Studia Humanistyczne AGH
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ISSN 2084-3364
e-ISSN: 2300-7109
Issue Date
2019
Volume
T. 18
Number
Nr 1
Description
Journal Volume
Studia Humanistyczne AGH
T. 18 (2019)
Projects
Pages
Articles
The dynamics and orientation of changes in the attitude of Poles towards immigrants (refugees or non-refugees) and their links to terrorism over the last decades
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2019) Malinowski Rubio, María Paula
Several years ago, the attitude of Poles' towards immigrants, both immigrants in general and refugees, seemed more open than nowadays. A cautious analysis of surveys carried out over the last decades by the Polish Public Opinion Research Centre (CBOS), among others regarding Poles’ opinions about immigrants, refugees, terrorism, and their attitude towards other nations, as well as the analysis of results of polls conducted by the European Statistical Office (Eurostat), including a review of the public discourse around immigration, makes it possible to draw some important conclusions, although not without any objections. Firstly, it confirms that the attitude has changed, becoming slightly more negative, particularly over the last three years. Secondly, the analysis indicates that such an attitude is probably not as negative as it could seem from the results of CBOS nation-wide surveys since 2015. Finally, it shows the immense impact on the very attitude and perception thereof from both Polish political discourse around immigration, and the way immigration is presented by the mass media, often in relation to terrorism.
»Us« and »them« in the language of conservative islamophobia. Referential and predicational strategies in Polish right-wing press discourse on the migration crisis in 2015
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2019) Konopka, Adam
As Vincent Geisser noted in his book, La Nouvelle Islamophobie, islamophobia can be defined as a form of cultural racism which puts emphasis especially on religion (Islam) as the agent of distinction between »Us« and »Them«, based usually on a phantasmatic idea of Islam and Muslims. The islamophobic phenomenon increased radically in Poland during the peak of the migration crisis in the second half of 2015, following numerous press articles and columns which provide a background for such prejudice. The right-wing press titles provided space for authors voicing discriminative opinions about (mostly Muslim) refugees and immigrants from the Middle East and Northern Africa. Using a Discourse-Historical Approach (Wodak, Reisigl), the author analysed which predicational and referential strategies are used to designate social actors and where the line of distinction is drawn between the categories of »Us« and »Them« in right-wing press discourse on the migration crisis. The analysis suggests that right-wing publicists distinguish two different subcategories of »Them«: a) refugees and immigrants (usually Muslim) and b) the liberal political and media elites. Therefore, the analysed texts could be perceived as examples of »conservative islamophobia«, as defined by Monika Bobako, in which European Christian identity is the basis for prejudice against Muslims and liberal advocates of multi-culturalism.
From Al-Rashid to Osama bin Laden. Transformations of the archetypes of Eastern people in the imagination of the West
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2019) Gołuński, Mirosław
The West created two archetypes of Muslim. The first is the East wise man, the hero of »The Fairy Tales of 1001 nights« (the historical realization was Saladyn). The second is dangerous, Freudian »uncanny« (the Man of the Mountain or Osama bin Laden now). For me the attack on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001 is the point of turn the imagological point of view on that archetypes. Both of types operated from Medieval on imagination of the West. They together created the view of Said’s Eastman. At the same time he is knowing, tamed and dangerous, »uncanny« threat. The long time the West could see more the first and act the East more »canny« and dependent. 11/09 changed this perspective.
»Hands off our women!« Ethnicizing sexual difference in recent representations of refugees and immigrants
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2019) Pępiak, Ewelina
At least since the 1990s a large body of research concerning the role of white women in the colonial enterprise testified to the confluence between upholding racist narratives and women’s rights discourses. Due to the extensive media coverage of multiple sexual harassment cases during the New Year’s Eve in Cologne, Germany, anti-racist and feminist discourses clashed in Poland and all over Europe, underpinning far-right rhetoric. The following intersectional and postcolonial analysis of contemporary narratives of the Muslim sexual deviancy maps discourses underlying recent representations of immigrants and refugees. From dwelling into Western European colonial iconographies, via liberal feminist discourse, to investigating links between publishing houses, press organs and political parties in Poland, this study puts forward an argument that contemporary islamophobia is complex and widespread far beyond being an age-old argument in far-right rhetoric.
Muslim women in the mirror: the stigma of Muslim women in Poland
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2019) Stojkow, Maria
The main objective of the paper is to recreate a strategy to deal with the stigma in the daily lives of Muslim women who decided to move permanently to Poland, and Polish women who decided to convert to Islam. The subject of the research is Muslim women who live in Poland and participated in biographical interviews. According to the interviews, an image of Muslim women based on what they themselves think was reconstructed. Their methods of dealing with everyday situations, which these women face in the country in which they live, and conflicts with their families of origin, are presented. In Poland, as shown by opinion polls, people originating from Muslim countries are perceived negatively. As a result, immigrants from these regions who stay in our country are stigmatised as the other, different, hostile and dangerous to the society. This is the result of commonly shared negative stereotypes. A very similar fate is experienced by Polish women who have converted to Islam. Living with stigma forces those stigmatised to adopt strategies that allow them to operate in a foreign country. This situation is particularly oppressive for Muslim women, who on the one hand must deal with the stigma they carry due to their otherness in the host country, while on the other hand must follow tradition and constraints imposed by the religion and culture in which they were raised. Muslim clothing allows fast and easy categorization. Women wearing hijabs are easily identified, and because of it possible stereotypes and prejudices are activated.