Political meanings of national belonging: tracing evolution of Polishness in Third Republic of Poland

This work is part of the 5-year research project “Getting to the Core of Crimmigration” (project number 452-16-003), which is financed through the VIDI research scheme by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), led my Professor M.A.H. Van de Woude. It as a part of Maryla Klajn’s doctoral dissertation “Agents of Change? (Hi)stories, perspectives, and every-day practices of the intra-Schengen border officials”. The paper: “Political meanings of national belonging: tracing the evolution of ‘Polskość’ in the III Republic of Poland” focuses on the a backlash response, to the effects of trans-national trends of past several decades, progressively more visible in recent years and expressed in the rise of populist, anti-migration movements in many countries throughout the world. Within the EU, Poland has become one of the most notorious anti-migration and pro- closed border states, with its new government elected in 2015 embracing a nationalist discourse, positioning the well-being of the country against the ‘invasion’ of other ethnicities and religions. The concept of Polskość, or Polish national identity (Polishness), is frequently used to legitimize political decision-making, and the idea of necessary protection of the socio-cultural homogeneity as the foundation of Polskość drives forward discussions of strengthening and securitizing the boundaries to protect it. It seems prudent then to question the meaning of that ‘national identity’, and by deconstructing values and ideas linked to that concept over time, understand what is really being protected when discussing protection of Polskość. We should ask then: in the III Republic of Poland, what were the initial political narratives that defined Polish national identity, and how have they evolved over time? This study locates and maps out shifts in the political discussions of Polskość over the last three decades by deploying critical policy discourse analysis in examination of the Polish parliamentary debates since 1989, and of Presidential New Year’s Eve addresses to the nation 1990-2018