Migration and diversity in a post-socialist context: Creating integrative encounters in Poland

Abstract

This article explores 'integrative encounters' between immigrants and Polish people in Warsaw. Rather than focus on new arrivals we pay attention to the integration experiences of the host population in recognition that this is a group who have been relatively neglected in the literature. Post-socialist European countries where population mobility was circumscribed during the communist era and as a consequence became perceived as relatively homogenous white societies but which are now seeing a rise in immigration, have been largely neglected by nondomestic scholars. In Poland organised group activity is an important means to provide the established population with an opportunity to encounter migrants because such encounters are less likely to occur in everyday spaces. Drawing on research with a Warsaw based NGO which runs a football league to bring Polish people and immigrants together, we argue that attention needs to be paid to the issue of 'motivation' to participate in integration projects and to the significance of sociality. In doing so, we suggest that creating the conditions for spontaneous connections to develop, even in contrived projects, is a way to overcome indifference to difference. Here, we highlight the qualities of football as a bridging activity to facilitate integrative encounters.

In the contact zone: engineering meaningful encounters across difference through an interfaith project

“…; Mayblin et al . ). Rather, geographical and social differences in the material circumstances of the young people meant that the structural inequalities (such as class) which create physical and socio‐cultural distance between the Jewish and Muslim communities, and generational power imbalances which hinder the ability of young people to influence wider community social relations, limit the sustainability and scale‐ability of such connections.…”

“…; Mayblin et al . ). In theorising this type of engineered encounter in this paper we draw on the concept of the ‘ contact zone ’.…”

A Study of Local Incorporation of Migrant Professionals in Wroclaw

“…My article presents a new case study that aims to broaden our knowledge by analysing the specific and context‐dependent exemplar of migrant professionals in Wrocław. Thus, my article deepens discussion on migrants’ urban experience by examining the under‐researched topic of migration to a post‐socialist city in Poland, a country that has traditionally sent out rather than received migrants (Goździak and Pawlak, ; Mayblin et al., ). My assumption is that specific, detailed and local knowledge has crucial significance for broader theoretical understanding of the links between migration and the urban context.…”

Ethnographic understandings of ethnically diverse neighbourhoods to inform urban design practice

“…Spontaneous encounters in these places have the potential to result in social ties and friendships over time; not only for the active participants in play activities but also for the supervising parents (Cattell et al 2008, Koutrolikou 2012. The collective use of space and the overlap of interests can bring together new and established communities and are sometimes especially valuable when integration is implicit rather than explicit (see Mayblin et al 2016 for discussion of a football league integration initiative in Poland). However, Clayton (2009) discusses how the spatial and material characteristics of a fenced football pitch, referred to by the young participants as "the cage", became a site of conflict over the ownership of space among young users of different ethnic backgrounds in Leicester.…”