Poland, Blackness and Racialisation

Scholarship in Poland has sought to consider in and out migration. Whilst this body of works engages forcefully with migration, it has yet to fully grapple with global racial discourses and the diverse range of racial identities in Poland. Simultaneously, studies on borders are often reduced to securitisation where the racialised – immigrants, foreigners, and asylum-seekers are often connected to the internal security logic, where racial logic is either ignored or not fully acknowledged. Therefore, the focus often overlooks the ways in which race and racism interact with migration and securitisation in the everyday lived experiences of people racialised as black or brown; and why some may integrate more than others. Premised on Critical Race Theory, this study maps the figures in the Polish imaginary of European, and examines whether Poland has different, if related, histories of racial thinking and exclusion. In doing so, the study asks how such histories have been conceived, shaped and mediated. Drawing on qualitative data: 25 semi-structured interviews and a focus group (4 people), this study explores various dimensions of the everyday experiences of black and mixed-race people of sub-Saharan African descent living in various cities in Poland. Together, the data focuses on the assessment of race and racialisation within the people’s integration into the Polish society. This study’s original contribution to knowledge is the demonstration of the globality of racism by taking it away from its original place of formation to elsewhere in the world in an attempt to show that race and racism have not been marginal to the west. They also formed part of the configuration of nations of Central and Eastern Europe.