Creating Competitive Memories by Migrants. Patrycja Trzeszczyńska, Diaspora – pamięć – miejsca. Ukraińcy z Polski z lat 80. XX wieku w Kanadzie. Studium etnograficzne, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Kraków 2019, ss. 346. 

The article presents the latest monograph by Patrycja Trzeszczyńska (Diaspora – Memory – Places: The Ukrainians from Poland of the 1980s in Canada. An Ethnographic Study), which analyzes the functioning of the memory of migrants from Poland. The inspiration to undertake to carry out the research was the author’s intention to continue her studies on the memory of the Lemkos. On the basis of the impressive material collected in the course of P. Trzeszczyńska’s three-year field research (conducted in the years 2014–2016), the anthropologist proved the occurrence of a vital ‘diasporic’ transformation in the identity of the migrants who, even if they remember the trauma experienced by their parents, this memory is no longer necessary for them to construct their own Ukrainian identity. In this situation, looking for Lemkos in Canada turned out groundless, since each new wave of migrants from Poland brought along their own memory (or post-memory) of the past, which led to the internal differentiation within the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada as far as both generations and regions are concerned. Thanks to the penetrating analysis of the functioning of the generational memory of migrants from Poland, the author of the monograph expanded the knowledge on the role of memory in the process of creating and enriching cultural identity of contemporary (no only diasporic) communities.

The article presents the latest monograph by Patrycja Trzeszczyńska (Diaspora – Memory – Places: The Ukrainians from Poland of the 1980s in Canada. An Ethnographic Study), which analyzes the functioning of the memory of migrants from Poland. The inspiration to undertake to carry out the research was the author’s intention to continue her studies on the memory of the Lemkos. On the basis of the impressive material collected in the course of P. Trzeszczyńska’s three-year field research (conducted in the years 2014–2016), the anthropologist proved the occurrence of a vital ‘diasporic’ transformation in the identity of the migrants who, even if they remember the trauma experienced by their parents, this memory is no longer necessary for them to construct their own Ukrainian identity. In this situation, looking for Lemkos in Canada turned out groundless, since each new wave of migrants from Poland brought along their own memory (or post-memory) of the past, which led to the internal differentiation within the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada as far as both generations and regions are concerned. Thanks to the penetrating analysis of the functioning of the generational memory of migrants from Poland, the author of the monograph expanded the knowledge on the role of memory in the process of creating and enriching cultural identity of contemporary (no only diasporic) communities.