Aleksandra Hadzińska-Wyrobek: The image of a refugee in the Polish press after 1990

The article constitutes an analysis of the image of a refugee in the Polish press. The study covers press materials published in the period from 1990 to 2010 in dailies and weeklies. It starts with an outline of the history of immigration in Poland, starting from 1990. The paper also refers to the legislative acts that regulate the granting of refugee status in Poland, i.e. the Geneva Convention of 1951 and the Act on the provision of assistance to foreigners on the territory of the Republic of Poland of 13 June 2003 and Council Regulation (CE) no 343/03 of 18 February 2003 and the resulting difficulties. The author also describes the continuous growth of media’s interest in the issue of refugees and the context in which they are depicted. The issues connected to the analysis of the image of refugees in the Polish media have been divided in the article into two topic-related groups. First, issues related to determining the qualities of a refugee, i.e. the definition of a refugee, are presented. In the second group the following topics have been included and analysed: all issues related to the image of refugees, namely, the way they are presented and the situation that forced them to flee their homeland depicted, the description of their living conditions in Poland as well as an outline of benefits of admitting refugees, with particular focus on cultural and social benefits.

Keywords: asylum, refugees