National identity and stereotypes of Poles and Germans among rural youth in Opole Silesia

Katarzyna Mazur

doi:10.15503/jecs20111.122.135

Abstract

In Opole Silesia there live a combination of people describing themselves as Poles, Germans and Silesians. Young people there have to deal with that mix, being influenced by such forces as globalization. The purpose of this research was to discover how youth feel and understand their nationality and what stereotypes they share. The analysis consisted of several tasks. Students had to describe themselves by national and ethnic categories. They were asked how they felt about Germans and which stereotypes they found to be true or false. The paper includes analysis from earlier research on this topic.

Highlights

Opole Region is specific when we look at it through the prism of its inhabitants national identity
The German identity correlates with parents belonging to the German Minority (r = 0.47, p < 0.05) – in the group of students whose parents are not in GM the average at the German identification scale was 92 mm, in the group of students with both parents in GM average equals 54 mm
Summary When I started my work on these researches my father showed me an article “Warsaw knows better- there are no Silesians”

Summary

Introduction

Opole Region is specific when we look at it through the prism of its inhabitants national identity. It still happens that people who speak Polish in the street, use German at home. Some of my peers from primary school used a term “You” in reference to Poles and they say “They” about Germans, some – on the contrary – claim German nationality several years ago they claimed the opposite. It is quite common in the Opole Region to have dual citizenship. What decides people about being Pole or German...? What decides people about being Pole or German...? Are Poles from the Opole Region the same as Poles from Greater Poland? What do Opole Region dwellers think about themselves and others?

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Conclusion