Anna Jeglinska: Co-nationals under construction: Poland’s diaspora policy 1989–2023

Abstract

States’ interest in ‘their’ diasporas – broadly referring to co-nationals residing abroad – has become a rapidly proliferating phenomenon, and diaspora policy programmes are now prevalent in countries worldwide. This includes countries that do not require diasporas for state-building purposes, which is puzzling in relation to earlier explanations for the spread of state-led diaspora engagement. A further issue that warrants more attention is the problematisation of ‘the diaspora’ in state policy, as previous research has often treated it as a neutral, given demographic entity, rather than as a political categorisation of people abroad. 

Focusing on Poland as a paradigmatic case of diaspora policymaking, this dissertation addresses two research questions, explored in two respective parts. The first part concerns how nation-states construct and alter diaspora target groups and their policy treatment – a question arising from the need to ‘disaggregate the diaspora’, as identified in previous literature. It begins with the development of a diaspora policy design framework to investigate policies from the perspective of their target groups, arguing that differences in benefit deservingness can be understood as an interaction between the groups’ respective resources and constructions of their belonging. The framework’s usefulness is then demonstrated through an analysis of Polish diaspora policy, based on rich material spanning a thirty-year period during which diaspora policy saw steady growth and increasing sophistication. As the findings show, Polish diaspora policy has consistently relied on divergent perceptions of co-nationals abroad, initially divided into two main groups – one in ‘the West’ and one in ‘the East’ – and later incorporating the ‘labour diaspora’. These groups have been assigned divergent, and evolving, benefits and obligations. Furthermore, the policy discourse has continuously centred on evoking national sentiments, partly to encourage diasporic homeland return. 

The second part of the dissertation therefore investigates how nation-states can forge national attachments among diasporas abroad. The focus is on education – a central tool for building national identity – and the analysis examines a set of Polish textbooks developed for diaspora pupils in different parts of the world, through a novel approach that builds on Herder’s (1833) model of national unification. The analysis reveals certain regional tailoring, though also a concomitant and coherent reproduction of nationalist narratives, constructing the homeland as an enchanted place to which the diaspora should feel a special connection. Taken together, this dissertation sheds new light on how diasporas are made, both as objects of policy and as homeland-oriented subjects.