Attitudes towards Minorities in Post‐communist and Democratic Poland

Abstract

The political transformation of Eastern European countries heralded many fundamental economic, social, and cultural changes. One aspect of democracy -cultural democracy -focuses on the situation of minority groups. The treatment of minorities, while largely determined by law and actions of the government, is also influenced by the attitudes and opinions held by the citizens. This article analyses opinion polls conducted between 1994 and 2014 on attitudes towards ethnic and national minorities in Poland. The data comes from the Public Opinion Research Center (Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej -CBOS) and was published solely in the Polish language. This analysis is situated within Poland's shifting political, social, and cultural contexts, and emphasizes current legislation concerning minorities in Poland.

Discrimination based on gender and ethnicity in English and Polish housing markets

“…Polish xenophobic attitudes (e.g., in form of hate‐speech or direct violence; Wiśniewski et al, ) towards Arabic people have lately begun to deepen. This is likely due to the increase of the stream of Syrian and Iraqi refugees across Europe (Brodziak, Różyk‐Myrta, & Wolińska, ; Poushter, ) that most Polish have never had contact with a Muslim (Skrodzka & Stefaniak, ), or a mix of cultural, social, economic, political, historical, and security‐related fears (Bachman, ; Celińska, ). Because both the English and American people are among the most preferred immigrant ethnicities in Poland (Strzeszewski, ), we expect no discrimination against them in the Polish housing market.…”