Agnieszka Małek Boeken

The contributions in this book focus on U. S. migration policies, receiving society, ethnic communities and return migration. The authors analyze various aspects of migratory history ranging from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. They cover such topics as the times when Eastern European immigrants in the USA encountered hostility and marginalization, the efforts to create American Polonia military formations during the WWI, the problem of ethnic mobilization among Ukrainian political migrants in the U. S. as well as how state policies influence the movement of people. All the contributions are extended and revised versions of the papers presented at the 7th Workshop American Ethnicity and Ethnic Community Building.

The volume contains papers presented at the fourth Workshop «American Ethnicity: Rethinking Old Issues, Asking New Questions» which took place in Krakow, Poland, on May 24th-25th, 2010. The event was organized by the Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora of the Jagiellonian University, and supported by the (American) Immigration and Ethnic History Society. The tradition of organizing bi-annual workshops goes back to 2004 and continues to be a forum for discussing ongoing research and sharing ideas. The texts included in this volume provide a comparative context to immigration studies, contribute to the gender perspective, bring up new issues and remind the most important aspects of migrants’ life, such as remittances and poverty. There is also a set of the articles on American Jewish experience, studied from a variety of angles, and the Polish-American section presenting texts on local immigrant communities.