Transnarodowa kwestia społeczna. Migracje i nierówności społeczne

The social question is back. Yet today’s social question is not primarily between labour and capital, as it was in the nineteenth century and throughout much of the twentieth. The contemporary social question is located at the interstices between the global South and the global North. It finds its expression in movements of people, seeking a better life or fleeing unsustainable social, political, economic, and ecological conditions. It is transnationalized because migrants and their significant others entertain ties across the borders of national states in transnational social spaces; because of the cross-border diffusion of norms; and because there are implications of migration for social inequalities within national states. The first section discusses the structure of social inequalities in migration and the politics around it. It starts, first, by elaborating upon the commonalities and differences of the social question in the 19th and 21st centuries and then, second, asks whether the increasing relevance of location compared to class for income and life chances has replaced voice as a main response by exit. This is followed, third, by an elaboration of the nexus between social inequalities and migration, i.e. migration being both an antecedent and a consequence of social inequalities. Fourth, the focus moves to the main changes in migration control, its externalization from border control to remote control. This is followed, fifth, by a consideration of the other side of the coin, internalization processes in countries of destination and origin, driven by processes such as marketization and securitization of migration. The second section then moves on to sketch one of the main challenges, the need to include ecological aspects into the discussion of the social question. The analysis concludes with reflections on the shifting form of the transnationalized social question. Finally, the outlook discusses the role of social scientists in discussing the transnationalized social question in the public sphere.

Psychoterapeutki i psychoterapeuci wobec konsekwencji pandemii COVID-19. Analiza z perspektywy teorii traumy zmian społecznych

This paper aims to analyze the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the individuals’ mental conditions, focusing on psychotherapy clients. The sources of knowledge about mental condition changes analyzed here are psychotherapists’ reports. One of the research purposes was to examine to what extent the problems resulting from the pandemic are visible from the perspective of psychotherapists’ offices. Moreover, the authors explore the changes in psychotherapists’ functioning and the adjustments of psychotherapy understood as one of the expert systems in a late modern society affected by social changes’ trauma. Adopting the theory of social trauma (Alexander 2004, Sztompka 2002) as the frame of analysis enables examining the relation between personal but repeatable experiences of emotional crises and their global context determined by the pandemic. This paper’s empirical foundation is the survey research on a sample of 384 Polish psychotherapists carried out between August 10 and September 30 as a part of the project „Psychotherapeutic work in the pandemic time” supported by the Faculty of Sociology at Adam Mickiewicz University. The research results enable registering the increased intensity of problems resulting from social stress among people searching for psychotherapeutic support and those working in the helping professions. Simultaneously, changes in the functioning of the whole expert system of psychotherapy may be interpreted as the attempts to compensate for the social order destabilization that results in the growing stress and overburden of individuals.

Zmiany w obszarze zatrudnienia migrantek i migrantów ukraińskich w powiecie tatrzańskim w kryzysie pandemii COVID-19. Prekarność a bezpieczeństwo i godziwość pracy

In this publication we present the results of qualitative research we carried out in July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. It concerned support networks of Ukrainian migrants working in the Tatrzański county, Poland. Extensive empirical material that we have gathered allows us also to examine working conditions in the tourism-related services sector. We analyze them in the context of the concept of precarious work, opposing it to the ideas of work safety and decent work. We recall numerous examples of violation of workers’ rights and point out how the precarious position of migrant workers has additionally worsened during the crisis related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Wstęp

Profound social transformations verify the usefulness of theoretical concepts, the explorative skills of social researchers, and their ability to think innovatively. The Introduction to this book specifi es the main opportunities and problems for research during the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenges are threefold: 1) on the empirical level; 2) on the methodological level; 3) on the conceptual level. We also indicate that while during the pandemic the researchers are tempted to accelerate the process of analyses, it is also important to preserve high reviewing standards and procedures.

Superróżnorodność w warunkach kryzysu i transformacji społecznej: od przedsiębiorczości migrantów do superróżnorodnej przedsiębiorczości

Intensive mobility of the recent decades has brought a new level of social diversity, defined as superdiversity (Vertovec 2007). The article analyzes the existing theoretical approaches to this phenomenon, and debates the usefulness of the concept in research about migrant and minority entrepreneurship. The context of pandemic and migration brings new challenges for entrepreneurship, as well as for migrations and superdiversity. Examining the significance of superdiversity and entrepreneurship in the times of pandemic and crisis, the article refers to three interrelated questions: (1) how the notion of migrant is socially constructed; (2) how the global migration regimes and multicultural states are connected to the contemporary capitalism; (3) how entrepreneurship can evolve and shape the new economic models. The social change connected with the growing diversifi cation of businesses and self-employment amongst minorities should be reflected in modified academic notions, and the adequate notion appears to be superdiverse entrepreneurship. It does justice to the growing diversification of societies (including their cultural and ethnical differentiation), and at the same time it does not treat the migrant status as the most significant dimension of diversification. Moreover, the article argues that a response to crisis can be either deepening the precarity, or ethical innovations. Ingenuity, resilience, and resourcefulness associated with entrepreneurs and also migrants are the traits which become increasingly signifi cant during economic deadlocks and other problems. As a rule, crises highlight the necessity to verify the existing economic models. In order to transform them, one needs creativity and innovation, which are often perceived as the very core of entrepreneurship.

„Społeczeństwo równoległe”? Organizacje polonijne w Irlandii

After the 2004 enlargement of the European Union, some countries opened their labour markets to citizens from the then new member states. This opportunity to seek gainful employment abroad eventually resulted in having the Polish diaspora become the largest ethnic minority in Ireland. That they were economic immigrants notwithstanding, some of the Poles who came to live in Ireland also got engaged in social activism. Many Polish newcomers’ first contact with the diaspora took place via the existing Polish migrant organizations and the Polish chaplaincy. The currently much larger and diverse sector of diaspora organizations keeps undergoing dynamic changes. The aim of this paper is to identify which model of self-organizing is enacted by this sector and whether it differs from the rest of the Polish community on the island as well as from the civic entities in Poland and Irish charities. Methodology-wise, the paper is based on an analysis of existing studies coupled with participant observation. It concludes that participation in institutionalized self-organization abroad differs from civic engagement in Poland and from Irish charities. Unlike the Polish community in this country, Polish grassroots entities in Ireland engage in diaspora activism.

Zmiana dyskursu w odpowiedzi na nowe wyzwania? Problemy imigrantów z Europy Wschodniej w kontekście pandemii koronawirusa na przykładzie wybranych polskich tytułów prasowych

The aim of the qualitative research carried out on the basis of critical discourse analysis is to check the ways of presenting the problems of immigrants from Eastern Europe (mainly Ukrainians and Belarusians) in the opinion-forming Polish press during the pandemic. Attention was paid to the issues of work, stay and its legalization, health and discrimination. 36 articles were analyzed in the period March–October 2020, which appeared in the Internet editions of „Polityka”, „Gazeta Wyborcza”, „Rzeczpospolita”, „Krytyka Polityczna”, as well as the Biznes Interia.pl and eGospodarka.pl portals. The type of problems of immigrants, agency of immigrants, relations between immigrants and the host society were taken into account. The obtained results were compared with the previous images of immigrants in the Polish press discourse before the pandemic in order to answer the question: does the pandemic deepen the stereotypical image of immigrants from Eastern Europe

Tradycja i zmiana – rytuały bożonarodzeniowe i ich znaczenie dla młodych polskich rodzin

The first generation of Polish migrants in Germany in the 1980s and 1990s sought to improve the economic situation of their families and tried to blend in with German society. Only their descendants managed to do so. They experienced the upward mobility that their parents expected of them. However, they were not prepared for the generational change related to it. The change involved the transformation of the cultural capital in the migrant family. The article presents an analysis of the intergenerational transmissions in Polish families in Germany, based on autobiographical interviews with the second generation of migrants. The article explains why the eff orts of the first generation to build a life in Germany did not translate into a happy family life. Neither did it bring enough economic resources for the first generation to pass economic capital to descendants. Social capital turned out to be a strong feature of Polish families. The supportive role of grandmothers and other family members has often proved to be of a huge value. Paradoxically, the absence of their parents gave their children a lot of freedom and free time to build their own networks of friends. The article also draws attention to the negative dimension of social capital in Polish families. It manifests itself in limiting expectations and pressure exerted by the family on the second generation.

Transformacja czy stabilizacja? Bariery w integracji imigrantów wewnątrzunijnych żyjących w Polsce

The aim of the article is to diagnose the barriers faced by intra-EU migrants living and working in Poland. The Ager and Strang model of integration (2004) was used as a theoretical framework to distinguish the dimensions of social life within which integration occurs and within which immigrants may encounter various kinds of barriers. Ager and Strang (2004) distinguish four groups of factors infl uencing integration: 1) means and makers, including employment, housing, education and health; 2) connections (social connetcions), i.e. the social capital available to the immigrant; 3) facilitation (faciliators), including knowledge of the local language and culture, as well as security and stability; 4) foundations, i.e. citizenship and rights. The results show that the main barrier faced by immigrants from the EU is poor command of the Polish language (facilitators), which aff ects other dimensions of social life. Another frequently mentioned barrier was the problem with dealing with offi cial matters (social links). Most of the interviewees emphasized that Poland is a very safe place to live and that their Polish life is satisfactory. The analysis is based on 35 IDI interviews and 200 CAWI interviews. The research was conducted from July to December 2018.