The Recent Politicization of Immigration in Poland in Light of Preexisting State Practices: Continuity or Change in the Understanding of Citizenship and Nationhood?

Abstract

By drawing a division between citizens and noncitizens, migration policies speak to implicit definitions of what makes a good citizen. Commonly accepted definitions of citizenship are produced not only through explicit political discourse but also through the everyday actions of state agencies. The selection of the “worthy” migrants that those street‐level bureaucracies operate is deeply rooted in interpretations of the nation's boundaries. In this article, I examine this everyday production of citizenship and nationhood by focusing on the case of Polish migration policies approached through the lens of an ethnographic study of street‐level bureaucracies. While the rapid politicization of immigration in this country since 2015 resembles a major shift, an inquiry into the practices of policy implementation invites interrogations concerning continuities between past and present state practices, as well as concerning the definitions of citizens and of “worthy” immigrants that were and are prevalent within Polish institutions.Related Articles in this Special IssueBarrault‐Stella, Lorenzo, and Thomas Douniès. 2021. “Introduction to the Special Issue: Citizenship as a Tool of Government in Europe.” Politics & Policy 49 (4).Haapajärvi, Linda. 2021. “On the Importance of Playing House: Belonging Work and the Making of Relational Citizens in Finnish Immigrant Integration Policies.” Politics & Policy 49 (4).Mioni, Michele. 2021. “The ‘Good Citizen’ as ‘Respectable Worker:’ State, Unemployment, and Social Policy in the United Kingdom and Italy, 1930 to 1950.” Politics & Policy 49 (4).