Ethnic festivals

This article investigates the integration of Vietnamese-origin immigrants into the political sphere in Poland. Drawing on the reconceptualisation of integration as a two-way interactive process between migrant actors and host countries, this study examines the Vietnamese’s political integration by disentangling the migrant group’s willingness to be politically integrated through their participation in the political opportunities granted in the host society. Empirically, this study focuses on the viewpoint of immigrants, analysing the Vietnamese’s latent and manifest political participation in Polish society. By employing mixed-method research with a parallel mixed design utilising qualitative and quantitative data, this study discloses the visibility of political integration into Polish society among Vietnamese-origin immigrants. The integration is characterised by a modest willingness for political engagement, exhibited by a low involvement level in latent activities and a very low rate of engagement in the manifest dimension. Political integration motivation is highly linked to the perception of obligation fulfilment to the host society, the desire to gain recognition from the hosts and the protection of liberal values. The results also uncover a variation in political participation across primary demographic factors, with a high degree of involvement manifested among males, older people and the 1.5 and second generation.

The article focuses on the adaptation and acculturation of Vietnamese immigrants in the Polish society. Specifically, it concentrates on the situation of young Vietnamese women. It is based on analysis of 22 regular interviews and supplementary informal conversations with young Vietnamese immigrants in Warsaw conducted between 2007 and 2012. The author stresses the psychological problems and internal conflicts brought about by the process of adapting to Polish ways of living and thinking. The researched group was composed of 1.5 and second generation of Vietnamese who either were born in Poland, or grew up here from an early age. The situation of these young people, in particular of young women, grows on profound differences between expectations addressed to them in the Vietnamese society from which they come from, and the Polish culture in which they chose to or must live. Many Vietnamese norms are deeply inculcated and internalisedfor instance those connected with having children, especially sons or those connected with the higher position of the older generation. At the same time, young Vietnamese immigrants find various Polish normative solutions much more attractive and favourable, for instance giving more freedom to girls by Polish parents, equal relations between men and women (especially between spouses and between parents and children).

Unlike previous migration studies that extensively concerned the adaptation issue, this study focuses on the social bases, investigating the configuration of the social capital of the Vietnamese community in Poland. It mainly concerns two main components of social capital: social networks and social trust. The data for empirical analyses in this study are employed from a research project examining the integration of the Vietnamese into the political sphere in Polish society. The project applies a mixedresearch method design to collect quantitative data through an original social survey with 347 respondents and qualitative data from 15 semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal the social capital of the Vietnamese in Poland with a striking characteristic of a high level of bonding ties, primarily relying on close relations such as family or ethnic organizations to seek support and placing a very high level of confidence in family members. Nevertheless, this study also uncovers the accumulation of bridging social capital through developing out-group contacts and participating in cross-ethnic associations among the Vietnamese. The results of this study have significant implications for understanding the attachment tendency of the Vietnamese in Polish society.

In the 1950s the Polish People’s Republic and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam established diplomatic and political connections that remained constant even after the regime change of 1989. These newly established contacts generated scientific collaborations and a large-scale fellowship programme for Vietnamese students to study in Poland. Drawing on archival findings, pedagogical writings, and oral history, this chapter highlights the tremendous consequences of Poland’s involvement in the postcolonial reshuffling in former Indochina on Vietnamese students who ended up building their lives in late socialist Poland. It seeks to illuminate the process by which Vietnamese students in the late 1970s moved onto the global or transnational terrain of socialist education and, by extension, into the world of transnational socialism, shaping its actual reality on the ground as well as its political, cultural, and affective afterlives in ways that still reverberate today. Their stories implicitly raise questions about the contours and limits of existing forms and spaces of socialist solidarity that did not necessarily welcome wayward grassroots relationships between Vietnamese and Polish students in the form of mixed-race couples. Connecting multiple scales, this chapter excavates these often-forgotten interconnected histories, on the level of both state institutions and individuals, showing that while these relationships were, at times, overtly political they were also intimate. By including the stories and positionalities of those who are often marked as ‘outsiders’ to Polish history, this chapter indirectly offers a reassessment of who counts as a subject of the history of everyday life under socialism through an engagement with the perspectives of Vietnamese students.

Este artigo apresenta as representacoes publicas da imigracao italiana em Santa Catarina (Brasil). De particular importância nesse processo sao as festas que tem lugar no estado de Santa Catarina: a Festa da Porca Pipa (Criciuma) e a Festa do Vinho (Urussanga), acerca das quais as autoras tem desenvolvido estudos etnograficos (2011, 2014). Esta etnografia, as memorias produzidas pelos descendentes de imigrantes italianos e as entrevistas conduzidas por dois autoras sao as fontes do presente artigo.

This article is devoted to investigating the cultural integration of working Vietnamese immigrants in Poland. This study approaches cultural integration as a process of lived experience, paying particular attention to immigrants’ agency. The migrant group is viewed as active actors who are able to develop motivations for integration into their host culture or reinforce their loyalty to their original culture through interactions with new living settings in their country of residence. This study also examined the role of transnationalism in the process of cultural integration. Qualitative analyses showed that the motivations for cultural integration are strongly shaped by the immigrants’ impression of proper cultural standards and their admiration of the performance of social institutions, modernization, and living conditions in Poland. Motivations for integration played a crucial role in fostering the migrant group’s cultural acquisition. Concurrently, the migrant group exposed thei...

This article is devoted to investigating the cultural integration of working Vietnamese immigrants in Poland. This study approaches cultural integration as a process of lived experience, paying particular attention to immigrants’ agency. The migrant group is viewed as active actors who are able to develop motivations for integration into their host culture or reinforce their loyalty to their original culture through interactions with new living settings in their country of residence. This study also examined the role of transnationalism in the process of cultural integration. Qualitative analyses showed that the motivations for cultural integration are strongly shaped by the immigrants’ impression of proper cultural standards and their admiration of the performance of social institutions, modernization, and living conditions in Poland. Motivations for integration played a crucial role in fostering the migrant group’s cultural acquisition. Concurrently, the migrant group exposed thei...

This paper examines the waves of migration between Vietnam and fraternal socialist countries in the Eastern bloc from the 1950s until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Arguing for a collectivist migration framework, it compares and contrasts the various generations of architecture student migrants, their multidirectional movements, and, for most, their repatriation to Vietnam. There is no single uniform narrative of socialist mobility. Each wave was driven by different war and postwar exigencies, and the groups of migrants who left Vietnam confronted a range of unique challenges related to such factors as location, gender and assignment overseas (i.e. student or worker). This paper has two objectives: first, to decentre the West from hegemonic discussions of Vietnamese diasporas in order to advance a broader understanding of the historical development of overseas Vietnamese communities in what are now post-socialist countries; and second, to complicate the story of Vietnamese migrants in Central and Eastern Europe by arguing that past socialist mobilities are constitutive of much capitalistdriven migration today. An examination of different socialist migration trajectories and experiences of living overseas across generations provides important insights into how socioeconomic and political changes that came about in Vietnam with the fall of the Berlin Wall shaped the personal lives and professional futures of returnees and their kin. It also serves to bring the study of socialist migration histories more deeply into the epistemological and methodological fold of contemporary Vietnamese studies.

Recently, the issue of intercultural relations between immigrants and the host society has been widely discussed. Taking into account the increasing spatial mobility of non-EU foreigners, it seems highly important to examine their relations with the host community on the local level. This article presents the results of the qualitative study conducted in the first quarter of 2014 in the Lesznowola municipality (Mazowieckie province, Piaseczno district) in Poland. It aims at analysing the situation of the Vietnamese community and its engagement in the local life of the municipality and examine attitudes of both Vietnamese and Poles towards prospects for granting local voting rights to migrants in Poland. Through several years of successful business and social cooperation, the Vietnamese immigrants have become a recognisable part of the social landscape of the municipality. The degree of social and political participation at the local level on the part of the Vietnamese community has also increased, which can be observed, for example, through such practical indicator as cooperation with local educational institutions. Therefore, we can argue that the Vietnamese community has been transforming itself from a marginalised and self-sufficient homogeneous group into more and more self-aware and active socio-political group of actors.

A case study of Vietnamese pagodas operating in Warsaw and its surroundings in the past 25 years shows the strength with which local social and spatial conditions affect adaptation strategies of migrant institutions. Taking into account, the ecological perspective and the discourse of Vietnamese community concerning the role of temples enabled us to answer the question about the role of pagodas in maintaining local and transnational intragroup bonds and interactions with the majority society. This article shows how a process of local social and cultural integration that was beginning to emerge was significantly slowed down by spatial separation of the Vietnamese community and by this community’s transnational connections getting on intensity.

This paper thoroughly examines the gender patterns of religious activity within the Vietnamesethe largest non-European migrant community in Poland. Basing on the result from anthropological fieldwork which I conducted in two pagodas currently operating in the suburbs of Warsaw I analyse this issue in the light of traditional gender patterns of religious life in Vietnam, as well as in the context of the politicisation of spiritual life under communist rule. The results of my research prove that whether a religious institution will become a 'women's sphere' or will remain under the influence of male actors depends to a great extent on its political emplacement and relations with formal institutions of the Vietnamese state.

This study investigates the political engagement of Vietnamese immigrants in Poland on social media. It employs the typology of online political participation as a theoretical framework to determine the pattern of online involvement in the political sphere staged by the migrant group. Through analysing materials relating to political discussions created daily on an online community of the Polish Vietnamese, collected by doing netnography, this study shows that the political activism on social media of Vietnamese immigrants in Poland exists and varies. Vietnamese-migrant users discuss homeland politics and express views about political issues in the host country as well as other countries by creating non-mobilising posts (Information and Diffusion), while being inclined to produce posts with calls for action (Instruction and Promotion) to criticise social injustice and mobilise equality. This study also found a growing critical attitude towards homeland politics among Vietnamese-origin individuals in the country. The findings have practical implications for associations and state actors in both the host and home countries to account for the evolvement of the migrant community.

Migrant religious institutions tend to be focal places of intercultural encounters, serving as spaces for performing national, ethnic and religious identities, as well as, dialoging and negotiating belonging within the majority society. Thiên Phúc, a Vietnameseoperated pagoda functioning in Poland, serves as an important factor in the Vietnamese migrant community affairs, at the same time remaining virtually unknown to a broader Polish public. Drawing on extensive fieldwork study results, we adapt an original perspective of a migrant religious institution as an active agent in negotiating belonging to various social contexts, namely the host society, the Vietnamese migrant community and the social space of Buddhist religious institutions. We point out to coherences and disjunctures between arguments formulated during the search for legitimisation from the diverse sources. We also reflect upon complex ways in which the negotiation strategies are related to Polish public discourse on the Vietnamese community, which tends to form two opposite arguments: one calling for better integration, the other for their isolation and invisibility. Doing so, we shed light on outcomes and limitations of particular strategies of negotiating belonging undertaken by an 'otherized' institution in the context of one of the most ethnically and religiously homogeneous societies in Europe.

This article is devoted to investigating the cultural integration of working Vietnamese immigrants in Poland. This study approaches cultural integration as a process of lived experience, paying particular attention to immigrants’ agency. The migrant group is viewed as active actors who are able to develop motivations for integration into their host culture or reinforce their loyalty to their original culture through interactions with new living settings in their country of residence. This study also examined the role of transnationalism in the process of cultural integration. Qualitative analyses showed that the motivations for cultural integration are strongly shaped by the immigrants’ impression of proper cultural standards and their admiration of the performance of social institutions, modernization, and living conditions in Poland. Motivations for integration played a crucial role in fostering the migrant group’s cultural acquisition. Concurrently, the migrant group exposed their disinclination to internalize cultural standards that challenged their established worldviews formed by socialization and education in the home country. This reluctance happens due to the role of transnational ties by which the migrant group can carry and practice their original culture. Consequently, transnationalism results in cultural resistance, hindering the cultural integration of the migrant group in Poland.

This paper thoroughly examines the gender patterns of religious activity within the Vietnamese-the largest non-European migrant community in Poland. Basing on the result from anthropological fieldwork which I conducted in two pagodas currently operating in the suburbs of Warsaw I analyse this issue in the light of traditional gender patterns of religious life in Vietnam, as well as in the context of the politicisation of spiritual life under communist rule. The results of my research prove that whether a religious institution will become a 'women's sphere' or will remain under the influence of male actors depends to a great extent on its political emplacement and relations with formal institutions of the Viet-namese state.

A case study of Vietnamese pagodas operating in Warsaw and its surroundings in the past 25 years shows the strength with which local social and spatial conditions affect adaptation strategies of migrant institutions. Taking into account, the ecological perspective and the discourse of Vietnamese community concerning the role of temples enabled us to answer the question about the role of pagodas in maintaining local and transnational intragroup bonds and interactions with the majority society. This article shows how a process of local social and cultural integration that was beginning to emerge was significantly slowed down by spatial separation of the Vietnamese community and by this community's transnational connections getting on intensity.

About 160,000 individuals with a Vietnamese backgrounds living in Germany with various reasons of migration, the Vietnamese group is considered a “visible minority” and socio-culturally “distant” from so-called native Germans. The two contrasting stereotypes of Vietnamese migrants prevailed in the German public imagination as the cigarette smuggler and the elite migration with over achievement in education are only two puzzle pieces of a whole puzzle. The Vietnamese people in this host country have to struggle with both stigmatization and compliment. The present paper aims to introduce the conducted research related to Vietnamese diaspora in Germany to give an overview about this group, and to provide more information for doing more research, and developing particular social, cultural and economic policies for this group.

Based on anthropological multi-sited fieldwork, this article examines the changing flows of Vietnamese migration to Poland, starting with educational migration in the 1950s up to the current economic-oriented migration. Changes in the geopolitical order, such as the collapse following the Cold War and the reorientation of foreign policy of both countries, affected the nature of Vietnamese migration and cultural transmission. The biographical narratives of Vietnamese migrants in Poland were examined to analyze the interconnections between macro-structural factors, micro-level individual experiences and meso-level of transnational connections maintained by the Vietnamese community in Poland with their country of origin.

While multicultural festivals have become a significant feature of multicultural societies, offering a distinct and valuable experience for visitors, few studies have considered their role in contemporary social settings. This paper outlines the key characteristics of multicultural festivals by drawing upon literature from a range of disciplines to clearly conceptualize their role. The paper concludes that such festivals play a particularly significant role engendering multiculturalism in outwardly diverse social contexts. It contributes in turn to further comprehension of the importance of such festivals in contemporary social contexts characterized by growing ethnic diversity.

In the article, I present an analysis of two Tết (Lunar New Year) festivals organised by the Vietnamese living in Poland. The events, prepared by different organisations – a local branch of the Association of Vietnamese in Poland, an official organisation cooperating with the authorities of Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and pro-democratic activists – provide an insight into the community’s internal diversity. The analysis indicates that the political involvement of the organising parties influences their choice of particular style of presentation, with a profound impact on the attractiveness of the festival for the two important segments of audience: the Vietnamese youth brought up in Poland and the Polish spectators. The paper is based on fieldwork research which the author has been conducting among the Vietnamese community in Poland for many years.

In this paper I explore immigrants' notions and practices of citizenship, and how these contribute to the citizenship debate. In order to achieve this, I examine Latin American immigrants' struggle for belonging in Toronto by looking at the Canadian Hispanic Day Parade. This multicultural celebration of ethnic diversity takes place in a marginalized suburban neighbourhood of the city, and I argue that Latin Americans use it to affirm the existence of a Latin American identity and community in Toronto. But, while the parade serves to contest dominant representations of immigrants, visible minorities, and the disadvantaged, it also reveals how forms of community mobilization can internalize neoliberal social relations and even promote a neoliberal agenda. The aim of the paper is to reflect
upon the political potential of ethnic celebrations, as well as the constraints and complexities of immigrant citizenship practice within the contemporary context of Canadian multiculturalism and neoliberalism.

Ethno-religious youth groups foster civic engagement for the children of immigrants in the United States. This article
adopts the concept of the «community of practice» (Lave & Wenger 1991) to analyze the ways in which a youth
association at a Vietnamese Buddhist temple in north-central Texas teaches civic skills. This group contributes both to
cultural reproduction within the Vietnamese diaspora and to new productions of meaning and participation that
facilitate a «belonging» in the new host country. This approach sees youth as active participants in the production of
skills, practice, and knowledge in settings of informal learning.