Karolina Podgórska.
2017.
Creating the Centre? Immigration Discourse in Poland and Its Effects
Eurolimes, vol. 23-24, s. 115-128.
Abstract
During last three years intensive migration discourse in Poland can be observed. It is connected with migration crisis in Europe in combination with new political reality in Polish establishment (so-called "good change" towards conservative, Eurosceptic and refugees-reluctant governance). This hard confusion of on-going processes leads to emerge many questions about the discourse itself: how do we speak about migrations in Poland these days? What kind of discourse is it? How can it be described - as rational, cohesive or rather chaotic, inconsistent? What language does it use, who participates in it and why? What does it bring to Polish social reality, from which and in which it grows? The article tries to answer these questions, taking into account central-periphery perspective. From this point of view the new question appears, if and how the migration discourse can influence the change of roles, boundaries, and relations between the centre and (semi-) peripheries from the perspective of players rooted in both these spaces. Hence, this sketchy theoretical analyse, as initial assumption to in-depth further research of language issues, is focus on the idea of creation the "new" centre by dominant discursive practice. It seems however the "real" (western) centre reactions show the opposite effect: the (semi-)periphery strengthens its previous position and there will be no change in system frontiers.
Keywords
(semi-) periphery
centre
migration discourse
modernisation
Polish migration policy
refugees
