Transnational ties and ethnic activism: The case of Poland

Abstract

The second half of the 20th century was characterized by debate on the implementation of minorities’ rights. Poland, similar to other Central Eastern European states, was not able to participate in this process until the 1990s. After 1989, there was a rapid increase in legislation on minorities’ rights in Poland. Simultaneously, ethnic groups entered the public sphere as actors who were able to legitimately voice their demands. While the anti-discrimination prescriptions created in the framework of supranational institutions and Poland’s democratic transformation facilitated the ethnic organizations’ activism, the supranational and domestic institutional environment was not decisive in determining different minorities’ levels of participation in the public sphere. This article argues that transnational linkages in which minorities are embedded variously empower them and allow them to break loose from the constraints imposed by the nation-state.