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The Polish Diaspora in Super-Diverse Antwerp

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The Polish Diaspora in Super-Diverse Antwerp The Polish Diaspora in Super-diverse Antwerp Migration motives, patterns and structure Malgorzata Szabla Anr 876031 Master’s Thesis Communication and Information Sciences Specialization: Business Communication and Digital Media Faculty of Humanities Tilburg University, Tilburg Supervisor: prof. dr. J.M.E. Blommaert Second Reader: dr. J. Van Der Aa December 2014 Abstract: The process of globalization and developments in information technology have brought about the drastic shift to the way society functions nowadays. It brought increased mobility and connectivity that revolutionized the field of migration studies. The most recent stage of migration is the stage of super- diversity, which aims to comprehend the increasingly complex nature of this phenomenon. The aim of this study is to investigate how Polish community in Antwerp functions with respect to the notion of super-diversity. It addresses several questions, mainly, who is a part of this community? What is the structure of the Polish diaspora in Antwerp and how does it relate to the place, such as Berchem? The results reveal that Polish community itself and the neighborhood in which they live are indeed super- diverse. Polish community displays high levels of fragmentations, which implies that it can no longer be seen or solely studied on the basis of its ethnicity. Furthermore, the results show that despite the drastic changes in the legal context of migration, such as visas exemptions and opening of the labor market; Polish immigrants still enter the same segment of the labor market as they did 20 years ago. This implies that the new, improved labor system still functions as an old one and Polish workers occupy the same socio-economical position as in the past. In loving memory of my grandmother, Anna who always told me: “Miłość i Praca człowieka wzbogaca, a nauka człowieka uszlachetnia” “Love and work enriches a man, while science ennobles him” Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................................... Table of Contents .....................................................................................................................................1 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................................3 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................4 1.1. Globalization ..............................................................................................................................4 1.2. Super-diversity ...........................................................................................................................5 1.3. Research Questions ....................................................................................................................6 1.3.1. Method ...............................................................................................................................6 1.3.2. Field....................................................................................................................................6 1.3.3. Data Collection ..................................................................................................................7 1.3.4. Structure of the paper .........................................................................................................8 2. The history of Polish migration ......................................................................................................9 2.1. Polish Diaspora ..........................................................................................................................9 2.2. The beginnings of the migration period .....................................................................................9 2.2.1. The Partitions of Poland .....................................................................................................9 2.2.2. The Great Migration .........................................................................................................10 2.2.3. The migration during the First World War ......................................................................10 2.2.4. The migration during the Second Polish Republic ...........................................................11 2.2.5. The Black Decade of Polish migration and the Second Great Migration ........................11 2.3. Polish migration after the Second World War .........................................................................11 2.3.1. Emigration during Polish People’s Republic (1945-1989) ..............................................11 2.3.2. Emigration just after the Communism .............................................................................12 2.3.3. Emigration after the European Union Membership in 2004 ............................................13 2.4. Polish migration to Belgium ....................................................................................................14 2.4.1. Labor migration agreements.............................................................................................14 2.4.2. Visa exemption .................................................................................................................14 2.4.3. General Pardon .................................................................................................................14 2.4.4. European Union Membership of Poland ..........................................................................15 2.4.5. Legislation “bottleneck professions” ...............................................................................15 2.4.6. The opening of the labor market ......................................................................................15 2.5. The migration of the Morawski Family ...................................................................................16 2.5.1. The migration history .......................................................................................................16 2.5.2. The evaluation of the story ...............................................................................................17 3. Antwerp, Berchem and Polish community ..................................................................................20 3.1. Antwerp ....................................................................................................................................20 1 3.1.1. General information about the province ...........................................................................20 3.1.2. Antwerp’s inequalities......................................................................................................20 3.2. Super-diverse Berchem ............................................................................................................21 3.2.1. Background information about the district .......................................................................21 3.2.2. The slums of Antwerp: “Am I in the right place?” ..........................................................21 3.2.3. Problematic neighborhood?..............................................................................................22 3.2.4. Shops and facilities in Berchem: “They even have my mayonnaise!” ............................22 3.2.5. Church ..............................................................................................................................24 3.2.6. Polish facilities in Antwerp ..............................................................................................24 3.2.7. Berchem- the Center for Newcomers ...............................................................................24 3.3. Polish community in Antwerp .................................................................................................25 3.3.1. Diversification of Polish Diaspora ...................................................................................25 3.3.2. Old and New Polonia .......................................................................................................26 3.3.3. The nature of the Polish Diaspora in Antwerp .................................................................26 4. Immigrant Women in Antwerp ....................................................................................................31 4.1. The reasons for migration ........................................................................................................32 4.1.1. Difficult financial situation ..............................................................................................32 4.1.2. Reunion ............................................................................................................................35 4.1.3. Brighter future in Belgium ...............................................................................................36 4.2. Coming to Belgium- the story of the host society ....................................................................40 4.2.1. The Jewish community ....................................................................................................42 4.2.2. The Belgian community ...................................................................................................46 4.2.3. The Moroccan community ...............................................................................................48
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