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(More customer reviews)There is no such thing as the Polish "immigration" to America. There were Polish immigrationS. The immigration which laid the groundwork for the Polish-American community as it exists today was the great emigration of 1880-1920, people who came for economic reasons. Polish poverty and American labor needs dovetailed. The immigration from 1945-52, the "DP" (Displaced Person) immigration, was a political immigration of people who refused to return to a "Poland" that was a mere Soviet satellite. These immigrants were often well-educated professionals who felt a moral obligation to preserve the free Polish intellectual tradition (after Hitler and Stalin did their best to exterminate it). Invoking the models of a "exile mission" found in the writings of Mickiewicz and other post-1830 Uprising emigres, the "DPs" eventually came to America, added fresh blood to the Polish Diaspora in America, and kept alive faith in Poland's eventual resurrection as a truly free and democratic state. Fills an important gap. Highly recommended.
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At midcentury, two distinct Polish immigrant groups—those Polish Americans who were descendants of economic immigrants from the turn of the twentieth century and the Polish political refugees who chose exile after World War II and the communist takeover in Poland—faced an uneasy challenge to reconcile their concepts of responsibility toward the homeland. The new arrivals did not consider themselves simply as immigrants, but rather as members of the special category of political refugees. They defined their identity within the framework of the exile mission, an unwritten set of beliefs, goals, and responsibilities, placing patriotic work for Poland at the center of Polish immigrant duties. In The Exile Mission, an intriguing look at the interplay between the established Polish community and the refugee community, Anna Jaroszynska–Kirchmann presents a tale of Polish Americans and Polish refugees who, like postwar Polish exile communities all over the world, worked out their own ways to implement the mission's main goals. Between the outbreak of World War II and 1956, as Professor Jaroszynska–Kirchmann demonstrates, the exile mission in its most intense form remained at the core of relationships between these two groups. The Exile Mission is a compelling analysis of the vigorous debate about ethnic identity and immigrant responsibility toward the homeland. It is the first full–length examination of the construction and impact of the exile mission on the interactions between political refugees and established ethnic communities.
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