(In)formal social participation of immigrants - are migrants from Poland socially active?

The analysis of the patterns of formal and informal participation of Polish migrants in nine selected countries shows the prevalence of informal modes of engagement over the formal ones. This is especially visible while analysing formal membership and volunteering in NGOs, which are typically used as indicators of a formal engagement. In both cases - non-immigrant NGOs and PIOs - their values are relatively low, and in each case do not exceed 6% of the researched population. On the other hand, the indicators of informal engagement are significantly higher. This applies especially to some of the dimensions of informal social activities like selfless help for neighbours and other people in close social environment, collecting for those in need and different forms of internet activity

The State, Diaspora Policy and Immigrant Organizations - Lessons from the Polish Case

This paper examines the relations between immigrant organizations and the institutions of their state of origin as well as the influence of those relations on situation of such organizations. It focuses specifcally on the case of Poland over the period 1989-2015 in which signifcant changes with regards to diaspora policy were introduced. In other words, a shift from a model based on capacity building policies to a model focused on extracting obligations from the diaspora has taken place. These changes have had considerable impact on the role and capacity of Polish immigrant organizations as well as their relations with the Polish state

The large area detector onboard the eXTP mission

The Large Area Detector (LAD) is the high-throughput, spectral-timing instrument onboard the eXTP mission, a flagship mission of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the China National Space Administration, with a large European participation coordinated by Italy and Spain. The eXTP mission is currently performing its phase B study, with a target launch at the end-2027. The eXTP scientific payload includes four instruments (SFA, PFA, LAD and WFM) offering unprecedented simultaneous wide-band X-ray timing and polarimetry sensitivity. The LAD instrument is based on the design originally proposed for the LOFT mission. It envisages a deployed 3.2 m2 effective area in the 2-30 keV energy range, achieved through the technology of the large-area Silicon Drift Detectors - offering a spectral resolution of up to 200 eV FWHM at 6 keV - and of capillary plate collimators - limiting the field of view to about 1 degree. In this paper we will provide an overview of the LAD instrument design, its current status of development and anticipated performance

AN OUTLINE OF THE CONDITIONS OF IMMIGRANT ORGANIZATIONS’ FUNCTIONING – A PROPOSITION OF AN EXPLANATORY MODEL

Organizacje imigranckie są ważną formą zaangażowania społecznego migrantów ze względu na funkcje pełnione przez nie dla państwa przyjmującego i wysyłającego oraz samej diaspory. Pomimo wielokrotnie artykułowanej przez badaczy potrzeby podjęcia holistycznych badań nad problematyką funkcjonowania tychże organizacji (również w rodzimej literaturze przedmiotu w odniesieniu do organizacji polonijnych), wiedza w tym obszarze pozostaje raczej fragmentaryczna. Przeprowadzony przegląd literatury wskazuje bowiem na brak spójnego modelu opisującego i wyjaśniającego uwarunkowania stanu organizacji imigranckich. Artykuł ma na celu przedstawienie założeń nowego modelu eksplanacyjnego w oparciu o wyniki badań własnych i dotychczas proponowane w literaturze przedmiotu koncepcje.Immigrant organizations are one of the key forms of social involvement of migrants, due to the central role that they play with respect to immigrants, the host state, and the country of origin. However, despite numerous calls for holistic research on immigrant organizations’ functioning, knowledge in this field remains rather limited. The conducted literature review demonstrates lack of a coherent model describing and explaining factors affecting the statusof immigrant organizations. The aim of this paper is to present assumptions of a proposed explanatory model which builds on the authors’ own elaborations and various concepts already present in the source literature

The new Polish diaspora policy — the area of creating the community or the game of interest?

Polityka polonijna podlegała od 1989 r. istotnym przemianom, które znalazły wyraz, z jednej strony, w treści kluczowych dokumentów zawierających jej założenia, z drugiej zaś — w praktyce jej realizacji. Ostanie 25 lat pozwoliło obserwować również znaczące zmiany instytucjonalne w systemie realizacji tego obszaru polityki zagranicznej, które można nazwać tworzeniem „nowej polityki polonijnej”. Procesy te charakteryzują się odejściem od postrzegania polityki polonijnej w kategoriach aksjologicznie warunkowanych zobowiązań państwa polskiego wobec Polonii oraz opieki nad nią na rzecz definiowania jej jako instrumentu realizacji polityki państwa polskiego i polskiej racji stanu. Jednym z wymiarów tych przemian jest także redefinicja Polonii i Polaków za granicą jako specyficznie rozumianej wspólnoty.The policy towards Polish diaspora since 1989 has been the subject of substantial changes, reflected, on the one hand, in key program documents, and on the other hand, in the practice of its implementation. The last 25 years allow to observe significant institutional changes in the area of Polish foreign policy, which may be called the creation of the “new policy towards Polish community abroad”. These processes can be characterized as the shift from perceiving the Polish community abroad in terms of axiologically conditioned obligations and care of the Polish state towards the Polish community to defining it rather as an instrument of the Polish state policy and its raison d’etat. One of the dimensions of these changes is also the redefinition of Polish community and the Poles living abroad as a specific type of community

‘We Are Not Just Asking What Poland Can Do for the Polish Diaspora but Mainly What the Polish Diaspora Can Do for Poland’: The Influence of New Public Management on the Polish Diaspora Policy in the Years 2011–2015

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 diaspora policy on five dimensions: organisational restructuring, management instruments, budgetary reforms, participation, marketisation/privatisation

The wide field monitor onboard the Chinese-European x-ray mission eXTP

The eXTP (enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry) mission is a major project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), with a large involvement of Europe. The scientific payload of eXTP includes four instruments: the SFA (Spectroscopy Focusing Array) and the PFA (Polarimetry Focusing Array) - led by China - the LAD (Large Area Detector) and the WFM (Wide Field Monitor) - led by Europe (Italy and Spain). They offer a unique simultaneous wide-band X-ray timing and polarimetry sensitivity. The WFM is a wide field X-ray monitor instrument in the 2-50 keV energy range, consisting of an array of six coded mask cameras with a field of view of 180ºx90ºat an angular resolution of 5 arcmin and 4 silicon drift detectors in each camera. Its unprecedented combination of large field of view and imaging down to 2 keV will allow eXTP to make important discoveries of the variable and transient X-ray sky and is essential in detecting transient black holes, that are part of the primary science goals of eXTP, so that they can be promptly followed up with other instruments on eXTP and elsewhere