Reactions of Polish immigrants in Iceland to the Smolensk disaster

by Małgorzata Budyta-Budzyńska and Julia Olesińska

The reaction of emigrants to significant events in the home country can provide a valuable indicator of involvement in the homeland's affairs. Their behavior and way of experiencing disasters and successes in the home country display their sense of community and the force of national identification, while also being indicative of the state of the emigrant milieu and its capability for mobilization. In this chapter reactions of Poles in Iceland to the Smolensk disaster are described, and an analysis is performed of the discourse on Smolensk carried out on a web forum used by Polish immigrants. The disaster united the Poles, made them “want to be together”, but beyond that incidental occurrence Poles in Iceland are neither united nor well organized. Divisions are present, as they are in Polish emigrant communities in other countries.

Download full text (.pdf) - Chapter 13 - Reactions of Polish immigrants in Iceland to the Smolensk disaster