies.

Our analysis shows that interviewees define success in terms of subjective and objective criteria, focusing on immaterial rewards. Most of the migrants who participated in the study were unsure if they had already achieved career success. Among those who did, internal factors connected with a person’s character were mostly pointed out as contributing to career success. Despite the fact that work was the primary motivation for migration for a significant part of our sample, the results of the migration on career and chances of achieving success were varied.