Special Issue of Ethnopolitics
KINPOL’s special issue in Ethnopolitics on Poland's kin-state policies is now out. With contributions from Andreea Udrea, David Smith, Karl Cordell, Dorota Pudzianowska, Bastian Sendhardt, Myra Waterbury, Magdalena Lesinska, Dominik Hejj, Slawomir Lodzinski, Michal Nowosielski, Myra Keryk, Diana Janusauskiene and Jan Zielonka.
Table of Contents and Articles.
Summary: The increased engagement of states with their co-ethnics abroad has recently become one of the most contentious features of European politics, discussed primarily with the paradigm of security. Yet, a review of the broader European picture shows that kin-state engagement can have a positive societal impact when it actually responds effectively to the claims formulated by co-ethnic communities themselves. This collection of articles offers new insights into this issue by examining Poland’s fast-evolving relationship with Polish communities living beyond its borders. Its central focus is the Act on the Polish Card (generally known as Karta Polaka). Tracing policymaking processes and the underlying political agendas that have shaped them, the special issue situates Poland’s engagement within broader conceptual and normative debates around kin-state and diaspora politics and explores its reception and impact in neighbouring states (Ukraine, Germany, Lithuania). Overall, the collection highlights how the issue of co-ethnics abroad is increasingly being instrumentalised, most especially for the purposes of attracting labour migration to resolve the demographic crisis in Poland.