Issue 1 (191)

2024 (L)

Publication date: 08.2024

Description

COVER PHOTO: Alex Ivashenko on Unsplash

Licence: CC BY

Editorial team

Sekretarz redakcji Kamil Łuczaj

Editor-in-Chief Jan Brzozowski

Guest Editors Katarzyna Andrejuk, Aleksandra Winiarska

Issue content

Special Section: The 18th Polish Sociological Congress

Quo vadis, polska socjologio migracji? Specyfika subdyscypliny w świetle nowych trendów i wyzwań

Katarzyna Andrejuk, Aleksandra Winiarska

Migration Studies – Review of Polish Diaspora, Issue 1 (191), 2024 (L), pp. 9-14

https://doi.org/10.4467/25444972SMPP.24.007.19677

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Socjologia tęsknoty w badaniach migracyjnych: społeczne uwarunkowania emocji z perspektywy studium białoruskich emigrantów

Tatiana Kanasz

Migration Studies – Review of Polish Diaspora, Issue 1 (191), 2024 (L), pp. 15-34

https://doi.org/10.4467/25444972SMPP.24.002.19600

The aim of this article is to analyse feelings of longing and nostalgia of Belarusian migrants in Poland and return migrants in 2020–2022 on the basis of the multiple case study. Three categories of migrants were included: post-August 2020 emigrants, dual emigrants and returned migrants. The theoretical basis of the study was the concept of emotion work and concepts focusing on the emotions of longing and nostalgia. The empirical material was selected in a purposive manner. The empirical data included statements made by migrants on social media and in journalistic interviews (Polish and Belarusian). Answers were sought to the following research questions: What do migrants miss? How do they cope with these emotions? What are the socio-cultural determinants of longing and nostalgia of Belarusian migrants? The results of the qualitative study show that longing is complex in nature and that in every situation migrants undertake emotion work, using cognitive and behavioural strategies. Key themes of longing relate to loved ones and places. Feelings of nostalgia include the time before 2020, perceived by migrants as more secure. Cultural determinants include the special attachment of Belarusians to their country, family, community.

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Everyday Life in Great Britain and Poland During the Covid-19 Pandemic and Brexit

Małgorzata Dziekońska, Katarzyna Winiecka

Migration Studies – Review of Polish Diaspora, Issue 1 (191), 2024 (L), pp. 35-58

https://doi.org/10.4467/25444972SMPP.24.003.19601

In recent years, everyday life and interpersonal relationships in a broad sense have been shaped by the SarsCov-2 pandemic and its extensive consequences – both on a local and on a global level. Other phenomena have made their presence felt at a local and global level too – Brexit, for example. In this article, based on research carried out in Poland, England and Northern Ireland in August and September 2021, we present various dimensions of everyday life and the relationships of migrants with people who are important to them in Poland – in the context of these two main processes. The results of our research indicate that the new circumstances affect the everyday lives of migrants and their relatives in Poland on various levels, such as routine activities, work, interpersonal relations, and transnational contacts. We have also identified the stages of these processes and the accompanying emotions, and the pandemic emerged as the leading theme, overshadowing Brexit.

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Infrastruktura migracyjna w Polsce i jej wielowymiarowość na przykładzie filipińskiego vloga YouTube

Olga Wanicka

Migration Studies – Review of Polish Diaspora, Issue 1 (191), 2024 (L), pp. 59-81

https://doi.org/10.4467/25444972SMPP.24.004.19602

International labor migration is increasingly facilitated by unofficial intermediaries who play a significant role within the diverse migration infrastructure. Growing uncertainty about the future caused by conflicts, economic crises, or pandemics has led migrants to increasingly seek employment through the Internet, where micro-influencers become active assistants, providing advice to those seeking work abroad. In recent years, Overseas Filipino Workers have become such active online intermediaries. Migrant vlogs have become an integral part of the multidimensional migration infrastructure, facilitating transnational labor intermediation and exposing issues related to navigating infrastructural dimensions for basic infrastructure users – migrants.
The article aims to illustrate the multidimensionality of migration infrastructure through the example of the YouTube vlog. Despite attempts to liberalize migration management methods, such as through the possibility of seeking employment online, they have not led to the development of migrants’ migratory capacities. Nowadays, migrants – the basic infrastructure users – have to navigate through additional elements of infrastructure (vlogs) as well as face growing bureaucratization of the process itself, which should be considered an example of infrastructural involution (Xiang and Lindquist 2014).
The paper presents the results of a qualitative content analysis of the comments posted under the video of a Filipina vlogger living in Poland, who provides advice on her YouTube channel to people interested in employment. The results illustrate the multidimensionality of migration infrastructure on the example of a vlog and prove the infrastructural involution resulting from the growing complexity of commentators’ needs.

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Research Papers

Emotions and Strategies in the Face of the Border(ing): The Lived Experiences of Filipino Migrants in Mainland China

Izabela Kujawa

Migration Studies – Review of Polish Diaspora, Issue 1 (191), 2024 (L), pp. 85-98

https://doi.org/10.4467/25444972SMPP.23.010.18349

Even though the People’s Republic of China is still considered a country of emigration rather than immigration, there is a growing number of foreigners who move there for work. In this article, I explore the lived experiences of migrants originating from the Philippines. I focus on their understanding of and affective encounters with the border and with bordering practices. Furthermore, I analyze the strategies these migrants employ to navigate their situations and secure their stay in the country. By doing so, I aim to contribute to the flourishing literature on the situation of migrants based in Mainland China, and to an understanding of the on-the-ground consequences of the Chinse immigration system’s regulations and practices. Based on 20 in-depth interviews, I argue that migration is not merely related to the migrants’ rational decisions and their execution thereof, but rather, that the whole process is accompanied by a range of emotions, varying in kind, intensity, and anchorage. For the Filipinas and Filipinos interviewed here, despite their differences, the strongest reactions were caused by the shape of the state regulations in place, which were perceived as a source of the sense of insecurity and instability.

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Press Articles from “Gazeta Polska w Brazylii” as a Source of Information about Brazilian Polonia’s Interests in the Security of the Second Republic of Poland in July and August 1939 – Selected Issues

Tomasz Landmann

Migration Studies – Review of Polish Diaspora, Issue 1 (191), 2024 (L), pp. 99-122

https://doi.org/10.4467/25444972SMPP.23.013.18461

The article aims to present an outline and analysis of the topics presented in the July and August 1939 issue of “Gazeta Polska w Brazylii” (“Polish Newspaper in Brazil”). These concerned informing the Brazilian Polish community about matters and interests crucial to the Polish state’s security.
The article analyses all the issues of “Gazeta Polska w Brazylii” of July and August 1939, the available scientific literature, and other printed sources.
It has been shown that “Gazeta Polska w Brazylii” was the leading periodical informing the Brazilian Polonia about matters important to the Polish state’s interests and security. On the eve of the outbreak of World War II, the dominant issues of interest to the Polish community in Brazil included the evaluation of the Brazilian government, Hitler and the Third Reich, and German actions towards the local population in the areas taken over by the German state in 1938 and 1939. The issue of the Free City of Danzig and German militarism in the region, which threatened the interests of the Second Republic and Polish citizens’ position, was also significant.

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Celebrowanie świąt wśród polskiej społeczności w Armenii. Nośnik tożsamości, element promocji kultury czy substytut rozrywki w obcym otoczeniu etniczno-kulturowym?

Ewelina Maria Ebertowska

Migration Studies – Review of Polish Diaspora, Issue 1 (191), 2024 (L), pp. 123-143

https://doi.org/10.4467/25444972SMPP.23.006.17722

From the historical perspective, Polish migration to Armenia intensified in the 19th century, when men were forcibly conscripted into the Tsar’s Army in the territory of the Russian partition. Since then, the dynamics of Polish mobility and its motivations have changed many times. As for the direction of the Caucasus, since the 1990s it has been closely associated with the population movement in the opposite direction, i.e., with the Armenian migration to Poland. However, we know relatively little on this subject, as most contemporary studies focus mainly on the analysis of historical processes, and the current migration movements are commonly referred to as “labor migration”. The following article is based on field research conducted by the author in 2015–2022. Their main axis was to learn about the ways of self-organization and functioning of the contemporary Polish community living in the Republic of Armenia. The article focuses on the description of individual phases of the annual rituals with which representatives of the Polish minority identify and the influence of Polish organizations on their celebration. The article covers both states, secular, and religious holidays. They create an interesting mosaic consisting of cultural and national identity, promotional and popularization elements, as well as the need for entertainment and social life in a local environment.

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Dual Enclavity and Nomadicity. Life Trajectories of Kyrgyz Horse Racing Riders Working in Poland

Barbara Bossak-Herbst

Migration Studies – Review of Polish Diaspora, Issue 1 (191), 2024 (L), pp. 145-165

https://doi.org/10.4467/25444972SMPP.24.008.19678

In recent years (since 2019), a professional niche formed by Kyrgyz men has rapidly risen to dominate the horse racing ranking in Poland. This article explores their life trajectories and proposes a theoretical framework describing their mode of mobility. It is based on interviews with Kyrgyz riders, complemented by interviews with horse racing trainers.
The study reveals details of their life trajectories and identifies some common features and sequences in their experiences. These are: the usage of unique cultural capital acquired in childhood and physical capital to transition from traditional horse racing to English-style racing, the gradual shift from transregional occupational networks to transnational ones in which Poland serves as a waiting zone, and unspecified (but related to the global horse racing industry) plans for the future.
This case study is analysed from the perspective of translocality and transnational migration. I argue that the socio-economic circumstances in the migrants’ country of origin and the vocational pathway they undertook as teenagers within the horse racing, result in the permanent temporality of their mobility between enclaves of horse racing centres. The article proposes the concept of dual enclavity and nomadicity to capture the particular nature of this form of mobility.

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Orientacje akulturacyjne Meksykanów w stosunku do migrantów pochodzących z USA, Francji, Polski, Hiszpanii, Korei Południowej i Ekwadoru

Agnieszka Golińska, Anna Kwiatkowska

Migration Studies – Review of Polish Diaspora, Issue 1 (191), 2024 (L), pp. 167-195

https://doi.org/10.4467/25444972SMPP.24.009.19679

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