International Migration and Integration: Turkish Immigrants in Poland

Abstract

This paper focuses on Turkish immigrants' social and system integration processes in Poland along the parameters such as identity, host society policies, communication with the host society, and ethnicity. The research was planned according to the qualitative methodology based on interviews and participant observation in Warsaw, Gdansk, Bydgoszcz, Torun, Poznan and Wroclaw between October 2020 and August 2021. According to the obtained data during the research process, Turkish immigrants in Poland enjoy social and system integration. On the one hand, the identity perceptions of Turkish immigrants in Poland have affected communication, which has an important role as well as in the social and system integration process. But on the other hand, while Turkish immigrants are loyal to their ethnic identity, they have moved away from the perception of ethnicity. Turkish immigrants spend more of their free time with the host society members, use the host society's language in daily life, and find a place for themselves in social spaces.