Polish Immigrant Organizations in Germany examines the situation of Polish immigrant organizations in Germany. Based on in-depth, mixed-method research consisting of surveys, case studies, and interviews with immigrants, representatives of institutions involved in the implementation of integration strategy and those responsible for Polish diaspora policy, it develops the notion of the transnational opportunity structure, which analyses the major factors shaping the situation of immigrant organizations. With attention to the characteristics of the migration process and the immigrant community, the country of residence, the country of origin, and bilateral relations between the two countries—which are in turn moderated by both global factors and micro factors—this book offers a multi-faceted analysis of diverse processes of developing diaspora groups and their organizations. It will therefore appeal to scholars of sociology, political science, security studies, and public policy with interests in migration and Diaspora studies, as well as intra-European mobility.

The increased engagement of states with their co-ethnics abroad has recently become one of the most contentious features of European politics. Until recently, the issue has been discussed predominantly within the paradigm of international security; yet a review of the broader European picture shows that kin-state engagement can in fact have a positive societal impact when it actually responds effectively to the claims formulated by co-ethnic communities themselves. Poland's Kin-State Policies: Opportunities and Challenges offers new insights into this issue by examining Poland’s fast-evolving relationship with Polish communities living beyond its borders. Its central focus is the Act on the Polish Card (generally known as Karta Polaka). Tracing policymaking processes and the underlying political agendas that have shaped them, the volume situates Poland’s engagement within broader conceptual and normative debates around kin-state and diaspora politics and explores its reception and impact in neighbouring states (Ukraine, Germany, Lithuania). The volume highlights how the issue of co-ethnics abroad is increasingly being instrumentalised, most especially for the purposes of attracting labour migration to resolve the demographic crisis in Poland. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Ethnopolitics.

This book analyzes the process of national identity formation and identification of children born into formal and informal Polish-German relationships in Poland and Germany, and how that process is impacted by their upbringing at the intersection of two cultures. The sociological-historical approach explores a wide range of processes in interethnic couples related to the case at hand, such as migration, acculturation, and assimilation, as well as integration and increased participation in the structures of the host country, ties with the country of origin, generational changes and decreasing knowledge of the native tongue, and developments affecting mixed partnerships and their children. Taking an original approach to its focus on the long-term relationships between bilingualism and biculturalism and their impact on national identity and identification, the book considers the future and significance of binational and interethnic families and their children in the European integration process and European identity. This volume will appeal to sociologists, historians, political scientists, anthropologists, and linguists, and especially to students and scholars interested in the relations between national, linguistic, and political matters.

The economic consequences of migration are hotly debated and a main topic of recent political movements across Europe. We analyze Polish immigration in the context of the 2004 enlargement of the European Union and find a positive and significant spillover effect of the immigrants on the number of local inventors in German counties in 2001-2010. For causal identification, we exploit a historical episode in the Polish migration history to Germany before the fall of the Iron Curtain and construct a shift-share instrument. Our results differ from findings for high-skilled migration to the United States, which is particularly interesting as Polish immigration to Germany was not based on selection by qualification in our period of analysis.

This study of minorities involves the difficult issues of rights, justice, equality, dignity, identity, autonomy, political liberties, and cultural freedoms. The A-Z Encyclopedia presents the facts, arguments, and areas of contention in over 560 entries in a clear, objective manner. For a full list of entries, contributors, and more, visit the Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities website.

This book analyzes the aims, activities and structures of cross border migrant organizations in four European countries of arrival and seven countries of origin, exploring different patterns of cross-border resource mobilization and coordination.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, Pittsburgh, also known as "Steel City," was the largest steel-producing center in the United States. With its need for labor in the steel industry, Pittsburgh had an insatiable hunger for workers. Polish immigrants helped meet this demand. The city of Pittsburgh, as well as the surrounding area, was a heavily ethnic environment, and significant remnants of that heritage continue. Today, there is still a city neighborhood officially designated Polish Hill (Polski Gory). This book chronicles the immigration of Poles to Pittsburgh in several waves, beginning with those from German-occupied Poland, then Russian-occupied Poland, and finally, the largest group emigrating from that section of partitioned Poland under the control of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.