POLICY TOWARDS THE EMIGRATION

Janusz Dobrosz

What does it currently mean to describe Polish communities abroad as the “Polonia”?
This term is still valid, although its meaning has changed. For example, for post war émigrés the term “Polonia” had a sentimental meaning and expressed the longing for the country enslaved by the USSR. “Polonia” was used only in relation to Poles in the West: in Europe, USA and Australia. However, beyond our postwar eastern border, on lands taken over by the USSR, there is no Polonia: there are instead generations of Poles descended from father to son. Until 1989, we were only interested in and spoke about the Polonia, completely forgetting, for political reasons, the Poles in the East. After 1989, many declarations were made about the need to redress the wrongs which had met our countrymen in the former Soviet republics. However, much less was done although the problem is also much greater than in the case of the Poles in the West. Today’s globalising world requires a modern approach to the question of national identity.

Isn’t there a danger that we will now ignore the Polonia and only concern ourselves with the Poles in Kazakhstan, for example?
I believe that the western Polonia has also been given short treatment. During the umpteen years of the III Republic, no government has done anything to encourage American, Australian, British or German Poles to invest in the motherland, giving them preferential treatment. Take the example of China. The communist authorities in Beijing have created a special ministry for nationals abroad and support the Chinese diaspora outside the country’s borders in an almost perfect way. I have been to China three times and seen how the funds of the Chinese spread all over the world but particularly working in the USA, are contributing to the development of the country’s economy, although it has nothing to do with a free market. We seem unable to use the Polonia’s potential. This is something I cannot understand.

What can bring the Polonia closer to the motherland?
A good image of Poland and of Poles in the world. It is increasingly the case that Poles living abroad don’t want to bring their children up in Polish traditions, because they feel that this will hinder their future career prospects. This is because Poland has for many years been the subject of various insults and appalling jokes, which have nothing to do with a proper sense of humour and only damage the good name of Poles and Poland. Please believe me that a false image created by jokes, films that promote falsehoods and literature of a similar kind about, for example World War II, is often larger that the truth. It was Goebbels who said that a lie repeated often enough becomes a truth.

More and more Poles are leaving the country to make a living. Does that not disquiet you?
The current emigration is caused by the dramatic situation on our labour market, which in turn is the result of privatisation policies carried out blindly in the last years. A diabolical assumption was made, in the first years of our democracy, that our national assets should be valued at the price willing to be paid for them by foreign investors. This sale caused a fall-off in production and unemployment. We must find mechanisms which will allow today’s migrants to have an opportunity to return to Poland, to a good enough standard of living.

What about the Poles in the East, in Kazakhstan, for example?
It is a matter of shame that our countrymen are unable to, if they want it, to return to their motherland. They were deprived of their country in a brutal way and are now often threatened by the expansion of Islam. They are a group of about 10 thousand people, so it’s not such a large number which a country of 38 million could not assimilate and provide a living to. It just requires money and political will. I once had an idea that the returnees could be settled on the lands of the former state farms (PGR), where they could receive financial and professional help. Maybe it would have succeeded. Local councils started to organise the arrivals of Poles from Kazakhstan, but they stopped doing this, when they received no help from the state. There is no comprehensive training programme available to help these people adjust. Here the state has shown its impotence.

Somehow things are very quite about the Poles in Lithuania?
We have good relations with Lithuania, so it is not right to be critical of the Lithuanians. However, we still have the unresolved issues of history text books and the spelling of Polish names. These matters must be raised firmly with the Lithuanian side. Poles do not want to change history they only want to have their minority rights guaranteed just as in other countries of the EU.

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