Along with time-related changes in the migration of Poles to Germany, the invisibility that has been ascribed to them has also evolved: from intentional hiding to deliberate merging into local social and spatial structures. The city of Berlin, perceived as an open, modern and multicultural metropolis, is an exceptional laboratory of transformations and diversity of social behaviours shown by Polish migrants. It attracts new citizens who not only want to make a living here, but also – and more frequently – to achieve self-fulfilment. While the invisibility of the economic migrants is mainly a result of their alienation in a new country, the representatives of lifestyle migration deliberately merge into the culturally diverse society of Berlin and they try to identify with other social groups. The aim of this article is to identify the existence and forms of every-day functioning of Polish migrants in Berlin in the context of invisibility.
Multiculturalism is a kind of social policy that depends on cultural neutrality of the state. Huge communities of immigrants of non-European cultures arose in Western Europe. In response to this phenomenon, European states initiated a multicultural social policy. In effect, many behaviours of immigrants turned out to be at variance with human rights, but consistent with multiculturalism. Great cultural distance between European societies and immigrants caused more serious problems with integration than had been expected. Nowadays, we can observe a contestation, but not abandonment, of the multicultural policy, accompanied by anti-immigrant sentiments. A new social policy ought to facilitate the adaptation of immigrants in economic and politic institutions, and to respect human rights as a key value.
Migration management is one of the key tasks faced by regional authorities in Poland, which experience deepening processes of shrinking and ageing of population. The aim of the article is to determine whether policy makers are aware of the role of migration processes and migration policy, to show their presence in demographic development strategies, and to describe the activities undertaken at the regional level in response to the ongoing demographic processes. The analysis is based on the example of the Łódzkie, Opolskie, and West Pomeranian voivodships. The article proposes an analytical model assuming a gradual process of decision-makers’ reaction to demographic changes. An analysis of documents and interviews with people responsible for regional demographic policy confirms they are aware of ongoing population processes and their consequences, at the same time, however, there is a lack of actions aimed at stimulating inflows of foreigners. The initiatives aimed at stopping the population from emigrating are more important.
The author of this article describes residential segregation of foreigners in Barcelona. She presents some theoretical considerations, makes statistical calculations pertaining to the problem, and defines causal factors of residential segregation. What is important, residential segregation in Barcelona may be far deeper than in other cities because of the relatively strong separatism in Catalonia and the required knowledge of the Catalan language. These factors make full access to local labour market very difficult for immigrants and lead to their marginalization. In the statistical calculations a measure of residential segregation (Duncan, Duncan 1955) is used which allows a comparison of the situation in Barcelona and in other cities, as well as an analysis of changes in Barcelona in recent years.
The goal of this article was to estimate the regional rates of return of investment in higher education as well as potential benefits of migration of educated people between Polish regions. The results show that the benefits of higher education in Poland are higher for women than for men. Also, wage benefits of education grow with age and work experience, but they are characterized by decreasing marginal value. Internal returns of investment in education, calculated for every region assuming no migration of workers, are weakly correlated with the expected salaries of university graduates. In turn, the returns of interregional migration for people with higher education indicate that the most attractive destination in Mazowieckie, and the least attractive – Podlaskie. A particularly strong motivation for migration is faced by educated women of Podlasie. The research demonstrated also that in some regions (Lodzkie, Lubuskie), the expected earnings of graduates are largely influenced by the opportunity to work in neighbouring regions, offering more attractive salaries.
