Kamil Łuczaj

In Poland, on average, there are 2.4 doctors per 1,000 population (Eurostat 2020), and thus Poland ranks last in the European Union in terms of the number of doctors per capita (OECD 2019). The data on the number of nurses and midwives look similarly unfavourable. This problem seems to be highly pressing in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 epidemiological crisis, which additionally exposed staff shortages in Polish health care and somehow “forced” the authorities to take action to fill these gaps with the help of foreign medics. The emergence of such a category of migrants may arouse contradictory emotions as, despite the obvious need to employ them, the attitude towards newcomers currently polarises Polish society. The aim of this article is to analyse the media representations of highly qualified migrant medics (doctors and nurses) who decided to live and work in Poland. The article explains how the media coverage creates the image of various groups of highly qualified medical migrants in Poland and what factors influence this image. The analysis results show that the image of foreign doctors has not yet been sufficiently recorded in the media, but with the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic there has been a growing interest in this issue. However, the migration of workers in the medical sector is analysed mainly in the context of staff shortages in the health service, and the descriptions are usually not accompanied by strong emotions towards migrants.

This article attempts to empirically verify the theory of aesthetic taste formulated by Pierre Bourdieu. The research material consists of press advertisements. 2140 advertisements from five nationwide magazines aimed at different audiences were analyzed using the content analysis technique, which was enriched with qualitative elements. The analysis was conducted from August 2012 to September 2013. The article is part of a larger research project analyzing the aesthetics of Polish press advertisements. Results of the analysis indicate that the hypotheses, which can be derived from Bourdieu’s work, are accurate. Advertisements addressed to people with higher levels of cultural capital are simpler in relation to the form, and they often refer to global culture (they avoid local contexts). Moreover, this type of advertising is likely to take place in the city and people presented there, as opposed to advertising addressed to poorer and less educated people, are not the average people as they usually appear with the attributes of social prestige.

The article presents research experiences from a qualitative project concerning foreign-born academics in Poland, constituting one category of highly skilled migrants. It describes consecutive stages of the research process, problematizing methodological issues such as using the onomastic method and languages other than Polish, as well as not stigmatizing minority groups. In every part we make recommendations about possible decisions in further research projects.

The paper analyzes how the foreign-born employees of universities and research institutions located in Poland and Slovakia benefit from the cultural offer and infrastructure of the cities, where they work. A study, based on individual in-depth interviews (IDI), has discovered four recurring patterns of interaction with urban culture. Based on the subjective reconstruction of the participants’ beliefs expressed in their narratives, two active styles and two passive styles can be distinguished. The active are: “the admiration of a European city”, typical for academics arriving from North America as well as “diaspora life”. The passive are: “instrumental contact with the city”, typical for commuters from neighboring countries states only for work and “fleeting contacts” with basic institutions available in the city due to lack of time, characteristic of academic work that often affects work-life balance.

Social media has revolutionized communication between the sender and recipient of media messages. Thus, it is barely surprising that Polish universities use social media to communicate with Gen Y and Gen Z – generations whose members do not remember life without the Internet and social media. The goal of this article is to analyze the activity of Polish universities in social media, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and TikTok. The analysis was based on quantitative empirical research, embracing all universities in Poland. The study included variables such as the size of the university, location of the university, and ownership structure (public and non-public universities). The results proved that Facebook remains the primary communication tool for Polish universities, and its position seems to be unbeatable.

On the other hand, Polish universities still do not communicate on TikTok or Snapchat, which is a missed opportunity to come into being in portals addressed to the younger generation. The most popular innovative tool in extensive use is chatbots. The most important variable explaining different communication patterns was the size of the university, but – in case of some – portals, we discovered other significant relationships.

Academic international mobility is a long-lasting phenomenon and important aim of public policies in numerous countries. Scholarly debate usually concentrates on Western countries and some Eastern Asian scientifi c hubs like Singapore. Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is understudied. In Poland, the largest CEE country, unlike in many  Western countries, public policies concerning internationalization of the academic fi eld are still under construction. Nevertheless, there is a strong pressure for internationalization. The Polish case to be discussed in this article can serve as an example of academic migration to less economically privileged regions that are usually countries of emigration of scholars rather than immigration. In this paper, by means of qualitative in-depth interviews, we concentrate on the need to invite academics from abroad and the perceptions of the actual presence of foreign scholars, employed full-time, as seen by their Polish supervisors. Geographical focus of this paper (CEE) and adopted  perspective (interviews with heads of departments supported by interviews with academics) bridge the gap in the literature on academic mobility.