The article analyses the role of international migrants in the process of globalisation and cosmopolitisation of “globalising cities”, taking so-called secondary cities as its point of reference in the study of Kraków and Poznań. We posit that the role of migrants in the dual processes of globalisation and cosmopolitisation is contingent on the way in which the city itself has historically gone through the process of ‘globalising’, particularly in how the public sphere has been developed. In the case of the post-Fordist city (Kraków), which developed through the service and creative industries, these processes are more intensive, and migrants themselves are drivers of change. This is not as evident in Fordist-model cities like Poznań that have also experienced migration flows, but where the positioning of migrants in the public sphere is marginal. The findings in the article are based on two research projects, the first from Krakow entitled “The Relationship Between Foreigners and Public Services and the Development of ‘Nighbourliness’ in a ‘Globalizing’ City: A Case Study of Kraków”, and the second within the framework of a doctoral project realised in the Doctoral School of Social Sciences of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.

The article presents the conceptualisations that constitute the theoretical basis of a new study pursuing sociological understanding of some major social changes which have affected Polish cities in recent years. Poland has increasingly aligned itself with European countries in terms of political, socio-economic and cultural development. New flows of international immigration, meaning new individuals choosing Poland as the country where to work and settle, are making Polish cities more diverse and complex, both in a material and in a cultural way. The new research focuses on the role of foreigners as actors of urban diversification in Poland, analysing features of globalising cities, processes of Europeanisation, migrants’ discursive categorisation and anchoring. The article is conceived as a selection of critical problematisations.