The Nation Should Be Put First. The Political Party System and the Migration Discourses in Poland

The discourse of migration in Poland begun in 2015, what was an effect of the so called ‘refugee crisis’ (or ‘migration crisis’) in Europe coinciding with the electoral campaign before the parliamentary elections held on 25 October in Poland. The discourse was triggered not so much by the influx of asylum seekers to Poland, which was minimal in numbers, but by the European debate on relocation quotas of refugees among the EU Member States. Since 2015, the Polish rival political parties have been shaping their own approaches towards migration, especially forced migration, although not all of them distinguish asylum seekers as a different category of immigrants. The main research question of my paper is whether and how has the Polish political party system influenced the discourse on migrants? The additional research questions are: - what are the main discourses on (forced) migration in Poland produced by politicians and reproduced by media? - what are the stakeholders’ reactions and opinions on the above mentioned discourses? I will present the map of the Polish rival political actors reflecting on William A. Barberi categorization of migration policy models from the perspective of the relationship of the individual to the state, namely policies of closure (views of the radical right), culture (Christian Democrats), choice (liberal views), coexistence (views of social democracy), and cosmopolitan (views of the radical left). I argue that domination of right (both, centre-right and ultra-right) parties in Poland and their views on migration is reflected in the existing migration narratives and discourses in the country. With regard to methodology, I used political claims analysis and discourse analysis basing on three types of sources: - 22 speeches of leaders of the main political parties in Poland. The main parties were chosen according to their performance in the parliamentary elections held in October 2015. - 50 news articles (opinions) selected from the three national newspapers: Gazeta Polska Codziennie (conservative), Rzeczpospolita (centrist) and Gazeta Wyborcza (liberal) - Interviews with 15 stakeholders involved in multi-level migration governance in Poland. The paper is based on findings of the research carried out in project RESPOND: Multi-Level Governance of Mass Migration in Europe and Beyond. RESPOND (2017-2020) (Horizon 2020).