Tomasz Marciniak
COMMUNITY ACTION PROGRAMME TO COMBAT SOCIAL EXCLUSION 2002-2006 TRANSNATIONAL EXCHANGE PROGRAMME: PHASE II COMBATING SOCIAL EXCLUSION OF ETHNIC MINORITIES & IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES THROUGH CULTURE VS/2003/0644 NATIONAL REPORT OF GOOD PRACTICE POLAND Prepared by NICOLAUS COPERNICUS UNIVERSITY November 2004 Torun, Poland 1 1. INTRODUCTION Poland is a country where ethnic and national minorities constitute about 3% - 4% of the total population (38 millions). According to the Ministry of Interior and Administration's data, Poland is inhabited by the representatives of nine national minorities: Byelorussians, Czechs, Lithuanians, Germans, Armenians, Russians, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Jews and four ethnic minorities: Karaites, Lemkos, Roma, and Tatars. Except for large-scale national minorities: Byelorussians, Ukrainians, Germans, Lithuanians and others there are some groups which at the moment consider themselves as Poles: Kashubians, old Armenians, Tatars and Masurians. Analysing the question of “strangers” in Poland today, we should also take into account a small number of immigrants and refugees. Such groups have been appearing in our country since the beginning of the nineties. According to the Nationwide Census which was carried in the year 2002, in Poland live: Bulgarians, Italians, Greeks, Americans, Frenchmen, and Vietnamese. Kaszubians and Silesians are Poles with strong self-feeling of alternation of their regional cultures1. Most of national minority organizations emphasize that data from the last census aren’t really reliable. To the question of nationality, only one answer could be given. While, in their opinion, a large number of these organizations` members see themselves as Poles at the same time. Further, numerous refusals to enter other nationality than Polish were noted down.
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