KINPOL: Observatory on Kin-State Policies

BASEES Polish Studies Group/SSEES Polish Studies workshop: Polish studies: Today and Tomorrow, 19-20 September 2019, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, UK

This presentation draws on the contribution of Andreea Udrea and David Smith to the project ‘Poland’s Kin-state Policies: Opportunities and Challenges’ (University of Glasgow, 2018-2020). It examines Poland’s relationship with its co-ethnics abroad focusing on the Act on the Polish Card. The Act is one of the most recent kin-state policies in Central and Eastern Europe and has received only limited attention within the growing academic literature on the legislation on kin-minorities. Similar to the legislation of other states in Central and Eastern Europe, Poland’s Act aims primarily to tackle its domestic demographic crisis by encouraging immigration. This paper evaluates the instrumentalization of a kin-state’s engagement drawing on the literature on liberal multiculturalism and international responsibility. It discusses: how a kin-state can contribute to the protection of non-dominant groups in their home-states; and to what extent Poland’s kin-state policy challenges an argument for shared responsibility of minority protection between home-state and kin-state as mutually beneficial inter-state cooperation.

The full programme is available to view. 

 

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First published: 29 July 2020