Transatlantyckie trendy migracyjne na przestrzeni stulecia. Studium przypadku wychodźstwa z powiatu strzyżowskiego

Abstract

Joanna Kulpinska's book Transatlantyckie trendy migracyjne na przestrzeni stulecia. Studium przypadku wychodźstwa z powiatu strzyżowskiego is another installment in the series edited by Professor Bogdan Szlachta. The Societies series published by the Jagiellonian University presents books on history, political science, international relations, and cultural studies. Kulpinska is a teaching assistant at the Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and this is her first monograph.Joanna Kulpinska's book offers an analysis of migration trends from the Polish countryside to the United States from the point of view of both the community and the individual. This work is an addition to the historiography of transnational migration studies, and it provides relevant research by continuing the work of Krystyna Duda-Dziewierz's “Wies malopolska a emigracja amerykanska. Studium wsi Babica, powiatu rzeszowskiego (Warsaw, 1938) as well as more recent work by Dorota Osipowicz “Rola sieci i kapitału społecznego w migracjach zarobkowych. Przykład Moniek” (Warsaw, 2002) among others.Divided into eight chapters, the volume starts with a description of an interdisciplinary approach to the subject: a combination of cultural, historical, and sociological analysis, and the usage of methods such as ethno-polls, participant observation, life story interviews, and documents. Kulpinska proposes the analysis of migration trends from a diachronic perspective (mobility from the studied area over the course of a century) and synchronous perspective (mobility trends from Babica in relation to other towns of the region and other Polish towns). In the theoretical section, Kulpinska positions her book as an addition to the literature on migration by presenting a microanalysis conducted from the point of view of the country of origin and a destination country. Further, the process is described from the first migration streams to the present day. Chapters three to six offer analysis of the history of the strzyzowski region; history of coexistence of national and ethnic groups and their migration trends; characteristics of migration routes from particular parts of the region; and traditions and mechanisms of migration from the strzyzowski region. Each chapter presents a chronological account of the topic. Secondary material is enriched by archival sources collected by the author at the Ellis Island Archives and by oral histories conducted with individuals. Based on extensive research, Kulpinska noted the interesting pattern of the migration of Poles, who preferred to travel in groups, and Jews, who usually traveled alone, with some exceptions, such as when a Polish man traveled with a young Jewish woman to provide care for her during the journey. While describing migration and gender, the author writes that the migration of women changed over time from one directional migration to repetitive (circular) migrations often based on job-sharing system. In this section of the book, Kulpinska illustrates her narrative with various charts, maps, and diagrams. As much as I understand the necessity to organize collected data in the process of writing a doctoral dissertation, the number of diagrams feels overwhelming to a reader from outside of the field of sociology.The most interesting part of Joanna Kulpinska's book is presented in the last two chapters, where the author writes about contacts between immigrants from neighboring villages in the country of settlement. Material gathered by Kulpinska demonstrates that although in America Poles from different villages often lived in the same neighborhood, they continued to maintain close ties, mainly with members from their own village. The only exception was when they collaborated on initiatives supporting their communities back home. In that case, everyone fundraised together regardless of the fact that they would not benefit from it upon return. Kulpinska continues the analysis of these processes in the twentieth century and concludes that even though immigrants are open to contacts with people from other regions of Poland, much like their ancestors, they still cultivate regional stereotypes often created at the place of settlement, ones that did not exist in Poland.Interdisciplinary methodology allows Kulpinska to consider the changes, which occurred both in the sending and receiving place. Transmigration resulted in modifications in the social structure of the village. Babica is no longer a closed, self-sufficient community where people rely on familiar and neighboring connections. Further modifications refer to types of networks; contemporary networks are built on individuals or families, unlike the old ones which relied on a broader village community. Therefore, Kulpinska's focus on a history of particular families shows the reader a new type of chain migration, which is described as an imagined community and is best illustrated by multigenerational stories of migration as a family tradition.This monograph is an important voice in transmigration studies. It provides useful analytical material for sociologists and begins a microhistory of families from strzyzowski region that might be of interest to historians. Unfortunately, the publisher confuses the reader by repeating the first twenty pages.