Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer
Nasza Przeszłość

Vol. 104 (2005): Our Past

Articles

How to stop the emigration of the Polish youth? Some documents illustrating the issue of emigration from Poland in 1980-1987

  • Ryszard Gryz
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52204/np.2005.104.197-223  [Google Scholar]
Published: 2005-12-30

Abstract

The article presents selected sources constituting documentary material related to the deliberations of the Government-Episcopal Joint Commission of January 25, 1988. This form of agreeing positions on many issues related to state-church relations, including those often entering into areas defined as strictly political, has been revived , after a long break since 1967, only in September 1980. The edited protocol is kept as an original in the Archive of New Records, in the Office for Religious Affairs and marked with reference number 115/26. The first part of the source materials consists of statements by both speakers, containing detailed data illustrating the number of young people emigrating, its directions and structure. Among the issues raised, representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not focus on the reasons for emigration, which according to official data amounted to 740,000. people. Rather, they paid attention to the conditions of stay offered to emigrants from Poland, the influence of special services towards newcomers, and even pathological phenomena related to the activities undertaken by our compatriots. The problem of the last years of the Polish People's Republic was the flight of educated people and huge budget losses, in the absence of a noticeable upward trend in returns. The second part of the minutes contains a report on the discussion between representatives of both sides of the Joint Commission. The bishops pointed to the deteriorating living conditions in Poland, the lack of prospects for a decent life, and ideological difficulties in pastoral care aimed at emigrant communities. Psychological conditions included fear of repression among people considering returning to the country with their own possessions.

References

  1. Czarny R. M., Szwecja w Unii Europejskiej. Studium polityczno-prawne, Kielce 2002. [Google Scholar]
  2. Dyczewski L., Tożsamość i integracja Polaków w Republice Federalnej Niemiec. Doświadczenia i perspektywy, w: Polonia w Niemczech. Historia i współczesność, praca zbiorowa, Warszawa 1995. [Google Scholar]
  3. Friszke A., Życie polityczne emigracji, Warszawa 1999. [Google Scholar]
  4. Habielski R., Życie społeczne i kulturalne emigracji, Warszawa 1999. [Google Scholar]
  5. Janowski W., Kochański A., Informator o strukturze i obsadzie personalnej centralnego aparatu PZPR 1948-1990, pod red. K. Persaka, Warszawa 2000. [Google Scholar]
  6. Latuch M., Współczesna emigracja Polaków. Aspekty demograficzne i społeczno-ekonomiczne zewnętrznego procesu migracyjnego Polski lat 80. XX wieku, Warszawa 1996. [Google Scholar]
  7. Machcewicz P., Emigracja w polityce międzynarodowej, Warszawa 1999. [Google Scholar]
  8. Majewski R., Przyczyny polskiego exodusu w latach osiemdziesiątych, w: Migracje polityczne XX wieku. Migracje i społeczeństwo 4, pod red. J. E. Zamojskiego, Warszawa 2000. [Google Scholar]
  9. Okólski M., Ludzie na huśtawce - mobilność międzynarodowa ludności Polski w okresie transformacji, w: Emigracja z Polski po 1989 roku, pod red. W. Miodunki, Kraków 2002. [Google Scholar]
  10. Papież Jan Paweł II a Emigracja i Polonia 1978-1989, pod red. R. Dzwonkowski, S. Kowalczyk, E. Walawander, Lublin 1991. [Google Scholar]

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.