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National and ethnic minorities

According to the Polish law an ethnic minority is a group of Polish citizens fulfilling all the above‑mentioned conditions necessary for a national minority, but it does not identify itselfto identify oneselfidentify itself with a nation organized in its own state.

Take a look at the infographics presenting the national and ethnic minorities in Poland.

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Infografika zatytułowana "Minorities in Poland". Pod jej tytułem znajdują się dwa niezależne elementy, "National minorities" oraz "Ethnic minorities". Pierwszy z nich składa się z następujących podpunktów "Germans, Slovaks, Czechs, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Russians, Lithuanians, Armenians, Jews". Drugi, "Ethnic minorities", zawiera "Roma, Tatars, Lemkos, Karaims".

Kashubians are a special community in Poland. They are Polish citizens, who alongsidealongsidealongside the Polish language, use their own Kashubian language, which according to the statute is recognized as a regional language. This means that persons using this language have similar rights to members of national and ethnic minorities.

National and ethnic minorities constitute currently a rather small percentage of Polish society. However, the Polish‑Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Second Republic of Poland, reborn after the first world war, were multinational states. Until the outbreakoutbreakoutbreak of the second world war around 35% of Polish citizens were not ethnically Polish. The largest minorities were Ukrainians and Jews. The extermination of the Jewish nation during the second world war and the post‑war changes of Polish borders turned Poland into a state dominated by a Polish nation only.

All the people who belong to national or ethnic minorities are also Polish citizens, so they enjoy all the rights any Polish citizen has, e.g. the right to vote in national elections. Additionally, the members of minorities were granted a number of rights that enableto enableenable them to cultivateto cultivatecultivate their cultural identity. Moreover, the Polish law forbidsto forbidforbids any form of discrimination against national or ethnic minorities.

The rights of national and ethnic minorities in Poland:

• the right to learn the language and in its own language, to study the cultural history of the minority and to take external exams in the minority language;

• the right to address local authorities in the minority language and (at requestat requestat request) receive answers in that language;

• the right to write names and surnames according to the rules of the minority language;

• the right to receive funding for the development of social organizations, libraries, radio broadcasts, etc.;

• the right to put the names of towns, streets, etc. in the minority language, next to the Polish name.

There is a considerablyconsiderablyconsiderably large group of Polish citizens living in Upper Silesia who consider themselves members of the Silesians minority. The group, however, is not recognized by the Polish law, and therefore not granted any minority rights. The issue has been a source of an ongoingongoingongoing conflict for many years now.

Polonia

Polish history is a history of radicalradicalradical changes of state borders and numerous migrations of the Polish population. The 18th century partitions of Polandpartitions of Polandpartitions of Poland forced many Poles to leave their Homeland. In the following century many had to flee our country because of persecutionpersecutionpersecution of the participants of national uprisingsuprisinguprisings or simply migrated to the West for economic reasons. A lot of Poles were deported to the far East by Russian authorities as political prisoners. The second world war resulted in more migration waves, and right after the war Polish borders were changed, which contributed to a lot of Poles being left abroad. In the 1980s leaving Poland was a chance to escape both – the communist regime and the deepening economic crisis and poverty. Even now a lot of Polish families decide to emigrate and build their future in other states of the world – Polish accession to the European Union and the resultant border opening made such decisions much easier than before.

There are many Poles or their descendants living all around the world nowadays who try to maintain cultural relationships with Poland. Those people are collectivelycollectivelycollectively called “Polonia” or “Polish diaspora”.

National stereotypes

The stereotypical way of looking at others is essentially incomplete, because it consists in highlightingto highlighthighlighting only selected elements of the behaviour of some members of a given nation or ethnic group and judging the whole group (usually negatively) based on that selective assessment. National stereotypes often transfer conflicts from previous generations to contemporary relations. Their sources include difficult historical experiences. Some of the still vividvividvivid stereotypes in Poland date back to the period of the Second Republic of Poland and the drama of the second world war. Very often stereotypical beliefs allow for building a false sense of superioritysuperioritysuperiority and uniquenessuniquenessuniqueness of one’s own group. Stereotypes result in difficulties in contact and cooperation between different ethnic groups and unnecessarily exacerbateto exacerbateexacerbate social conflicts.

Relations between ethnic groups sometimes prove very difficult, especially when they involve a painful history or deep cultural differences. Proper shaping of relations between ethnically diversediversediverse groups is a very important task of state authorities, but all the inhabitants of a country are responsible for a harmonious coexistence of the whole society. European societies are becoming more and more ethnically diverse and they have to learn to solve problems resulting from this diversity. Regardless ofregardless ofRegardless of how different we are because of our nationality, we are all human beings, and we all have the right to respect for our dignitydignitydignity.

Keywords

national/ethnic minority, regional language, Polonia, Polish diaspora, national stereotype

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