Will 27 Years be Enough? Vietnamese struggle for acceptance in Polish Society

by Szymon Kozioł 

Szymon Kozioł is a junior in Political Science and Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Szymon’s future plans include applying to become a Foreign Service Officer for the US State Department, traveling, and learning new languages. He wrote this blog post for 418 “Language and Minorities in Europe” in Spring 2023.

60th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Poland and Vietnam (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland)1. 
www.flickr.com/photos/polandmfa/4343433086.

Already starting in the 1950s “Vietnamese students coming for scholarships to communist Poland… with a peak of 800 beneficiaries per year at the beginning of the 1970s (Grzymala-Kazlowska, pg. 468), began arriving to Poland. This marked the first time in a while (with the exception of the Lipka Tatars), where a whole race, culture, and new language, started residing in Poland. The reason? Well let’s say it has to do something with Poland’s past.

Since the beginning of Poland’s existence as a state in the year 966, the Central-Eastern European country has never been fully homogenously ethnic. Sure, Poland today seems to resemble that reality. With a population of 37 million (according to WorldoMeter.com), 96.9% of the population identifies as ethnically Polish, and 98.2% declare themselves as speakers of Polish. Yet when looking back in the history books, one can find Poland to be a land of multiple ethnicities and languages. One in particular that has relevance now would be the language and people of Vietnam. A people whose language and culture becomes the victim of an ever increasingly nationalistic government led by Poland’s Law and Justice party.

Looking back into the tragic history of 20th-Century Poland, one would be hard press to deny the fact the Poland had sizeable minorities. One of the most notably being that of the Jews. Yet as Poland fell victim to the atrocities of the Nazis, who in turn wiped out Europe’s largest Jewish minority and with it the largest second language in Poland, Yiddish. Poland would later experience a redrawing of its borders, leaving many of Poland’s former East Slavic minorities inside the borders of the USSR. These two events explain Poland’s unprecedented mono-lingual and ethic situation, and marks the first ever time (emphases on the ever) that Poland became a mono- ethnically, mono-lingual country.

Celebration of Tết by Vietnamese students in the University of Warsaw between 1967 and 19732 (https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/jednostka/-/jednostka/5952892/obiekty/379729)

However, this was not to last. “The first group of 20 Vietnamese students came to Poland that same year. The scholarship program was set up to encourage Vietnamese students to study at Polish universities so they could spread socialism back home.” (Premiyak). This communist program was in many ways not too different from the student exchange programs we have today. The key difference being that it was motivated by the goal of spreading of Marxist-Leninist ideals, and much less so with the education.

Yet, the extraordinary outcome was instead the beginning stages of mass emigration of Vietnamese people to Poland in the 1950s, and later in the 1960s and 70s, who were genuinely motivated by the pull of Poland and the Push of Vietnam in terms of economic matters. The push factor being primarily determined by the situation of Vietnam found itself in after the Vietnam War as quote “Back home, Vietnam was recovering from war and experiencing its grueling “subsidy period” (Thời Bao Cấp), that lasted from 1976 until 1986, during which time the government controlled every aspect of the economy and Vietnamese people relied on coupons and food stamps to get by.” (Premiyak). Thus, initiated by the Vietnamese students, whole families from the northern provinces of Vietnam moved into Poland, in particular its capital Warsaw, bring their culture as well as language with them.

The largest non-European migrant diaspora in Poland continues to be the Vietnamese community. (Premiyak). However, due to Poland's recent, yet lengthy past of mono-ethnicity and monolingualism, many Poles are unfamiliar with the concepts of multiculturalism and multilingualism. Polish media coverage of the community reflects this ignorance of the Vietnamese population's existence. Photographer Magorzata Stankiewicz Rabikowska claimed that she started her photo project out of frustration with Poland's anti-migrant rhetoric. (Premiyak). Since 2015, anti-immigrant sentiment has grown, with phrases like "Today's immigrants are tomorrow's terrorists" appearing in public spaces.

An effect of this anti-immigrant attitude in Poland, has led to many immigrant groups living in Poland, including the Vietnamese, to begin emphasizing the education of the Polish language to their children. The role of various forms of bridging capital for immigrant adaptation and upward mobility is discussed in this poll from the academic article, “The case of Ukrainian and Vietnamese immigrants settled in Poland” by Aleksandra Grzymała-Kazłowska, where Vietnamese people were seen as prioritizing Polish language education, quote “Polish skills were perceived as something important in life by 84% of the Vietnamese” (Grzymala-Kazlowska, pg. 474). This reality demonstrates Poland's linguistic monolingual state and the near impossibility of the development and use of additional languages.

The reason for this discrepancy might lie partly in Poland’s constitution, as it recognizes national and ethnic minorities under its Act of 6th of January 2005. According to which, Article 2 states that a national minority in Poland is defined as a group of Polish citizens who are numerically smaller than the rest of the population of the Republic of Poland, significantly differ from the remaining citizens in language, culture, or tradition, strive to preserve their language, culture, or tradition, are aware of their own historical national community and are oriented towards its expression and protection, have ancestors living on the present territory of the Republic of Poland for at least 100 years, and identify themselves with a nation organized in their own state (Republic of Poland's ACT of 6 January 2005 on national and ethnic minorities and on the regional languages). The Act recognizes nine national minorities: Belarusians, Czechs, Lithuanians, Germans, Armenians, Russians, Slovaks, Ukrainians, and Jews. The Act also recognizes four ethnic minorities and their languages: The Karaim, the Lemko, Roma, and the Tartar languages. Yet Poland does not seem to have any recognition of Vietnamese as a minority langauge. Given that the earliest Vietnamese arrived in Poland in the 1950s, this would mean that it would take the Vietnamese immigrants and their language 27 more years, until it can be approved for full recognition as a minority. Something given recent events regarding judicial changes made by the Law and Justice party, might not be enough time to protect this ethnic minority and their language.

In Poland, the Vietnamese community and its language are treated similarly to other non-minority or “nonnative” immigrant groups found within Poland. Acceding to Aleksandra Grzyma-Kazowska study, she claims there can be seen a similar treatment of those minorities and immigrants who don’t have the recognition status within the country. For example, following its accession talks with the European Union, Poland tightened its immigration policy by enacting stricter rules and regulations after having a liberal admissions policy toward immigrants in 1989. The first Aliens Act, passed in 1997, tightened border controls and reduced the number of legal entry points for migrants. The right to reside and the use of visas were further restricted by a new Aliens Act that was passed in 2003 (Grzyma-Kazowska 467). This point presented by Grzyma-Kazowska, points to the fact of how closed Poland is to outsiders who try to reside within their country.

The immigration policy of the Polish state also makes distinctions between European and non-European nations. Particularly, in light of the demand for workers in the secondary sector, as well as Poland's anticipated population decline, Ukrainians are viewed as necessary and unproblematic migrants. The Vietnamese, on the other hand, are treated with suspicion and are seen as rather hostile. This position of the Polish government and the majority of Polish citizen towards these immigrants, makes these immigrant populations, like the Vietnamese, to be more reserved and closed-off in attitude. In addition to being under the watchful eye of the Polish government, these immigrants also experience high levels of informal social control within their own group, preventing them to reach for common understanding, and bridge building between the two groups (Grzyma-Kazowska). Vietnamese immigrants face many of these obstacles, as a lack of communication between the state and the majority population leads to the development of closed communities.

Vietnamese restaurants on Aleja Bohaterów Warszawy, Szczecin, Poland 
8 June 20113 Image Credit: Alfons Åberg, via Wikimedia Commons. 
License available here.

Polish society has benefited greatly from the Vietnamese community's contributions, particularly in the restaurant and small business sectors. The Wola district of Warsaw, where there are numerous Vietnamese-owned restaurants and shops, is where the community is most noticeable. (Premiyak). However, Vietnamese people in Poland also encounter difficulties, such as linguistic barriers, discrimination, and restricted access to social services with their own languages, just like many non-minority status immigrant communities found in Poland. Yet the Vietnamese community has and continues to be persistent and help contribute to greater Polish society in spite of these obstacles.

References:

Liza Premiyak, Zula Rabikowska. “Doesn't Allow Me to Feel Polish.' Stories from Warsaw's Vietnamese Diaspora 'Society.” The Calvert Journal. https://www.calvertjournal.com/features/show/11951/vietnamese-diaspora-poland-photography.

“Poland Population (Live).” Worldometer. https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/poland-population/.

Poland demographics profile. https://www.indexmundi.com/poland/demographics_profile.html.

Grzymała-Kazłowska, A. (2015). The role of different forms of bridging capital for immigrant adaptation and upward mobility. The case of Ukrainian and Vietnamese immigrants settled in Poland. Ethnicities, 15(3), 460–490. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796813518314

“Act of 6 January 2005 on National and Ethnic Minorities and on ... - Gov.pl.” Accessed April 9, 2023. https://www.gov.pl/attachment/f6197e7c-2c12-45e5-8fa2-77dcb3b9657c.

1.Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland. “60th Anniversary of Establishing Diplomatic Relations between Poland and Vietnam 10.” Flickr, Yahoo! www.flickr.com/photos/polandmfa/4343433086.

2.“Studenci Wietnamscy z Wydziału Matematyki UW Podczas Śpiewu. Z Lewej Widoczna Kamera Filmowa.” Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/5952892/obiekty/379729.

3. File:Vietnamese restaurants on Aleja Bohaterów Warszawy, Szczecin, Poland.jpg." Wikimedia Commons. 28 Sep 2020, 09:29 UTC. <https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Vietnamese_restaurants_on_Aleja_Bohater%C3%B3w_Warszawy,_Szczecin,_Poland.jpg&oldid=474177423>.