Discursive construction of the perception of gender identity: The case of tenants and owners in re-privatization/property restitution in Warsaw

The article examines how the perception of gender identities of tenants and owners was constructed in normalizing discourses regarding re-privatization/property restitution in Warsaw in 2004-2016. As a theoretical approach, it applies the feminist post-structuralist perspective developed by Sophie Watson (2000a). The data were collected with discourse analysis, as proposed by Judith Baxter (2008a). The article identifies two discourses pertaining to re-privatization/property restitution in Warsaw: 1) property restitution discourse, under which returning property to former owners (or their heirs) is presented as a moral imperative; and 2) expropriation of tenants discourse, focusing on abuse, fraud and human misfortune stemming from the passage of municipal housing stock to the descendants of former owners. In both discourses, tenants were ascribed a feminine identity, and owners a masculine one (G. Hofstede, G.J. Hofstede, 2007). That affected the tenants' and owners' positions in the housing policy process.

Property restitution and ending displacement in Kosovo: coordinated effort or at cross-purposes?

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Law, Violence, and Property Expropriation in Syria: Impediments to Restitution and Return

After eight years of civil war, parts of Syria are now free from conflict. In recognition of the return to peace, the government officially welcomes back all who fled the country to escape violence. Yet, a pattern of property expropriation supported by the government during the war limits the ability of some to return and reclaim their homes and businesses. We argue here that intentional changes to law and policy regarding property rights during the war has led to asset losses for members of groups opposed to the government and created a barrier to property restitution and the return of these groups. We examine legal documents and secondary sources identifying government actions and their impact, noting the proliferation of laws that systematically erode the property rights of people who lack proximity, legal status, and regime allies. As the results of these laws manifest after the war, a disproportionate number of Syrians who opposed the government will find themselves without the houses, land, and property they held before the war began.

Spain

Spain is typically described as having been a neutral country during World War II. However, during the war, the Fascist ideology of Spain’s General Francisco Franco was closely aligned to that of the Nazis’ National Socialism. Unlike Hitler’s Germany, however, Franco’s Spain did not enact anti-Jewish policies or engage in the persecution of Jews. More than 25,000 Jews were able to escape Nazi-controlled Europe to Spain during the war. No immovable property—private, communal, or heirless—was taken from Jews or other targeted groups in Spain during the war. As a result, no immovable property restitution laws were required. Spain endorsed the Terezin Declaration in 2009 and the Guidelines and Best Practices in 2010.

Russia

In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, in violation of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The invasion marked the beginning of what Russia would later call the Great Patriotic War during which the Soviet Union suffered tens of millions of civilian and military losses. Private property in the Soviet Union was earlier confiscated through Lenin and Stalin’s nationalization programs. Nazi-occupied territories of the Soviet Union suffered property confiscation by the German forces, with most of the confiscation taking place in the Soviet Republics of Belarussia and Ukraine and western Russia. Russia does not have any private or communal property restitution and/or compensation laws relating to Holocaust-era confiscations, or return of property confiscations dating back to the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Russia also does not have any special legislation dealing with heirless property. Russia endorsed the Terezin Declaration in 2009, but declined to endorse the 2010 Guidelines and Best Practices.

Macedonia

Yugoslavia (which included present-day Macedonia) was invaded by the Axis powers in 1941 and immovable property was confiscated. After the war, Yugoslavia enacted a property restitution law, but it was short-lived. As Yugoslavia fell under Communist rule, widespread nationalization—which this time occurred irrespective of race, religion, or ethnicity—resulted in a second wave of property confiscations. Macedonia gained its independence in 1991. In 2000, Macedonia passed its primary denationalization law, which addressed the restitution of private, communal, and heirless property. It was the first law in any of the Balkan countries to address heirless property. Macedonia endorsed the Terezin Declaration in 2009 and the Guidelines and Best Practices in 2010.