Race and racism in Poland: Theorising and contextualising ‘Polish-centrism’

Whilst scholarship has sought to consider migration in Poland, there has been a lack of engagement with the ways in which race and racism interact with migration. In this article, I map the figures in the Polish imaginary of European, and examine whether Poland has different, if related, histories of racial thinking. I ask how such histories have been conceived, shaped and mediated. To examine this, I focus on the lived experiences of sub-Saharan African immigrants and children of immigrants (Black/mixed-race) who are often portrayed as non-Europeans and seen by some as ‘not quite Polish’. In doing so, this article provides an insight into the racial contours of Polish self-conception. I call this logic ‘Polish-centrism’ – a focus on some aspects of Polish culture to the exclusion of a wider view of the world. It is within this logic that I examine what it means to be Black and Polish in Poland.