The Covid-19 pandemic is having an unprecedented impact on health systems, on many economic sectors and on the labour market. This critical situation is also accompanied by social destabilisation, which has exacerbated inequalities and severely affected the most disadvantaged population groups, such as migrant workers. This study provides insights into the consequences of the first wave and the lockdown period in Spring 2020 of the Covid-19 pandemic on Romanians living in Italy, using data collected by the International Association Italy-Romania ‘Cuore Romeno’, within a project financed by the Romanian Department for Di-aspora and developed to support actions while strengthening the link with Romanian institutions during the pandemic. Findings show that, during the lockdown, two opposite situations occurred among Romanians. Workers in the ‘key sector’ become indispensable and experienced only small changes, while others lost their job or experienced a worsening of working conditions, with lower wages or an increase in working hours. Most workers chose to stay in Italy, relying on their savings or the support of the Italian government. Job losses, not having new employment, and having limited savings all influenced the decision of a smaller group to return to Romania. In conclusion, the analysis suggests that measures adopted should take into consider-ation that the Covid-19 pandemic might disproportionally hit population groups such as migrants, women, young people and temporary and unprotected workers, particularly those employed in trade, hospitality and agriculture.
This article describes and analyses Polish diaspora policy changes in the years 2011–2015. Two decades after the rebirth of the Polonia policy in 1989, it was completely rebuilt. Emphasising values and Poland’s obligations towards the diaspora was replaced by paying more attention to the interests and profitability of this policy. The authors demonstrate how New Public Management (NPM) concepts influenced this shift. Analysis of two different sources – documents programming Polish diaspora policy and interviews with experts and persons designing the Polonia policy – confirmed that NPM principles influenced Polish dias-pora policy on five dimensions: organisational restructuring, management instruments, budgetary reforms, participation, marketisation/privatisation.
This study investigates the political engagement of Vietnamese immigrants in Poland on social media. It employs the typology of online political participation as a theoretical framework to determine the pattern of online in-volvement in the political sphere staged by the migrant group. Through analysing materials relating to political discussions created daily on an online community of the Polish Vietnamese, collected by doing netnography, this study shows that the political activism on social media of Vietnamese immigrants in Poland exists and varies. Vietnamese-migrant users discuss homeland politics and express views about political issues in the host country as well as other countries by creating non-mobilising posts (Information and Diffusion), while being inclined to produce posts with calls for action (Instruction and Promotion) to criticise social injustice and mobilise equality. This study also found a growing critical attitude towards homeland politics among Vietnamese-origin individu-als in the country. The findings have practical implications for associations and state actors in both the host and home countries to account for the evolvement of the migrant community.
This article presents the main recent developments in migration trends to and from Belarus. It studies these trends via the migration systems theory lenses, according to which Belarus belongs to the Eurasian migra-tion system. The most significant migration flows are directed towards Russia, due to the existence of the Union State. However, over the last decade, Belarusian statistics have shown a gradual transformation in the direction of these migration flows. After the recession in Russia in 2015, the number of emigrants from Belarus to EU countries increased. The most significant changes have occurred in the migration dynamics between Belarus and Poland and Lithuania. The existence of the Pole’s Card makes it more difficult to measure the number of Belarusian immigrants in Poland, therefore, I provide a comparative analysis of Belarusian and Polish statistics in order to show a more realistic picture of the number and structure of Belarusian emigrants and the problem of underestimation in the sending country. Particular attention is paid to the consequences of the political situation in Belarus after 2020; this has become an additional push factor for emigrants and may also lead to a further reduction of Belarusian migratory links within the Eurasian migration system. Thus, the statistics for 2021 show a significant increase in the number of Bel-arusian emigrants to the EU, while emigration to Russia has remained at the same level.
For small, low-to-middle-income countries such as North Macedonia, the prospect of young, educated peo-ple leaving their place of residence (i.e. emigrating) can have significant negative societal-level effects. Understanding the complexity of the brain-drain phenomenon and its antecedents is critical to developing multi-level (i.e. global, societal and individual) strategic solutions. A qualitative analysis of several focus-group interviews was used to understand young, educated residents’ reasons either for emigrating or for remaining in North Macedonia. Two overarching themes served to organise the participant-identified driv-ers for emigration and those opposed to it. Three sub-themes emerged describing the factors for emigra-tion: 1) a lack of professional opportunities, 2) institutional systems, and 3) cultural tightness. Likewise, three sub-themes emerged describing the factors for staying: 1) community, 2) culture and 3) social re-sponsibility. Insights serve to contextualise some of the experiences of young, educated people in small, low-to-middle-income, countries which impact on their emigration decisions.
This article examines the changing migration projects of Central and Eastern European migrants in Northern Ireland. It sets out the context for settlement scheme applications, linking it to broader hostile environment pol-icies in the UK. It explores the dynamic nature of people’s migration projects and how these have been chal-lenged in the context of Brexit and the EU Settlement Scheme. The paper discusses the ruptures in migrants’ narratives in relation to how they envision their future in Northern Ireland and their countries of origin, with some moving towards indeterminacy and some searching for fixity/stability in their migration projects. It exam-ines how the Northern Irish context – and the question of the Irish border specifically – adds an additional layer of complexity to the migrants’ shifting future imaginaries. The paper draws on my covert research and in-depth interviews with CEE migrants, where consent was given retrospectively. It discusses the role of the researcher in cutting the covert/overt continuum and ethical dilemmas in the field.
The importance of skin colour is often neglected in empirical studies of negative attitudes towards minori-ties. In this study we use data from the 2014/2015 wave of the European Social Survey to analyse explicitly racist attitudes in Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. The data was collected before the refugee crisis of 2015–2016, which gives the study a unique opportunity to analyse these attitudes in three of the countries that were among the most hostile to migrants in the EU. The study demonstrates how theoretical perspectives commonly used in explorations of negative attitudes based on ethnicity may be effectively used to analyse racist attitudes. The results show high levels of racist attitudes in both Hungary and the Czech Republic, despite there being very few non-white immigrants in these countries, while, in Poland, the racist attitudes are less widespread. Realistic threats seem to be of little importance for understanding racist attitudes – in contrast, symbolic threats appear to be very important for understanding them. There is also the surprising result that voters for more moderate political parties are no less racist than voters for the more radical political parties in any of the three countries.
Sessile suspension feeders depend primarily on availability of a space to settle and access to the water column. Their sessile nature incapacitates displacement during disturbances, and they must rely on their morphology to overcome selective processes. We classified the assemblage of SSF from Mackellar Inlet (King George Island, Antarctica) according to their growth forms (GF) and epibiotic association type, the latter based on direct observation of the epibiotic behaviour of every individual. Organisms that did not comply with any previously established GF were grouped into ‘other GF’. Sampling stations were distributed across the fjord following a gradient based primarily on the distance to Domeyko Glacier (inner, middle, outer sections). Seven GF were recognised in the glaciomarine fjord: tree, bush, stalk, mound, flat, runner, and sheet. Four types of epibiotic associations were identified: basibiont, both facultative epibiont and basibiont, facultative epibiont, and epibiont. Our results showed that the tree GF were found in the inner and middle sections, mound in middle and outer, and flat across all fjord sections. These GF enhanced GF-diversity since they constituted additional substrate for most of the ‘other GF’ which had primarily an epibiotic strategy. Contrastingly, bush, runner and stalk GF were only found in the outer section of the fjord, thus the most distanced from periglacial disturbances. The GF distribution was consistent with distance to glacier, both in number and strategies. These results highlight the potentialities of the morpho-functional classification applied to Antarctic sessile suspension feeders to help understand their distribution based on adaptive capabilities.
Jan Walter of Chojnice (*about 1445, †1512), initially a vicar, and then a parson of St. Peter and Paul’s Church, as well as a secretary of Gdansk City Council, is one of the best known figures associated with the old book culture in Gdansk. The article describes one of the aspects of his bibliophilia: book covers marked with supralibros. It first discusses works by local bookbinders made for Walter, and then analyses a supralibros in the form of a miniature oval featuring the mark of a bibliophile (the head of a Negro) against the background of the European and local tradition of marking books in late Middle Ages. As a result, it is demonstrated that six from among the Gdansk citizen’s books we currently know, which contain the mark, were provided with it secondarily. This is mainly indicated by the non-typical locations of the supralibros – each one is in a way “squeezed in” between the regularly spaced elements of the blind embossing adornment of the covers.
The article presents the significant role of director Marian Pelczar in the post-war rescuing of the collections of the Municipal Library in Gdansk (currently Gdansk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences). The actions related to the protection of book and manuscript collections after the Second World War were of key importance for the reconstruction of the Polish libraries and library science. Of particular importance was the period from 1945 until 1946, when the fate of the physical survival of many library materials hung in the air. Dr Marian Pelczar lavished tender care on the most precious collections of the Municipal Library and managed to extend them to include fragments of historical books and manuscripts from the region of Pomerelia. Acting during the exceptionally difficult post-war times, he contributed to the preservation of the precious heritage of regional, domestic, and European written culture of various provenance.
The article presents the content of non-published prose works by Stanisława Przybyszewska (1901–1935) from the Gdansk period of her oeuvre, i.e. from the period between 1923 and 1935. The author focuses on the widespread belief that Przybyszewska was interested only in the French Revolution and shows that this is erroneous: her works are much richer in topics, and are not limited solely to the play The Danton Case. On the basis of materials kept in the PAN Archives in Warsaw, the PAN Branch in Poznan and their digital copies kept in the Gdansk PAN Library, along with the description of manuscripts and typescripts, the author summarises the plot and issues discussed in such works as Asymptoty, Po omacku, Fons iuventutis, Twórczość Gerarda Gasztowta, Pasiphaë, Wybraniec losu, Eine realistische Studie, I Roma przeszła, Marcowy poranek, Sterylitas and Vanitas vanitatum, showing the extent to which Przybyszewska’s works can be useful in research devoted to the Polish literature from the interwar period as well as the history of the culture of the Free City of Danzig.
The Gdansk chronicle by Bernt Stegmann was written in the East Central German language (Ostmitteldeutsch) in 1528 and is the oldest surviving historiographic artefact concerning Gdansk. The article sums up the author’s latest findings concerning the circumstances in which the chronicle was written and the probable addressee of the work. She also puts forward some hypotheses regarding the origin of the compiler, discusses the structure of the manuscript and the manner of its production. The chronicle is a compilation of some older historiographic sources, which place the history of the Main City of Gdansk in world history: the Jerusalem rulers and the history of the Teutonic Order. It is a type of a universal town chronicle. The content is moralizing – the compilation is a collection of historical examples teaching how to rule the town properly. It was probably written for didactic purposes for young Hans Kremer, the future mayor of Gdansk. Bernt Stegmann was a merchant trading in such places as Stockholm and Reval. The toponymic criterion indicates that his family could originate from the area of Brandenburg or Braniewo, while the dialect in which he wrote the chronicle as well as the numerous Silesian threads in the content also make it possible to be open to the hypothesis that Stegmann’s family could have come from Silesia. This question remains unresolved. The manuscript was written and made personally by Bernt Stegmann, as indicated by the atypical arrangement of its sections and non-professional binding.
The cult of the book in Gdansk manifested itself in the numerous substantial private libraries, marked by the features and qualities of bibliophile facilities, as indicated by the artistic bindings, ex-libris and supralibros of their owners. After their owner’s death, many of the book collections of Gdansk bibliophiles were provided to the municipal library, of which the current Gdansk PAN Library is the heir and continuator. The books have historical bindings, represent a variety of styles and epochs, and many different adornment techniques. The majority of Gdansk patrician families and wealthy burghers belonging to the political, cultural, and scientific elite of the city had coats-of-arms granted to them by the Polish, Danish, or Swedish rulers, or Roman-German emperors. From among many volumes kept in the collection of the Gdansk Library and marked with coat-of-arms supralibros, sample prints from the collections of thirteen representatives of Gdansk bibliophiles were selected.
This article presents Gdansk calendars by the mathematician Johann Gottlieb Bartoldi (1736–1788), which were published from 1776 until 1789. The almanacs were entitled: “Neuer und Alter Kunst- und Tugend-Calender”, “Neuer und Alter Haus- und Geschichts-Calender” and “Allgemeiner Landwirtschafts-Calender”. This text highlights those aspects which depict the traditionalism and conservatism of the calendars, originating from the beginning of the eighteenth century.
Being one of the most important centres in the history of Polish medicine, Gdansk attracted many eminent doctors. Physicians (municipal doctors) and professors from the anatomy department of the Academic Gymnasium Danzig won their doctoral degrees at European universities, and when arriving in Gdansk, they often provided a copy of their dissertation to the Library of the City Council. The article presents results of the initial analysis of the medical print resources kept by the Gdansk PAN Library, including works by the Gymnasium graduates and doctors’ publications other than their doctoral dissertations printed in Gdansk. A comparative analysis of the selected twenty five prints (call marks Fa 69 8o, Sa 30 8o, XIX q. 83d, XIX q. 83f) was carried out with a view to determining the potential research problems and their relationship with the relevant sources.
The bibliography includes printed matriculation albums of universities, registers of members of student fraternities and nationalities preserved in the holdings of the PAS Gdańsk Library. The matriculation albums are a valuable source of information in biographic, genealogical, cultural and social research. Due to their merits as important scientific tools they were edited and published as early as in the 19th century. The bibliography includes sources dated 1289–1944 from 59 towns and 14 European countries (listed in the article under the modern country names), the oldest of which is matriculation record of the University in Bologna, the last one is a list of Polish students of the Medical Department at University in Königsberg. The items in the catalogue are arranged according to the names of the mentioned towns (in the Polish version). Within the category of the towns the author enumerates the matriculation albums, registers of nationalities and student fraternities, as well as other kinds of records, all arranged in alphabetical order. The sources that were impossible to be allocated to any of the above mentioned groups were placed in the appendix.
Magnus Bruski (1886–1945) was ordained to the priesthood in 1913. Bruski’s whole life was strongly connected with Gdansk. His duties as a priest were manifold and comprised remaining the office of a parish priest at St. Nichola’s Church (1935–45) and a vicar general of the diocese of Gdańsk (1934–38). Bruski actively worked in the Free City of Gdańsk succumbed at that time to National Socialism. He was frequently criticised for popularising the knowledge about the Polish language among German clergymen. Bruski died of typhus on July 9th, 1945. The St. Nichola’s Church’s book collection including the private library of Magnus Bruski (75 items) was lucky enough to be preserved only thanks to support from the Dominican friars in 1945. The collection is now a part of the holdings of PAN Gdansk Library. It is now a testimony of their owner’s great need of personal development and his mission to prevent and reduce alcohol abuse in Gdańsk.
Poniższy tekst jest polskim tłumaczeniem publikacji Die Danziger Stadtbibliothek. Ihre Entwicklung und ihr Neubau, Danzig 1905, która ukazała się z okazji otwarcia nowego gmachu Biblioteki Miejskiej w Gdańsku. Autorzy, Otto Günther i Karl Kleefeld, przedstawili dzieje książnicy, powstałej jako Biblioteka Rady Miasta Gdańska w 1596 roku i przekształconej w Bibliotekę Miejską w 1817 roku, oraz kolejne siedziby instytucji w byłym klasztorze franciszkańskim i kościele św. Jakuba; a także architekturę, wystrój i wyposażenie nowego budynku przy obecnej ul. Wałowej 15.
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