KINPOL: Observatory on Kin-State Politics

ASN World Convention, 5-8 May 2021, Columbia University, New York City, USA

Dr Udrea and Professor Smith presented their contribution to the research project ‘Poland’s Kin-state Policies: Opportunities and Challenges’ (University of Glasgow, 2018-2020) funded by the Noble Foundation Programme on Modern Poland. 

Focusing on Poland’s engagement with the Poles in the East as articulated in the Act on the Polish Card (Ustawą z dnia 7 września 2007 r. o Karcie Polaka) adopted in 2007 and most recently amended in April 2019, we propose a new normative approach that recognises and responds more adequately to the quadratic political reality of kin-state – kin minorities relations defined as a nexus between ethno-cultural minority groups, their home-state, kin-state and international organisations. Our point of departure is the dual contention that home-states have the primary duty to achieve full and effective equality between their citizens, while accommodating fairly their internal cultural and linguistic diversity; and that kin-states have a legitimate interest in their co-ethnics abroad. Building on this foundation, we argue that kin-state engagement should complement home-states’ domestic commitments to cultural justice, in order to foster more effective minority protection. We conclude by outlining a concept of shared responsibility for minority protection between kin-state and home-states.

The full programme is available here: ASN NYC 2021 Programme.

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. 

OSCE High Commissioner of National Minorities and University of Glasgow, 24 October 2017, The Hague, The Netherlands

This workshop brought together the advisers from the office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities and scholars on kin-state and autonomy issues. It introduced the KINPOL Observatory on Kin-state Policies and its new project on Poland’s kin-state policies; discussed emerging and potential future kin-states; outlined examples of good practice from an OSCE perspective of kin-state policies and contrasted it with examples of unilateral policies; reflected on existing OSCE recommendations and international instruments’ impact on inter-state relations; and engaged with the work of visiting scholars through individual/group interviews and informed advisers’ work on specific portfolios of countries.

PARTCIPANTS: The advisers from the office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, David Smith (University of Glasgow), Andreea Udrea (University of Glasgow), Federica Prina (University of Glasgow), Zsuzsa Csergő (Queen’s University) and Kristina Kallas (University of Tartu Narva College).