Mapping the field of turbulent changes around the issue of migration in Poland

Grzegorz Piotrowski

doi:10.17356/ieejsp.v7i2.880

Abstract

The issue of migration had become highly politicized in Poland already before the 2015 elections. The neoconservative Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS) party made it one of the key topics in the electoral campaign both for the parliamentary and for the presidential elections, both of which the party won. Poland has switched from a country with the highest acceptance rate of refugees in the EU to the one with the lowest rate within about a year. The narrative about masses of refugees in Poland and at its borders threatening Polish culture, civilization and identity started to gather momentum and has provoked numerous intended and unintended consequences, political and social. On the one hand such statements and politics have sparked an increase in hate speech and incidents, and violent actions. On the other, as a reaction, there is an observable awakening of the civil society in Poland through more intensified actions of various groups and organizations. Both are outcomes of the situation in which the government and the ruling party take a strong and negative stance on the issue of migrants and refugees. At the same time, anti-racist activism has been instrumentalized as a tool for anti-government struggles, involving new actors into the struggle. The new alliances forged after 2015 are more than interesting and will be described below, based on the empirical research conducted for a comparative research project on anti-racist contention in the Baltic Sea region. I will show particularly the nature of cooperation between grassroots groups (often radical) and the more moderate NGOs, activists (of both stripes) and civil servants as well as politicians; and here point to the specific role of municipalities and the city-level.

Highlights

Anti-racist struggles in the citiesThe politics of anti-racist struggles in Poland should be analysed on different levels, national and local
On the one hand such statements and politics have sparked an increase in hate speech and incidents, and violent actions.2 On the other, as a reaction, there is an observable awakening of the civil society in Poland through more intensified actions of various groups and organizations
The Left party – a natural ally of progressive grassroots groups – became an ally in extra-parliamentary politics. This allowed left-wing party members to remain active on the streets and in grassroots groups as well as include such actions in the programme of the Left party

Summary

Anti-racist struggles in the cities

The politics of anti-racist struggles in Poland should be analysed on different levels, national and local. Some—like the mayor of Gdańsk, Paweł Adamowicz—organized their own anti-racist and/or antifascist protests, others—like Poznań’s mayor, Jacek Jaśkowiak—showed up at and joined an antiracist demonstration organized by anarchists. Both instances were criticized by the activists deeply rooted in antiracist activism. G ego pio o ki said the late Mayor of Gdańsk, Paweł Adamowicz in March 2016 during a conference inaugurating the Immigrant Integration Model (Muszel, forthcoming). This shows that pro-migrant and anti-racist policies became a tool for local authorities to organize an anti-government struggles. The EU flags handed out there... what has that to do with antifascism? If you look at the border policies of the EU, it’s pretty far from antifascism

Changing relations between activists

Conclusion