„Nic mnie serce za Kazachstanem nie boli…” Wyzwania akulturacyjne polskich repatriantów z Kazachstanu

• Authors: Katarzyna E. Kość-Ryżko

Title variants

EN

“MY HEART DOESN’T BLEED AFTER KAZAKHSTAN…” ACCULTURATIONAL CHALLENGES OF POLISH REPATRIATES FROM KAZAKHSTAN

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The repatriation, understood as the return to home of ancestors, not always looks as in imagination preceding the trip. Polish reality often differs from the imaginations of Poland constructed in Kazakhstan. Upon the arrival people feel disappointed, yet the return to Kazakhstan is impossible. The hard and painful process of cultural adaptation begins. It’s marked with greater or smaller successes and failures. The main motivation to conduct research focusing on the issues connected with Polish repatriates from Kazakhstan was the question on common characteristics of their adaptation to new conditions in Poland as well as the main origins of difficulties and the ways of overcoming them. Quite interesting were also their ways of interpreting the new reality, main cultural differences and cultural shock dynamics. The author was also inspired by meetings with newcomers and conducted talks. They have revealed the significant relationship between particular personal characteristics, so-called “general approach towards life” (expressed here as a theoretical model of the “sense of coherence”), and ways of overcoming misfortunes and difficulties in the new place. This article is an introduction to the more advanced issues of interdisciplinary research using methods and tools taken from ethnology and psychology. Selected aspects of repatriates’ lives were discussed here in order to present the most common adaptation challenges facing them as well as the ways of overcoming them. Repatriates often admit that Poland disappointed them. It can be explained in the means of cultural shock and its dynamics as well as confrontation with reality, which turned out to be more complicated than expected.

Keywords

EN

Repatriation; Cultural adaptation; Sense of coherence; Acculturation; Identification; Culture shock

• Publisher: Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Etnografia Polska
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 55
• Issue: 1-2
• Pages: 149-178

Contributors

author

Katarzyna E. Kość-Ryżko

• Instytut Archeologii i Etnologii PAN, al. Solidarności 105, 00-140 Warszawa