Jakub Isański

This paper looks at war-induced migration flows from Ukraine to Poland and Germany in 2022 to understand who is migrating and the challenges they face. Data were collected in the spring and summer of 2022 through survey questionnaires and interviews. The results of the research reveal that a) this wave of migration from Ukraine is overwhelmingly female; b) women are often migrating with children, which makes arranging appropriate childcare and school placement essential to their entry into the destination workforce; c) Ukrainian labor migration patterns before the war have had a significant impact on current flows; d) Ukrainian refugees to Poland and Germany often want to be able to travel regularly back to Ukraine; this affects their willingness to apply for temporary protection schemes that oblige them to remain in destination countries, which in turn makes it difficult to precisely quantify the number of refugees in a given country.

Background: The text engages with the ongoing discussion about the relationship between religious communities and mobility. Purpose: The paper embraces with the increasing attention paid to the transnational dynamics of religiosity in migrants’ individual experiences, expectations and modes of involvement. We concentrate on the following research problem: how does the Roman Catholic Church as an institution, and through the networks of the faithful, facilitate, challenge and intersect with the adaptation of migrants to their new environments? Methods: The study draws on empirical data and a survey conducted with a sample (n=620) of migrants - Polish Catholics in Great Britain in 2019. We analyse selected issues encountered in the migrants’ parishes ‒ their non-religious activities, the expectations of other parishioners, and the migrants’ continuing links with their places of origin. Results: A cluster analysis of the data revealed five profiles of those participating in parish life and led us to suggest existing two types of parochialism: an old parochialism and a new one. The results of the study concern the declared expectations of respondents concerning the confessional and non-confessional (charity, leisure, tourist, or cultural) activities of their parishes. The old parochialism type represents a traditional view of the parish as a religious community while the second emphasizes socio-cultural background and a cooperative style of work based on associations and goal achievement. It reflects contemporary trends where the next generation of migrants is changing its relationship with the parish community, making it more organic and negotiable. Conclusions and Implications: Our findings reveal the socio-cultural specificity of migrants shaped by membership of migrant parishes outside Poland and how this specificity can be compared with mainstream Catholic parishes in Great Britain. The results can also be used as a reference point for contemporary discussions concerning the declining influence of religion on social life and the evolution of people’s expectations concerning parish communities. Keywords: migrants’ parochialism, Catholic parish, religious and non-religious parish activities, cluster analysis, sociology of migration

Our research aimed to study the ongoing phenomena of cross-border displacement of the Ukrainian population resulting from the Russian aggression that started on the 24th of February 2022. In the first stage of this research, we managed to get the opinions of over 500 refugees with a focus on their needs, concerns, plans, and expectations. Collected data also allowed a reconstruction of social-demographic profiles of fleeing Ukrainian refugees. The preliminary outcomes are presented in the report.

International migration mirrors contemporary society in all its complexity. What has not changed for centuries is the principal motif: people leave their country of origin, hoping for a better life. Poland has a long history of emigration: Poles have been migrating for more than 200 years for political, economic, and social reasons. In recent decades, Polish migration patterns have undergone dramatic changes. Using online survey data, this article explores new Polish migration trends since the country’s accession to the European Union in 2004. The survey was focused on Polish migrants who stayed abroad for some time, those who stayed abroad before the accession, those who returned to Poland, or those who experienced multiple travels and have an ongoing migration project. We conclude that new trends have emerged among Polish migrants. Contemporary migrants are aware of the benefits of migration and can implement their migration projects quite skillfully. Their high susceptibility to the economic setting proves their flexibility. Polish migrants highly value their new lifestyle abroad and consider friends their most important source of support.