Skip to main content

The Politics of the ‘Migration Crisis’ in Poland

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Everyday Politics of Migration Crisis in Poland
  • 950 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter aims to provide a broader political context. It discusses the reasons the EU faced an increase in the number of migrants and refugees in 2015. The chapter shows how the rhetoric of the migration crisis shaped the EU’s policy. It considers the EU’s relocation programme and the strategy of containing refugees. The main part of the chapter focuses on the politics and rhetoric of the PiS government and right wing that identified refugees as a Muslim threat and evoked moral panic about national security. It demonstrates the emergence of hegemonic Islamophobic discourse in the Polish public sphere.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Agustín, Ó. G., & Jørgensen, M. B. (2018). Solidarity and the ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe. Cham: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • AI. (2016, December 20). Syria’s refugees crisis in number. Retrieved from https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/02/syrias-refugee-crisis-in-numbers/.

  • Albahari, M. (2015). Crimes of peace: Mediterranean migrations at the world’s deadliest border. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bertram, Ł., Puchejda, A., & Wigura, K. (2017). Negatywny obraz Muzułmanów w polskiej prasie [An negative image of Muslims in Polish press]. Warszawa: Fundacja Kultury Liberalnej.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bobako, M. (2017). Islamofobia jako technologia władzy. Studium z antropologii politycznej [Islamophobia as a technology of power: A study in political anthropology]. Kraków: Universitas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brian, T., & Laczko, T. (2014). Fatal journeys: Tacking lives lost during migration. Geneva: IOM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buonanno, L. (2017). The European migration crisis. In D. Dinan, N. Nugent, & W. E. Patterson (Eds.), The European Union in crisis (pp. 100–130). London: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cap, P. (2018). ‘We don’t want any immigrants or terrorists here’: The linguistic manufacturing of xenophobia in the post-2015 Poland. Discourse & Society, 29, 380–398.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cekiera, R. (2017a). Uchodźcy w krainie memokracji [Refugees in the land of memocracy]. Znak, 734, 52–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cekiera, R. (2017b). Terroryści, tchórze i lenie. Konstruowanie wizerunku uchodźców za pomocą memów internetowych [Terrorists, cowards and idlers: Constructing an image of refugees by means of internet memes]. Kultura – Media – Teologia, 29, 69–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chebel d’Appollonia, A. (2015). Migrant mobilization and securitization in the US and Europe: How does it feel to be a threat? London: Palgrave.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cocco, E. (2017). Where is the European frontier? The Balkan migration crisis and its impact on relations between the EU and the Western Balkan. European View, 16, 293–302.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collet, E., & Le Coz, C. (2018). After the storm: Learning from the EU response to the migration crisis. Brussels: Migration Policy Institute Europe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crawley, H., Duvell, F., Jones, K., McMahon, S., & Sigona, N. (2018). Unravelling Europe’s ‘migration crisis’: Journeys over land and sea. Bristol: Policy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Czyż, A. (2017). Państwa Grupy Wyszehradzkiej wobec kryzysu migracyjnego [Visegrád states toward migration crisis]. Studia Politicae Universitatis Silesiensis, 18, 143–161.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dudkiewicz, M., & Majewski, P. (2017). Cudzoziemcy w Warszawie [Foreigners in Warsaw]. Warszawa: Obserwatorium.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dziennik. (2015, September 8). Gowin o muzułmańskich uchodźcach: Nie pozwolę na wysadzanie w powietrzę polskich niemowląt [Gowin about Muslim refugees: I do not allow to blow up Polish newborns]. Retrieved from http://wiadomosci.dziennik.pl/polityka/artykuly/499884,gowin-o-muzulmanskich-uchodzcach-nie-pozwole-na-wysadzanie-w-powietrze-polskich-niemowlat.html.

  • EC. (2015, May 13). An European agenda on migration. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/anti-trafficking/sites/antitrafficking/files/communication_on_the_european_agenda_on_migration_en.pdf.

  • European Council. (2016, April 32). Remarks by President Donald Tusk during his visit to Turkey. Retrieved from http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2016/04/23/tusk-remarks-visit-gaziantep-turkey/.

  • Guiraudon, V. (2018). The 2015 refugee crisis was not a turning point: Explaining policy inertia in EU border control. European Political Science, 17, 151–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holland, H. (2015, December 30). Over one million sea arrivals reach Europe in 2015. Retrieved from http://www.unhcr.org/afr/news/latest/2015/12/5683d0b56/million-sea-arrivals-reach-europe-2015.html.

  • Innes, A. J. (2015). Migration, citizenship and the challenge for security. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • IOM. (2015). Mixed migration flows in the Mediterranean and beyond. Compilation of available data and information. Reporting period 2015. Retrieved from https://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/situation_reports/file/Mixed-Flows-Mediterranean-and-Beyond-Compilation-Overview-2015.pdf.

  • Ivaldi, G. (2018). Contesting the EU in times of crisis: The Front National and politics of Euroscepticism in France. Politics, 38, 278–294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jaskulowski, K. (2012). Wspólnota symboliczna [Symbolic community]. Gdańsk: WN Katedra.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaskulowski, K. (2017). Beyond national security: The nation-state, refugees and human security. Kontakt, 19, 311–316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jaskulowski, K. (2018). The securitisation of migration: Its limits and consequences. International Political Science Review. Ahead online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512118799755.

  • Jaskulowski, K., & Kilias, J. (2016). Polityka nacjonalistycznej rewolucji. Studio Opinii. Retrieved from http://studioopinii.pl/archiwa/164532.

  • Jones, R. (2016). Violent borders: Refugees and the right to move. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krotofil, J., & Motak, D. (2018a). A critical discourse analysis of the media coverage of the migration crisis in Poland. The Polish Catholic Church’s perception of the ‘migration crisis’. Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis, 28, 92–115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krotofil J., & Motak D. (2018b). Between traditionalism, fundamentalism, and populism: A critical discourse analysis of the media coverage of the migration crisis in Poland. In U. Schmiedel & G. Smith (Eds.), Religion in the European refugee crisis (pp. 61–85). New York: Palgrave.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Krzyżanowska, N., & Krzyżanowski, M. (2018). ‘Crisis’ and migration in Poland: Discursive shifts, anti-pluralism and the politicisation of exclusion. Sociology, 52, 612–618.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krzyżanowski, M. (2018). Discursive shifts in ethno-nationalist politics: On politicization and mediatization of the ‘refugee crisis’ in Poland. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 16, 76–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kubicki, P., Pawlak, M., Mica, A., & Horolets, A. (2017). Wyjście z cienia. Polityka uchodźcza w sytuacji kryzysu [Exit from the shadow: Refugee policy in the crisis]. Polityka Społeczna, 9, 22–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazaridis, G., & Khursheed, W. (Eds.). (2015). The securitization of migration in the UE: Debates since 9/11. New York: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Legut, A., & Pędziwiatr, K. (2018). Sekurytyzacja migracji w polityce polskiej a zmiana postaw Polaków wobec uchodźców [Securitization of migration in the Polish politics and the change in attitudes to refugees in Poland]. In R. Jończy (Ed.), Sami swoi? Wielokulturowość we współczesnej Europie [Our folks? Multicutluralism in contemporary Europe] (pp. 41–51). Gliwice: Dom Współpracy Polsko-Niemieckiej.

    Google Scholar 

  • Łodziński, S., & Szonert, M. (2016).‘Niepolityczna polityka’? Kształtowanie się polityki migracyjnej w Polsce 1989 – 2016 [Non-political policy? The development of migration policy in Poland, 1989–2016] (CMR Working Papers No. 90/148). Retrieved from http://www.migracje.uw.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/CMR_WP_90148.pdf.

  • Majewski, P. (2015). Rap jako muzyka tożsamościowa: od czarnego getta do polskiego poppnacjonalizmu [Rap as identity music: From the black ghetto to Polish pop-nationalism]. Sprawy Narodowościowe, 47, 57–69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Majewski, P. (2017). ‘Polska dla Polaków, nie żaden kurwa Ahmed’. Analiza narracji islamofobicznych w polskim rapie [Poland for Poles, no for any fucking Ahmed. Analysis of Islamophobia in Polish Rap Music]. Kultura Popularna, 53, 106–116.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mandić, D., & Simpson, C. M. (2017). Refugees and shifted risk: An international study of Syrian forced migration and smuggling. International Migration, 55, 73–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Michlic, J. (2006). Poland’s threatening other: The image of the Jew from 1880 to the present. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Narkowicz, K. (2018). ‘Refugees not welcome here’: State, church and civil society responses to the refugees crisis in Poland. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-018-9287-9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Narkowicz, K., & Pędziwiatr, K. (2017a). From unproblematic to contentious: Mosques in Poland. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 43, 441–457.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Narkowicz, K., & Pędziwiatr, K. (2017b). Saving and fearing Muslim women in ‘post-communist’ Poland: Troubling Catholic and secular Islamophobia. Gender, Place & Culture, 24, 288–299.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Otwarta Rzeczpospolita. (2015). Utwór nawołujący do nienawiści wobec uchodźców [A song inciting hatred towards refugees]. Retrieved from http://www.zglosnienawisc.otwarta.org/incydent/886.

  • Pankowski, R. (2006). Rasizm a kultura popularna [Racism and popular culture]. Warszawa: Trio.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pankowski, R. (2010). The populist radical right in Poland: The patriots. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pędziwiatr, K. (2010). Muslims in the Polish media—The new folk devil? Arches Quarterly, 7, 89–95.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pędziwiatr, K. (2017). Islamophobia in Poland. National report 2016. In E. Bayraklı & F. Hafez (Eds.), European Islamophobia report 2016 (pp. 413–438) Istanbul: SETA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pędziwiatr, K. (2018). The Catholic Church in Poland on Muslim and Islam. Patterns of Prejudice, 52(5), 461–478.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pędziwiatr, K., & Legut A. (2016). Polskie rządy wobec unijnej strategii na rzecz przeciwdziałania kryzysowi migracyjnemu [Polish governments on the European strategy of dealing with migration crisis]. In A. Wojtaszczyk & J. Szymańska (Eds.), Uchodźcy w Europie [Refugees in Europe] (pp. 671–693). Warszawa: WUW.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perkowski, N., & Squire, V. (2018). The anti-policy of European anti-smuggling as a site of contestation in the Mediterranean migration ‘crisis’. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2018.1468315.

  • Petrowa-Wasilewicz, A. (2015, May 30). Abp Henryk Hoser w rozmowie z KAI [Abp Henryk Hoser talking to KAI]. Retrieved from https://ekai.pl/abp-henryk-hoser-w-rozmowie-z-kai-uchodzcy-wezwanie-do-nawrocenia/.

  • Phillips, C. (2016). The Battle for Syria: International rivalry in the New Middle East. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Radio Poland. (2016, March 23). Poland will not take in any immigrants: PM Szydło. Retrieved from http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/245910,Poland-will-not-take-in-any-immigrants-PM-Szydlo.

  • Ruhrmann, H., & FitzGerald, D. (2016). The externalization of Europe’s borders in the refugee crisis, 2015–2016 (Working Paper No. 194). Retrieved from https://ccis.ucsd.edu/_files/wp194.pdf.

  • Rząd RP. (2015). Stanowisko rządu wobec Europejskiego Programu w zakresie migracji [Government position on a European agenda on migration]. Retrieved from http://orka.sejm.gov.pl/SUE7.nsf/7bfa211dcbf982c7c12578630035da9e/a5f0b9201f4aa3c4c1257e62002f3e04/$FILE/Stanowisko%20Rzadu_pozalegislacyjny_2015_240_ostateczny.docx.

  • Šabić, S. S. (2017). The relocation of refugees in the European Union. Zagreb: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saeed, T. (2016). Islamophobia and securitization: Religion, ethnicity and the female voice. London: Palgrave.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sejm RP. (2015). Sprawozdanie stenograficzne z 100. posiedzenia Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej w dniu 16 września 2015 [Parliamentary debates from 100th session of the Polish Republic’s Sejm on 16th September 2015]. Retrieved from http://orka2.sejm.gov.pl/StenoInter7.nsf/0/A8CA0F4060DE3B1CC1257EC200722812/%24File/100_a_ksiazka.pdf.

  • Sigona, N. (2018). The contested politics of naming in Europe’s ‘refugee crisis’. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 41, 456–460.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skorupska, P., & Mordacz, K. (2017). Narracje medialne o uchodźcach w prasie polskiej [Medial narrations about refugees in the Polish press]. Warszawa: UW.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stolcke, V. (1995). Talking culture: New boundaries, new rhetoric of exclusion in Europe. Current Anthropology, 36, 1–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Triandafyllidou, A. (2018). A ‘refugee crisis’ unfolding: ‘Real’ events and their interpretation in media and political debates. Journal of Immigrant & Refugees Studies, 16, 198–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turculet, G. (2017). The refugee ‘EU-Turkey deal’. The ethics of border politics. Boletin De Estudios Economicos, 222, 541–561.

    Google Scholar 

  • UDSC. (2018, March 1). Top 5 – ochrona międzynarodowa [Top 5—International protection]. Retrieved from https://udsc.gov.pl/statystyki/raporty-specjalne/top-5-ochrona-miedzynarodowa/.

  • UNHCR. (2015, August 18). Numbers of refugee arrivals to Greece increase dramatically. Retrieved from https://data2.unhcr.org/en/news/12782.

  • UNHCR. (2016, December). Refugees & migrants sea arrivals in Europe. Retrieved from https://data2.unhcr.org/ar/documents/download/53447.

  • UNHCR. (2018). Mediterranean situation. Retrieved from http://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/mediterranean.

  • UNHRC. (2015). Report of the detailed findings of the commission of inquiry on human rights in Eritrea. Geneva: UN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warmińska, K. (1999). Tatarzy polscy: tożsamość religijna i etniczna [Polish Tatars: Religious and ethnic identity]. Kraków: Universitas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Żyła, M. (2018). Strasz i rządź [Scare and rule]. Tygodnik Powszechny, 9(3581), 12–16.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Krzysztof Jaskułowski .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Jaskułowski, K. (2019). The Politics of the ‘Migration Crisis’ in Poland. In: The Everyday Politics of Migration Crisis in Poland. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10457-3_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10457-3_3

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-10456-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-10457-3

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics