The evolution of post-accession diasporas and diaspora policies after 2004: a comparative analysis of Poland and Lithuania

ABSTRACT

Diaspora policy hinges upon multiple issues linked to the state of origin, state of destination, and international environment, as well as the size and nature of the diaspora itself. This article examines the evolution of Poland and Lithuania’s diaspora policies in response to the transformation of the diasporas’ nature from ‘liquid’ to ‘solid’ in the EU post-accession period. Drawing on existing data and statistics, and an analysis of the documents and actions taken by the Polish and Lithuanian governments, the article presents four layers of the transformation of diaspora policies: adjustment, inducement, partnership, and embracement.

KEYWORDS:

• Post-accession diaspora
• diaspora governance
• diaspora policy layers
• policy transformation
• Poland
• Lithuania

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the National Science Center of Poland, Grant No. 2018/31/B/HS5/00913.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Two of the countries (Norway and the UK) were chosen to present data on childbirth and naturalization. The choice was intended to showcase data from a country with a longer (the UK) and shorter (Norway) history of immigration from new EU members countries. Both states are significant destination countries for Polish and Lithuanian migrants.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Narodowe Centrum Nauki [2018/31/B/HS5/00913]

Notes on contributors

Anzhela Popyk

Anzhela Popyk is a PhD candidate at the University SWPS, Warsaw, and a researcher in the project “Diaspora policy in the context of post-accession migration: A comparative analysis of Poland, Lithuania, and Hungary,” at the Centre of Migration Research at the University of Warsaw.

Magdalena Lesińska

Magdalena Lesińska is an Assistant Professor at the Centre of Migration Research, University of Warsaw. Her areas of expertise are migration policy, diaspora studies, and transnational participation of migrants, including voting rights. She is principal investigator on the project “Diaspora policy in the context of post-accession emigration: A comparative analysis of Poland, Hungary, and Lithuania,” funded by the National Science Centre in Poland.

Karolis Dambrauskas is a junior researcher at the Department of Ethnic Studies, Institute of Sociology, Lithuanian Centre of Social Sciences, and a lecturer at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania. His areas of expertise are nationalism, nation-building, national minorities, anthropology of post-socialism, and governmentality studies.