Uncovering ‘Invisibility’: Identities and Experiences of Exclusion among Highly Educated Germans of Polish Descent

• Authors: Eunike Piwoni

Abstracts

EN

Despite representing the second-largest immigrant group in Germany, Polish immigrants and their descendants are understudied and have often been described as ‘invisible’ as they have a reputation of ‘becoming German’ quickly and unproblematically. Challenging this notion and considering the prevalence of anti-Eastern European racism in the German context, this study analyses interviews with 22 highly educated Germans of Polish descent, focusing on how interviewees talked about being German and/or Polish and their experiences of stigmatisation and discrimination, in both their childhood and teenage years and as adults. In so doing, the study contributes to the literature on how the ethnic and national identities of white descendants of immigrants are related to experiences of exclusion. Specifically, some interviewees (Type 1) said that they felt only German (and not Polish) and denied experiencing stigmatisation or discrimination in their present lives. Other interviewees (Type 2) embraced a symbolic Polish ethnicity while framing exclusionary experiences as a thing of the past. Type 3 interviewees reported a process of re-ethnicisation, arguably enabled by the absence of exclusionary experiences in their present lives. Finally, there were interviewees (Type 4) who reported embracing their Polish identity, which led to experiences of stigmatisation in certain contexts.

Keywords

EN

self-identification; second generation; Polish immigration; stigmatisation; Germany; ethnicity

• Publisher: Ośrodek Badań nad Migracjami Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego oraz Polska Akademia Nauk
• Journal: Central and Eastern European Migration Review
• Year: 2024
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 123-142

Dates

published

2024

Contributors

author

Eunike Piwoni

• University of Passau, Germany

• https://orcid.org/0000000245673175

References

• Alba R., Foner N. (2015). Strangers No More. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Anagnostou Y. (2009). A Critique of Symbolic Ethnicity: The Ideology of Choice? Ethnicities 9(1): 94–140.
• Anderson C.V. (2016). Shame and Pride in Second-Generation German Identity in Melbourne, Australia: Emotions and White Ethnicity. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 42(9): 1439–1454.
• Antonsich M. (2010). Searching for Belonging: An Analytical Framework. Geography Compass 4(6): 644–659.
• Archibald M.M., Ambagtsheer R.C., Casey M.G., Lawless M. (2019). Using Zoom Videoconferencing for Qualitative Data Collection: Perceptions and Experiences of Participants and Researchers. International Journal of Qualitative Methods: 18.
• Balogun B., Joseph-Salisbury R. (2021). Black/White Mixed-Race Experiences of Race and Racism in Poland. Ethnic and Racial Studies 44(2): 234–251.
• BAMF (Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge) (2024). Migrationsbericht 2022. https://www.bamf.de/SharedDocs/Anlagen/DE/Forschung/Migrationsberichte/migrationsbericht-2022.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=14 (accessed 4 April 2024).
• Barglowski K. (2019). Migrants’ Class and Parenting: The Role of Cultural Capital in Migrants’ Inequalities in Education. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 45(11): 1970–1987.
• Barglowski K., Pustulka P. (2018). Tightening Early Childcare Choices: Gender and Social Class Inequalities Among Polish Mothers in Germany and the UK. Comparative Migration Studies 6(36).
• Boldt T.D. (2012). Die stille Integration: Identitätskonstruktionen von polnischen Migranten in Deutschland. Frankfurt: Campus.
• Brinkmann S. (2013). Qualitative Interviewing. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Çelik Ç. (2015). ‘Having a German Passport Will Not Make Me German’: Reactive Ethnicity and Oppositional Identity Among Disadvantaged Male Turkish Second-Generation Youth in Germany. Ethnic and Racial Studies 38(9): 1646–1662.
• Crul M., Schneider J. (2010). Comparative Integration Context Theory: Participation and Belonging in New Diverse European Cities. Ethnic and Racial Studies 33(7): 1249–1268.
• DeZIM (Deutsches Zentrum für Integrations- und Migrationsforschung) (2022). Rassistische Realitäten: Wie setzt sich Deutschland mit Rassismus auseinander? https://www.rassismusmonitor.de/fileadmin/user_upload/NaDiRa/CATI_Studie_Rassistische_Realit%C3%A4ten/DeZIM-Rassismusmonitor-Studie_Rassistische-Realit%C3%A4ten_Wie-setzt-sich-Deutschland-mit-Rassismus-auseinander.pdf (accessed 8 May 2023).
• Diehl C., Fischer-Neumann M., Mühlau P. (2016). Between Ethnic Options and Ethnic Boundaries: Recent Polish and Turkish Migrants’ Identification with Germany. Ethnicities 16(2): 236–260.
• Gans H. (1979). Symbolic Ethnicity: The Future of Ethnic Groups and Cultures in America. Ethnic and Racial Studies 2(1): 1–20.
• Gordon M.M. (1964). Assimilation in American Life: The Role of Race, Religion, and National Origins. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Imoagene O. (2019). The Nigerian Second Generation at Work in Britain: Ethnoracial Exclusion and Adaptive Strategies. Sociology 53(2): 264–279.
• Jenkins R. (2014). Social Identity. Abingdon: Routledge.
• Kopp K. (2012). Germany’s Wild East: Constructing Poland as Colonial Space. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
• Kvale S., Brinkmann S. (2015). Interviews: Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research Interviewing. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
• Lähdesmäki T., Saresma T., Hiltunen K., Jäntti S., Sääskilahti N., Vallius A., Ahvenjärvi K. (2016). Fluidity and Flexibility of ‘Belonging’: Uses of the Concept in Contemporary Research. Acta Sociologica 59(3): 233–247.
• Lamont M., Moraes Silva G., Welburn J., Guetzkow J., Mizrachi N., Herzog H., Reis E. (2016). Getting Respect. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Lewicki A. (2021). The Christian Politics of Identity and the Making of Race in the German Welfare State. Sociology 55(6): 1228–1244.
• Lewicki A. (2023). East–West Inequalities and the Ambiguous Racialisation of ‘Eastern Europeans’. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 49(6): 1481–1499.
• Lisiak A., Nowicka M. (2018). Tacit Differences, Ethnicity and Neoliberalism: Polish Migrant Mothers in German Cities. Gender, Place & Culture 25(6): 899–915.
• Loew P.O. (2014). Wir Unsichtbaren: Geschichte der Polen in Deutschland. Munich: CH Beck.
• Méndez M.L. (2008). Middle Class Identities in a Neoliberal Age: Tensions between Contested Authenticities. The Sociological Review 56(2): 220–237.
• Namensänderungsgesetz (2023). https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/nam_ndg/BJNR000090938.html (accessed 8 May 2023).
• Narkowicz K. (2023). White Enough, Not White Enough: Racism and Racialisation Among Poles in the UK. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 49(6): 1534–1551.
• Nowosielski M. (2019). Dynamika Migracji z Polski do Niemiec i Charakterystyka Polskiej Zbiorowości. Studia BAS 4(60): 75–100.
• Piwoni E. (2012). Nationale Identität im Wandel. Deutscher Intellektuellendiskurs zwischen Tradition und Weltkultur. Wiesbaden: Springer.
• Piwoni E. (2024). Comprehending and Sensing Racism: How Germans of Migrant Background Make Sense of Experiences of Ethnoracial Exclusion. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 50(12): 2783–2802.
• Portes A., Rumbaut R.G. (2001). Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Portes A., Zhou M. (1993). The New Second Generation: Segmented Assimilation and its Variants. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 530(1): 74–96.
• Pürckhauer A. (2023). Antislawischer und antiosteuropäischer Rassismus. https://mediendienst-integration.de/artikel/antislawischer-und-antiosteuropaeischer-rassismus.html (accessed 17 November 2023).
• Rumbaut R.G. (2008). Reaping What You Sow: Immigration, Youth, and Reactive Ethnicity. Applied Development Science 12(2): 108–111.
• Runfors A. (2021). Navigating the Radar: Descendants of Polish Migrants and Racialized Social Landscapes in Sweden. Nordic Journal of Migration Research 11(1): 65–79.
• Rzepnikowska A. (2019). Racism and Xenophobia Experienced by Polish Migrants in the UK Before and After Brexit Vote. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 45(1): 61–77.
• Saldana J. (2013). The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. London: Sage.
• Schneider J., Chavez L., DeSipio L., Waters M. (2012a). Belonging, in: M. Crul, J. Mollenkopf (eds), The Changing Face of World Cities, pp. 206–232. New York: Sage.
• Schneider J., Fokkema T., Matias R., Stojcic S., Ugrina D., Vera-Larrucea C. (2012b). Identities: Urban Belonging and Intercultural Relations, in: M. Crul, J. Schneider, F. Lelie (eds) The European Second Generation Compared, pp. 285–340. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
• Simonsen K.B. (2018). What it Means to (Not) Belong: A Case Study of How Boundary Perceptions Affect Second-Generation Immigrants’ Attachments to the Nation. Sociological Forum 33(1): 118–138.
• Skrobanek J. (2009). Perceived Discrimination, Ethnic Identity and the (Re-)Ethnicisation of Youth with a Turkish Ethnic Background in Germany. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 35(4): 535–554.
• Smechowski E. (2017). Wir Strebermigranten. Berlin: Hanser.
• Steinmann J.P. (2019). The Paradox of Integration: Why Do Higher Educated New Immigrants Perceive More Discrimination in Germany? Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 45(9): 1377–1400.
• Ulrich B., Topçu Ö. (2010). Sind Muslime dümmer? Die Zeit, 26 August, www.zeit.de.
• Verkuyten M. (2016). The Integration Paradox: Empiric Evidence from the Netherlands. American Behavioral Scientist 60(5–6): 583–596.
• Verkuyten M., Wiley S., Deaux K., Fleischmann F. (2019). To Be Both (and More): Immigration and Identity Multiplicity. Journal of Social Issues 75(2): 390–413.
• Waters M. (1990). Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Yuval-Davis N. (2006). Belonging and the Politics of Belonging. Patterns of Prejudice 40(3): 197–214.
• Zhou M., Xiong Y.S. (2005). The Multifaceted American Experiences of the Children of Asian Immigrants: Lessons for Segmented Assimilation. Ethnic and Racial Studies 28(6): 1119–1152

Identifiers

DOI

10.54667/ceemr.2024.14

Biblioteka Nauki

55789075