This book sheds light on the complex experiences of asylum seekers and refugees in Poland, against a local backdrop of openly anti-refugee political narratives and strong opposition to sharing the ...responsibility for, and burden of, asylum seekers arriving in the EU. Through a multidimensional analysis, it highlights the processes of forced migrant admission, reception and integration in a key EU frontier country that has undergone a rapid migration status change from a transit to a host country. The book examines rich qualitative material drawn from interviews conducted with forced migrants with different legal statuses and with experts from public administration at the central and local levels, NGOs, and other institutions involved in migration governance in Poland. It discusses both opportunities for and limitations on forced migrants’ adaptation in the social, economic, and political dimensions, as well as their access to healthcare, education, the labour market, and social assistance. This book will be of particular interest to scholars, students, policymakers, and practitioners in migration and asylum studies, social policy, public policy, international relations, EU studies/European integration, law, economics, and sociology.
Recent UNHCR data show that nearly 3 million Syrian refugees have fled to Turkey, where they are not recognised as refugees. Turkey has, however, adopted a new law to offer Syrians temporary ...protection, which means a residence permit, access to education, health care and employment, but also an opportunity to acquire Turkish citizenship on certain conditions. This text focuses on the current regulations for the protection of Syrian refugees in Turkey, outlining the legal status of refugees and examining the impact of their influx on the Turkish policy towards asylum-seekers from non-European countries.
Recent UNHCR data show that nearly 3 million Syrian refugees have fled to Turkey,where they are not recognised as refugees. Turkey has, however, adopted a new law to offerSyrians temporary ...protection, which means a residence permit, access to education, healthcare and employment, but also an opportunity to acquire Turkish citizenship on certainconditions. This text focuses on the current regulations for the protection of Syrian refugees inTurkey, outlining the legal status of refugees and examining the impact of their influx on theTurkish policy towards asylum-seekers from non-European countries.
The project of European integration has undergone a succession of shocks, beginning with the Eurozone crisis, followed by reactions to the sudden growth of irregular migration, and, most recently, ...the Coronavirus pandemic. These shocks have politicised questions related to the governance of borders and markets that for decades had been beyond the realm of contestation. For some time, these questions have been spilling over into domestic and European electoral politics, with the rise of “populist” and Eurosceptic parties. Increasingly, however, the crises have begun to reshape the liberal narrative that have been central to the European project. This book charts the rise of contestation over the meaning of “Europe”, particularly in light of the Coronavirus crisis and Brexit. Drawing together cutting edge, interdisciplinary scholarship from across the continent, it questions not merely the traditional conflict between European and nationalist politics, but the impact of contestation on the assumed “cosmopolitan” values of Europe.
According to the last updated UNHCR data (as of November 2021), approximately 4 million refugees fled to Turkey, out of which 3.7 million are from Syria. Such a huge influx of people ethnically, ...culturally and linguistically different from the Turkish citizens can be considered either as a threat or as a challenge to national identity. Although the former view is more popular nowadays, I will focus on the second one in order to present beneficial influence of immigration on building a multicultural society. In this article will I discuss the situation of Syrian refugees in Turkey and try to answer the question how the influx of Syrian refugees has influenced the Turkish national identity. Article consists of three parts. The first one presents the Turkish identity in traditional and theoretical understanding. The second one depicts influx of Syrian refugees as
a factor that causes changes in social and state relations in Turkey. The third part discusses the already seen impact of Syrian immigration on Turkey’s identity and its possible developments. For the aim of outlining the possible developments the identity change category (Todd 1995; Friedman 1994) was used. In order to analyze the possibility of turning Turkey into a multicultural state, as the Ottoman Empire was considered in the past, the concept of multiculturalism (Kymlicka 1995; Taylor 1992) together with the comparative method were applied. The existing secondary data were analyzed for the purpose of presenting the situation of Syrian refugees in Turkey.
Piotr Kłodkowski
Islam in India: Ideological Conflicts on the Subcontinent and Their Political and Social Consequences in the Early 21st Century
India's political coherence largely depends on New ...Delhi's ability to build a system of cross-cultural compromises among various communities. While the Muslim minority has lived and prospered in India for more than one thousand years, its relations with the Hindu majority have not always been harmonious. The partition of India in 1947 became a political reference point for many radical politicians interested in inciting communal conflicts that bring them political gains. Indian Muslims remain an ethnically and ideologically divided community and have not succeeded in setting up one political party in independent India. They are usually represented by regional parties in different states, but in all-India elections they frequently vote en bloc for the Indian National Congress, which is commonly perceived as a secular party opposed to extremist Hindu ideology. The author briefly analyses the history of Indian Muslims, presents the political consequences of the "Two Nations" theory and explains the reasons behind inter-religious clashes in contemporary India, predicting that the position of Indian Muslims will become a subject of fierce political debate in the years to come.
Andrzej Dybczyński
Double-Track Asymmetry: Alliances of the Republic of Poland in the 21st Century
In the last quarter century, Poland has been one of the foremost beneficiaries of the post-Cold War international order, but its 30 years of uninterrupted development now seem to be drawing to an end. The disadvantageous and largely unpredictable changes in Poland's internal and external environment impart special relevance to the question about the methods and means to ensure the security of the state in the years to come-security which until now seemed guaranteed. One way to achieve this is to conduct an effective alliance policy, understood as selecting allies and building relations with them is such a way that will add to the security of the state and discourage an enemy from open aggression. Hence the urgent need for Poland to formulate a more sophisticated alliance policy than the existing one. This concerns not so much the choice of allies (in this respect, the room for manoeuvre is relatively limited and the choices fairly obvious) as, first and foremost, the way it functions within existing alliances. The text outlines the determinants to which Poland's alliance policy will be subjected in years to come and suggests how this policy should be shaped based on the author's analysis of Poland's security environment and its foreign policy as well as on his research into the phenomenon of alliances as such.
Anna Maria Dyner
The Armed Forces of Belarus
The annexation of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine have significantly altered the security infrastructure in Eastern Europe and impacted the Belarusian authorities, who have begun to pay more attention to the condition of their country's military. The text examines the structure of Belarusian armed forces and their military relations with Russia. Regional defence alliances, such as the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) or military cooperation (joint exercises and industrial cooperation) between Belarus and its allies are also reviewed, along with the condition of the Belarusian armed forces and their ability to defend the country's territory.
Patryk Kugiel
End of European Soft Power? Implications for EU Foreign Policy
Three developments in 2016 led to the EU losing a lot of its soft power, constraining its ability to exert influence on third countries. An evolution in its response to the refugee crisis, rising Euroscepticism and populism in Europe, and the Brexit referendum have all undermined the European project and image of the EU as a political model and global norm-setter. Though the EU still retains much strength, it must rethink how it uses its power, acknowledge the limitations, focus on rebuilding its credibility, and pursue more a pragmatic and modest foreign policy.
Justyna Szałańska
Legal Protection of Syrian Refugees in Turkey against the Background of International Legal Determinants
Recent UNHCR data show that nearly 3 million Syrian refugees have fled to Turkey, where they are not recognised as refugees. Turkey has, however, adopted a new law to offer Syrians temporary protection, which means a residence permit, access to education, health care and employment, but also an opportunity to acquire Turkish citizenship on certain conditions. This text focuses on the current regulations for the protection of Syrian refugees in Turkey, outlining the legal status of refugees and examining the impact of their influx on the Turkish policy towards asylum-seekers from non-European countries.
Beata Słomińska, Marek Wąsiński
The Prospects for U.S. Trade Policy under the Trump Administration
A reform of U.S. trade policy was among the priorities of Donald Trump's campaign. Guidelines of the new policy developed by Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and Peter Navarro, head of the National Trade Council, were then included in the Presidential Trade Agenda for 2017. A lower trade deficit is a key target seen by the new administration as a prerequisite for boosting economic growth. Duties and taxes are to be introduced to countervail unfair practices, which are among the sources of the deficit. The new administration's preference for bilateral rather than multilateral agreements is reiterated. Keeping with his campaign promises, Trump has signed executive orders to withdraw the U.S. from Trans-Pacific Partnership and to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
David Cadier
Why France and Poland (Should) Need Each Other
If European politics is seen as an amusement park, Franco-Polish relations would be a roller coaster and a house of mirrors. Over the last three years, bilateral relations between Warsaw and Paris went from one of its highest to one of its lowest points in recent history. The causes and manifestations of the current tensions in diplomatic and political relations are well known. They should not, however, overshadow the substantive economic links and vibrant cultural ties between the two countries. Nor should they lead to discarding or underestimation of the potential that closer strategic and political relations could bear.
Agnieszka Szpak
International Solidarity as the Basis for Millennium/Sustainable Development Goals
The paper depicts international solidarity as the pillar on which the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) should be based, along with international cooperation and humanitarian and development aid undertaken within the process, thus contributing to human security and global peace. The implementation of the MDGs and SDGs will help close the gap between economically developed countries and developing ones. Humanitarian and developmental aid as specific forms of international cooperation based on international solidarity and rendered in accordance with the UN Charter are necessary tools to build peace and development, and, as a result, to solve many crises, such as mass migration.
Some regions and cities in Poland face challenges due to an accelerating depopulation. Simultaneously, Poland is host to more than 2 million immigrants who mitigate the negative consequences of the ...population outflow and ageing. While bigger Polish cities adopted particular local strategies and measures addressed to migrants, the situation of smaller cities and towns, especially the shrinking ones, has not yet been explored. Therefore, we took a closer look at Lomza, a downscaled middle‐sized city in the east of Poland where two phenomena occur: the accelerating depopulation caused mainly by the outflow of its residents and an inflow of foreign migrants, both asylum seekers predominantly coming from Russia (Chechnya) and economic migrants mainly from Ukraine. We explored the state of the public policy towards immigrants in Lomza in order to see what a shrinking city can offer its newcomers when it cannot count on national strategy in this regard.
This chapter aims to shed light on the geopolitical circumstances in which the system of admitting asylum seekers to Poland developed after 1989. It requires a broader perspective than simply the ...state level since asylum-seeking is not only about crossing borders and asking for protection but also about commitments accepted or denied by the states in the area of providing various kinds of assistance to persons who flee conflict, violence, and persecution. The latter relates to international agreements, among which the UN-level Geneva Convention of 1951 and the New York Protocol of 1967 are keystones. European Union legislation and policies regarding migration and asylum are also crucial points of reference. Therefore, this chapter is organised around two main issues. The first one is a description of Poland as a post-communist country joining an international community committed to providing international protection to persons fleeing persecution, symbolically confirmed in 1991 along with the signing of the 1951 Geneva Convention by Poland. This part is aimed at presenting both the phenomena and developments in international and EU law that influence the creation of Poland's system of forced migration governance. The second part focuses on the scale of forced migration to Poland after 1989, considering the EU and Visegrad Group contexts. Data on this subject were approximated by selected indicators from Eurostat asylum statistics for 2008-2021.
This chapter aims to shed light on the geographical, historical, and political background in which the system of admitting asylum seekers to Poland has developed. It aims to present the critical phenomena and developments in international and EU law that influenced the creation and development of Poland's asylum regime. The chapter focuses on the scale of forced migration to Poland after 1989, considering the EU and Visegrad Group contexts. A decade ago, Polish researchers of migration divided the development of Polish migration policy after 1989 into three stages: institutionalisation, Europeanisation, and stabilisation. The asylum law in Poland must be consistent with the European framework, which in turn is related to the EU asylum policy. This one, along with immigration policy and border control policy, is one of the three specific/sectoral EU policies in the area of international migration management.
This chapter shows how securitisation of forced migration in Poland started in 2015 as a result of the refugee and migration-management crisis, which coincided with the electoral campaigns before the ...presidential and parliamentary elections in Poland held the same year. The potential arrival of refugees in Poland was successfully presented as a major "security threat" that led to a shift in Polish society's attitudes towards asylum seekers and refugees. The chapter examines how forced migrants (both asylum seekers and refugees) have been framed by politicians and media as a security issue in Poland since 2015, and the consequences of that framing on the public opinion of forced migrants. This presentation of the main discourses on forced migration in Poland produced by politicians and reproduced by media also depicts the socio-political atmosphere of the reception and integration policies of the country. In addition, it enquires about stakeholders' reactions and opinions on these discourses and whether they have been internalised by Polish public opinion. To achieve the mentioned aims, a three-step analysis of forced migration discourses in Poland was conducted: political speech analysis, media analysis, and stakeholder discussion analysis.
The Institutional and Legal Basis of the Asylum System Sobczak-Szelc, Karolina; Pachocka, Marta; Pędziwiatr, Konrad ...
From Reception to Integration of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Poland,
2023, Letnik:
1
Book Chapter
Odprti dostop
This chapter presents the legal framework for admitting asylum seekers and providing them with necessary assistance, as well as providing protection to recognised refugees. The overview covers the ...decade 2011-2021 and aims to present the stable elements of the asylum system and explains important changes introduced in this period. The presentation of the legal framework is preceded by a mapping of the institutional actors involved in implementing asylum policy as widely understood in Poland. The overview of the domestic legislation is structured along the course of applying for asylum from the perspective of forced migrants. First, we describe the provisions related to accessing the asylum procedure (at the border and within the territory of Poland), second we present the rules of processing asylum claims, and finally we reflect on the provisions determining the possible outcomes of the asylum procedure, that is, granting international protection or denying it. Special attention was also given to legislation referring to selected spheres of forced migrants' adaptation, that is, access to the labour market, education, housing, and healthcare, which aims to offer the legal context of the empirical analysis presented in other chapters of the book.
