The proposed project is aimed at assessing and identifying factors contributing to the current status of Polish immigrant organizations in selected European countries (Germany, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain).
For project purposes, immigrant organizations have been defined as associations established by and for immigrants to provide social, economic and cultural services as well as those which represent and seek to advance communities. The status of organizations refers to their current legal form of organization, the location and range of their geographical reach, the scope of their activities, the forms of cooperation in which they engage, their human and material resources and their sources of funding.
The project envisions two tracks of research:
- Diagnostic research designed to assess the status of Polish immigrant organizations in selected European countries.
- Explanatory research designed to identify factors affecting the status of Polish immigrant organizations in selected European countries.
These research aims will be accomplished with reference to the following specific research problems:
- Assessment of the status of Polish immigrant organizations in selected European countries with particular focus on legal forms of organization, operational profiles, forms of cooperation in which the organizations engage, the human and material resources available to the organizations and sources of funding.
- Assessment of the relationship between migrations and the profiles of immigrant communities on the one hand and the condition of Polish immigrant organizations in selected European countries on the other.
- Assessment of the relationship between the characteristics of Poland as a country of origin (with particular emphasis on the tenets underpinning the Polish diaspora policy, its implementation and the traditions of civil society and self-organization in Poland) and the status of Polish immigrant organizations in selected European countries.
- Assessment of the relationship between host country characteristics (with particular emphasis on the tenets of immigration and integration policies and their implementation as well as the predominant treatment of immigrants and their organizations by host country societies) and the status of Polish immigrant organizations in selected European countries.
- Assessment of the relationship between bilateral relations between Poland as the country of origin and the host country (with particular consideration of political relations and international agreements) on the one hand and the status Polish immigrant organizations in selected European countries.