An Immigrant in a Polish Town: the Long Road to a Multicultural Society and Multiculturalism

Abstract

Poland is per saldo an emigration country (over 3 million people left the country between 1980 and 2014). Demographic analyses predict significant ageing of the population and a population decline in the next decades. Immigrants constitute less than 2% of the Polish populace and for many of them Poland is a place of seasonal residence or transit point in their journey to Western Europe. Therefore, Poland and the Poles need cultural diversity that results from immigration. Poland needs its own policy/ideology of multiculturalism that would include the long-term goals of the state and all its present and future residents. This policy should integrate legislation with development of social awareness (the level of positive tolerance) through education and increased use of expert knowledge. It should also use positive and negative experience of multicultural states of the ‘old’ European Union. Polish migration policy needs a serious social debate that goes beyond the development of tools to respond to the phenomenon of migration. Currently, immigrants in Poland encounter manyadaptation and integration problems. They live separately from the host society and remain 'invisible'. Poland has just begun a long journey to build a modern open society and Polish inhabitants, using the Charles Taylor’s words, face the challenge of negotiations over the so-called space of recognition.