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Migration and cultural flows between
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Article

Migration and cultural
flows between Vietnam
and Poland

Asian and Pacific Migration Journal
0(0) 1–21
! Scalabrini Migration Center 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0117196816654617
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Grazyna Szymanska-Matusiewicz
University of Warsaw

Abstract
Based on anthropological multi-sited fieldwork, this article examines the changing flows of Vietnamese migration to Poland, starting with educational
migration in the 1950s up to the current economic-oriented migration.
Changes in the geopolitical order, such as the collapse following the Cold
War and the reorientation of foreign policy of both countries, affected the
nature of Vietnamese migration and cultural transmission. The biographical
narratives of Vietnamese migrants in Poland were examined to analyze the
interconnections between macro-structural factors, micro-level individual
experiences and meso-level of transnational connections maintained by the
Vietnamese community in Poland with their country of origin.
Keywords
Vietnam, Poland, Soviet Bloc, educational migration, labor migration,
cultural flows

Introduction
Currently, the Vietnamese are the biggest migrant community originating
from Asia in Eastern European countries, such as Poland, the Czech
Republic and Russia. In Poland, they are the second largest population of

foreigners, numbering around 25,000–30,000, including irregular migrants
(Wysien´ska, 2012). Despite this fact, the literature on the Vietnamese in
Eastern Europe is still scarce and most of the available scholarly works are
written in Polish, Czech or Russian. To date, most studies by researchers in
Poland, the Czech Republic and Russia tend to concentrate on such issues as
integration and adaptation of the migrants to the majority society (see Go´rny
Corresponding author:
Grazyna Szymanska-Matusiewicz, Institute of Sociology, University of Warsaw, Karowa 18
Street, 00-027 Warsaw, Poland.
Email:

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et al. (2007) and Halik and Nowicka (2002) concerning Poland; Blafkova (2009)
and Freidingerova (2014) concerning the Czech Republic; Williams and Balaz
(2005) concerning Slovakia; and Mazyrin (2004) concerning Russia). In such
studies, Vietnamese migration to Eastern Europe has not been contextualized
as part of the global Vietnamese diaspora, and their mobility was not analyzed
in the context of global geopolitical changes.
However, some works discussing the aspect of transnational connections
and global interconnectedness of the Vietnamese in the former Soviet Bloc
countries has already been published, including the work of Gertrud
Huewelmeier concerning the circulation of religious flows between the
Vietnamese residing in Eastern European countries and their compatriots in
Vietnam (Huewelmeier, 2011, 2013a) and the role of bazaars as places of intersections of global connections (Huewelmeier, 2013b, 2015). Similarly,

Schwenkel’s studies (2014, 2015) of former contract workers in the former
German Democratic Republic and Vietnamese graduates of Eastern
European universities argue for the inclusion of the experiences of
Vietnamese migration to Eastern Europe in the study of Vietnamese diaspora,
which so far has been predominantly US-centric. The objectives of the paper
are three-fold: firstly, it aims to provide a transnational perspective on the
Vietnamese diaspora in Central and Eastern Europe, which has predominantly been described only as an immigrant community residing in particular
countries, according to the model of ‘‘methodological nationalism’’ that was
criticized by the transnational approach in migration studies (Basch et al.,
1994; Glick Schiller, 1999). Secondly, it seeks to broaden the scope of academic
discussion concerning the Vietnamese diaspora, which thus far has been
dominated by ‘‘stateless’’ diaspora members—post-Vietnam war refugees
residing in the USA and other Western countries—by including the ‘‘statelinked’’ migration of Vietnamese to Poland (Le, 2011, 2014; Sheffer, 2003).
Thirdly, by presenting the life-histories of people who migrated to Poland
in the context of specific historical and geopolitical conditions that shaped
their mobility throughout the past 60 years, the article takes into account
the relations between the emplacement of particular countries.
The notion of cultural flows, referring to the mobility of humans, artifacts
and ideas in the ‘‘ill-defined sphere of culture’’ (Tzanelli, 2011: 384) is a
concept commonly used in migration studies, particularly by scholars analyzing the transformation of culture in the context of globalization (see
Appadurai, 1990; Hannerz 1997; Lash and Urry, 1994). In this article, I
adopt the approach to cultural flows formulated by Ulf Hannerz (1987),
which, in turn, was inspired by Wallerstein’s world-system theory.
According to this perspective, the discussion of ‘‘cultural flows’’ must consider the structural inequality shaping the mobility of cultural contents
(Wallerstein, 1974). Wallerstein introduced the notion of the world-system,
defined as a ‘‘unit with a single division of labor and multiple cultural

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Szymanska-Matusiewicz

3

systems’’ (Wallerstein, 1974: 190), as divided into three parts: core, semiperiphery and periphery. The theory implies that, in the field of migration
studies, the flow of the labor force tends to move from the periphery to the
core. However, cultural flows tend to move primarily in the opposite direction. Hannerz (1987), in his interpretation of Wallerstein’s theory of the flows
taking place inside the ‘‘global ecumene,’’ invoked the example of Nigerian
migrants, who become transmitters of cultural elements from the ‘‘core,’’
exemplified by the former metropolis, Great Britain, to their country,
which is a part of the peripheries.
Using the world-system theory as a framework for the analysis, I am particularly interested in how the re-positioning of such countries as Poland and
Vietnam inside the world-system influenced the direction and intensity of
cultural flows between the two countries. According to Wallerstein (1974),
during the Cold War era the Soviet Union and its satellite states partially
withdrew from the world-system, forming a world-empire with its own
system of political governance (see Babones, 2013). However, it remained on
the position of semi-periphery inside the world-system, maintaining limited,
albeit important, connections with the rest of the global system. After the
collapse of the Soviet Bloc, the countries of Central–Eastern Europe were
situated in the position of semi-periphery. However, joining the European
Union opened to them the possibility of joining the center, comprising
Western European countries (Babones, 2013). Vietnam, in the year 1979, was
considered by Wallerstein to be among the ‘‘poor semi-periphery’’ countries
(Li, 2008; Wallerstein, 1979: 100). After the introduction of doi moi (economic
reforms) in 1986, it shifted into a more central position as it sought to achieve
the same level of development as the ‘‘richer semi-peripheries’’ in the region,
such as Malaysia and Thailand. Poland and Vietnam could be included in
the group of semi-peripheries during the Cold War era. Their position changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, as the world-empire, which
included the two countries in one economically and culturally bound entity,

ceased to exist.
By analyzing the nature of cultural flows from the cultural domain of
Poland to the country of Vietnam transmitted by different waves of
Vietnamese migrants, this article will shed light on the emplacement of
Vietnam in the world-system and and how cultural flows impact the country.

Methodology
The paper is part of a larger research project entitled ‘‘Vietnamese from
Poland: Transnational Migrant Community as a Bridge between Poland and
Vietnam,’’ which is currently being conducted in the two countries. Although
the research is carried out in both countries in accordance with multi-sited
fieldwork (Falzon, 2009; Marcus, 1995), in this paper, I will only refer to the

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part of the research that I performed in Vietnam, given the focus of the study,
i.e., the cultural flows transmitted by the Vietnamese who returned from
Poland to their country of origin.
The realization of the project was made possible by a grant sponsored by
the National Centre for Science, Poland, which I received in the year 2014. In
the first stage of my research, I conducted two months of fieldwork in
Vietnam (July and August 2014). I conducted participant observation, participating in various social events, such as festivals and meetings, organized by
returnees from Poland. The events were organized by the government institutions that dealt with the sending of students in the past and by associations
formed by students and returnees from Poland (e.g., the Vietnamese–Polish
Friendship Society and the Association of Vietnamese in Poland). I also conducted in-depth interviews with return migrants from Poland, as well as

Vietnamese circulating between the two countries. Overall, I interviewed
31 people in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh and a village in Nam uinh province. Of
_
the total interviews, 17 were recorded and transcribed while I had to take
down notes for the remaining interviews. Four interviews were conducted
in Vietnamese (with the help of an interpreter), while the rest was conducted
in Polish. In many cases, I conducted multiple conversations with one person.
The profile of the interviewees is summarized in Table 1. The research was
supplemented by analysis of available documents and data, including statistical data on the number of Vietnamese arriving in Poland at different points
in time.
The fieldwork and analysis was informed by the postulate of historicizing
the field (Fitzgerald, 2006). According to Fitzgerald, many scholars embedded
in the transnational paradigm tend to overlook the fact that the current era is
not the only period of history when the multifold connections transgressing
the state borders were established and maintained. Instead of focusing on the
transnational nature of the contemporary world, we should rather analyze
various bonds and flows that have been established, lasted and possibly disappeared over time. During the interviews conducted in Vietnam, I examined
the biographical narratives of people who had experienced staying in Poland
in order to grasp the various ways in which Poland was present in their lives
in the particular period of history. Such analysis will allow me to address the
question concerning the changing nature of cultural flows between Vietnam
and Poland.
It must be remembered, however, that although the cultural flows were
undeniably shaped by macrostructural factors, such as the geopolitical conditions of the Cold War, they were transmitted by migrants who were active
actors, reproducing and re-creating the cultural resources in their lived experience. Therefore, the paper is intended as an anthropological analysis, focused
on the indigenous ways of experiencing and interpreting cultural flows among
the community of Vietnamese from Poland.

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5

Table 1. Profile of interviewees.
Characteristic
Gender
Male
Female
Age group
30 and below
31–49
50 and above
Period of migration to Poland
First phase
Second phase
Third phase
Fourth phase
1.5 and second generation
Place of residence
Hanoi
Ho Chi Minh
Nam uinh
_
Hanoi and Warsaw

Number
21
10

4
11
16
1
10
6
7
7
15
9
4
3

Macro-level perspective: Changes in the
geopolitical frame
Numbering around four million people,1 the Vietnamese diaspora is one of the
most significant diasporas originating from Southeast Asia. Various studies on
this group have looked into such issues as their integration in the host societies, diaspora politics and the return migration of Viet Kieu to the homeland.
Since most overseas Vietnamese reside in the USA (1.7 million as of 2010,
according to the US Bureau of Census) and other Western countries, such as
France, Australia and Canada, most studies were dedicated to these communities, which are of limited relevance to the Vietnamese in Central and Eastern
Europe. Le (2011, 2014) applied the distinction of stateless and state-linked
diasporas, proposed by Sheffer (2003), to characterize Vietnamese migrant
communities in particular countries. While the Vietnamese community
in the USA can be described as a diaspora of refugee origin, many of
1
Review of Vietnamese Migration Abroad. Consular Department – Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
Viet Nam. Statistics of State Committee of Vietnamese Overseas, referring to ethnic Vietnamese
(people of Vietnam origins regardless of their current legal status) residing in foreign countries.
Available at: />tion_abroad_en.pdf.

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Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 0(0)

whom are antagonistic towards the communist government of Vietnam, the
communities in Central and Eastern European countries can be described as
state-linked because the origins of their migration were strictly connected with
the policy of the state. As such, the political institutions of the Socialist
Republic of Vietnam played an important role in these migrant communities.
Although such a distinction seems too simplistic—e.g., anti-communist political activity was also present among the Vietnamese residing in the Central
Eastern European (CEE) countries (Szyman´ska-Matusiewicz, 2015a)—it provides a good starting point toward a more detailed and nuanced description.
The origins of the Vietnamese migrant community in Poland are closely
connected with the fact that, in the Cold War era, Northern Vietnam (and later
the Socialist Republic of Vietnam) and the People’s Republic of Poland
belonged to the Soviet Bloc. Therefore, both countries and societies were
part of the entity that Susan Bayly referred to as the ‘‘global socialist ecumene’’
(Bayly, 2007; Huewelmeier, 2015). As a member of the Soviet Bloc, Vietnam
forged cooperation with other socialist countries, including the exchange of
specialists and professionals (Bayly, 2007; Schwenkel, 2014, 2015) and providing a labor force for the factories in Czechoslovakia (Alamgir, 2014) and
Germany (Schwenkel, 2014). Regarding the formation of the Vietnamese
community in Poland, the most important aspect of this cooperation was
educational exchange. Government agreements paved the way for selected
students from Northern Vietnam and the children of the Viet Minh who
were fighting in the south to be offered the opportunity to study in one of
the Soviet Bloc countries. The first Vietnamese students arrived in Poland in
1955. Student migration continued throughout the whole communist period,

with the peak years being 1969/1970 and 1970/1971 (Halik, 2006).
The situation profoundly changed after 1989, the turning point marking the
fall of communism in Poland. This led to the relaxation of the immigration
policy and the introduction of the free market. Under such conditions, the
Vietnamese were able to come to Poland more freely. Although educational
cooperation between the two countries has been reduced after the opening of
the borders, Poland experienced an influx of another category of migrants
motivated by economic factors (Halik and Nowicka, 2002). The main area of
their economic activity was trade—mainly with goods imported from
Asia—which were sold in open-air markets (bazaars). However, after the
fall of communism, Poland headed into a new direction in its international
relations, associating with Western European countries and joining the
European Union in 2004, all of which can be interpreted as a struggle to
become part of the core of the world-system. This new emplacement significantly impacted the migration policy of Poland, which had to adhere to the
common migration policy of the European Union, focused on restricting
access to its territory by citizens of ‘‘third party countries’’ (Kicinger, 2005).
However, despite the change of the geopolitical landscape, Vietnamese

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7

migration to Poland has continued. It can be perceived as a manifestation of the
importance of migration networks established in the communist era, which
enabled mobility to become a self-perpetuating phenomenon (Massey, 1990).
Analysis of various stages of migration to Poland, which I will perform,
will enable me to consider the future of Vietnamese mobility, as well as address

the broader theoretical issue concerning the relations between the emplacement
of particular countries in the world order and the nature of cultural flows
transmitted by migrants.

Stages of Vietnamese migration to Poland
In this section of the article, I will present the experience of particular categories of Vietnamese migration to Poland, distinguishing four categories of
migrants. The first three categories are, to a large extent, consistent with the
classification presented by Schwenkel (2015), who described three phases of
Vietnamese students’ mobility: post-colonial, wartime and postwar. However,
in my paper, this classification has been expanded in order to include the
migrants who arrived in Poland at a later period of time.

First phase: 1955–mid-1960s
The first Vietnamese students arrived in Poland in 1955. Their arrival was
facilitated by government agreements between the People’s Republic of
Poland and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam following the establishment
of diplomatic relations five years earlier. In the same year (1955), the Embassy
of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was opened in Warsaw. The migration
from Northern Vietnam to various countries of Eastern Europe during the
communist period was aimed at educating prospective cadres, designated
to form the intellectual and professional elite of a rising communist country.
This educational migration was strictly regulated by the policy of both states.
In the first stage, students who were sent to Eastern European countries were
chosen mainly based on political factors, such as the involvement of the family
in the communist movement. One of my interviewees, Mr. HCi,2 who came to
Poland in 1956, claimed that all of the students sent to Poland that year were
the children of people participating in the war against the French occupation.
In the 1950s and the early 1960s, there were only a small number of
Vietnamese students. Their stay in Poland was strictly monitored and controlled by the Vietnamese Embassy in Poland and its representatives. Many
interviewees claimed that during their stay in Poland, their activities were

strictly monitored by their group leaders (trF ~ ng do`an). They were not allowed
2
All of the names of the interviewees have been changed in order to protect their anonymity.
Some biographical details, such as the field of study and the city in Poland where they studied,
have been altered in some cases to protect the interviewers’ privacy.

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Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 0(0)

to move freely outside the dormitories. For example, they could not walk in the
streets alone, but only in groups or with at least two people. The control was
based on the system of denunciations. Students were subjected to intense
propaganda training throughout their stay in Poland, where they were
instructed to behave properly (i.e., they were constantly reminded to avoid
‘‘improper’’ contacts with Polish people). The system of denunciations was
strongly developed and the students were expected to spy on one another.
Virtually none of the students from this period stayed in Poland after finishing
their education because it was not allowed by the policies of both Poland and
Vietnam. Although there are no data on returnees, it can be justifiably supposed
that, in the 1950s and 1960s, almost all students returned to Vietnam after completing their studies. Most of them occupied prestigious and important positions
upon their return to Vietnam. For example, Mr. HCi made an impressive professional career as a ship constructor, reaching management positions in the stateowned shipbuilding industry of socialist Vietnam. Those who studied in Poland
were able to land important positions due to their professional skills, which were
highly valued, and their personal connections, such as having a ‘‘good background’’ (i.e., they were members of prominent families).

Second phase: Mid-1960s–mid-1970s
The second phase is characterized by the arrival of large numbers of

Vietnamese students in Poland. The peak years were the academic years
1969/1970 and 1970/1971, when there were 725 and 819 Vietnamese students,
respectively, in Poland (Halik, 2006: 30).
According to the informants, the growth in the number of Vietnamese
students in Poland was connected with the intensification of the war. In the
narratives of my informants, the experience of educational migration was
likened to ‘‘saving one’s life’’ or ‘‘salvation.’’ One of my informants,
Mr. MAnh, who arrived in Poland in 1972, invoked the poem of the famous
Polish poet, Wislawa Szymborska, describing a Vietnamese woman as a
mother struggling to protect her children from the atrocities of war. In his
opinion, sending students to the countries of Eastern Europe was also a strategy to protect and save the most valuable part of the nation, the ‘‘children’’ as
well as future elites, from the risks connected with the war.3
It should be stressed that during this period the students were still strictly
controlled by the representatives of the Vietnamese Embassy. From 1964, when
the war spread to North Vietnam, Vietnamese youth were influenced by the ba
sU n sa´ng (three readiness) propaganda action movement (Malarney, 2002;
Nguyen, 2005): In addition to the duty of fighting the enemy, they were also
3

In one of the meetings organized by former students to Poland, the event was publicized as luru
hoc sinh. Mr. Manh interpreted the term, luru, not only as referring to overseas students, but also
as ‘‘saving.’’

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Szymanska-Matusiewicz

9

encouraged to ‘‘go wherever the country wants them to go and do whatever the
country needs them to do.’’ Therefore, obedience to the state policy was framed
as sacrifice for the sake of national interest, and disobedience, such as maintaining romantic relations with a Polish person or a reluctance to return to
Vietnam after finishing their studies, could be interpreted as a form of treason.
The vast majority of students from this era returned to the home country.
However, returning to Vietnam was not always easy. Unlike the situation
in the 1950s and 1960s, in 1970, following the change of the First Secretary,
with Edward Gierek replacing Wladyslaw Gomulka, Poland became a country more open to foreign influences, including elements of Western popular
culture. Despite the control imposed by the embassy, the students had some
opportunities to encounter products of American popular culture, such as
Hollywood movies and rock-and-roll music. In Polish shops, iconic products
of Western culture—such as Coca-Cola—became available. Those students,
particularly those who were the lone Vietnamese in their faculty, had multiple
occasions to interact with their Polish peers.
In Vietnam, the 1970s was a very difficult period. The end of the war did not
bring significant improvements to the economic situation. As Schwenkel (2015)
notes, the many returnees were in precarious situations—not all of them were
granted good career possibilities, unlike the student migrants from the previous
decade. Some of them were sent to the south after the reunification of the country
to be part of the educated cadres there, and others were offered jobs that they
considered to be below their level of qualifications. According to the research
participants, in the late 1960s and 1970s, the selection of students sent for foreign
education became more merit-based. Previously, i.e., in the late 1950s and early
1960s, the opportunity to study abroad was available primarily to those who were
members of prominent families. In the late 1960s, the results of school examinations
became the most important criterion for the selection of candidates. These changes
were further strengthened in the later periods. However, by the third phase, studying in Eastern Europe was no longer as prestigious as in the earlier times.

Third phase: Late 1970s–1989
After the end of the war and the reunification of Vietnam, the number of students arriving in Poland dropped to around 20–30 people every year, according

to my informants. They added that the Vietnamese Embassy exerted less control over the students. During this period, more students decided to stay in
Poland after finishing their education or they dropped out of university. One
research participant, Mr. Chaˆu, is part of this cohort. He was among 23 students
who started their studies in Poland in 1979; only six returned to Vietnam.
This situation was undeniably affected by the changes in the political and
economic situation in Poland. The late 1970s and 1980s were a period of economic
stagnation in Poland. However, from the mid-1980s, the economic policies of the

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10

state became more relaxed due to the reforms introduced by the Minister of
Industry, Mieczyslaw Wilczek, in 1988. One of my informants, Mr. Kieˆn, a
wealthy businessman engaged in business activities both in Poland and
Vietnam, said that the period between 1985 and 2000 were the ‘‘golden years’’
for the Vietnamese starting a business in Poland. Two events during this period
shaped the development of the Vietnamese community. First was the arrival of
the Vietnamese who were formerly employed as contract workers in the factories
in the former GDR and the Czech Republic. These new arrivals engaged in trade
at markets and bazaars. They formed what would become the economic elites of
the community. The transnational flow of goods, including the importation of
cheap clothes and shoes from Vietnam and China to Eastern Europe, intensified
during this time, and the Vietnamese contract workers-turned-traders played an
important role in this trade chain (Williams and Balaz, 2005).
The second phenomenon was the inflow of PhD students from Vietnam in
the late 1980s, which was still a part of the state program. However, unlike the

educational migration in the earlier periods, arrivals at this time had economic
motivations— many were interested in joining the international trade chain. In
most cases, students pursuing PhDs were former graduates of Polish universities who had previously gained knowledge of the Polish language and society. One example is Mrs. Mai, who graduated in technical studies in Poland in
the mid-1970s and returned to Vietnam to work in a research institute in
Hanoi. However, the economic situation during that time—known as the
^ era—prompted her to join the PhD exchange program. Mrs. Mai
bao cap
openly admitted to her superiors that she was not intending to work for a
PhD, and her boss allowed her to return to Poland. Mrs. Mai formally enrolled
in a PhD program while simultaneusly engaging in selling clothes imported
from China. After a couple of years, when she had saved sufficient money, she
returned to Vietnam. She did not complete her PhD studies.
My informants explained that in the late 1980s, acquiring an education in
Eastern Europe ceased to be an important factor in enhancing an individual’s
social position and professional chances. This coincided with the introduction
of doi moi reforms, which included opening to the Western world and a
reorientation towards a new ‘‘core,’’ i.e., the English-speaking countries of
the West (Schwenkel, 2015). These changes also contributed to the decision
of many students from this migration wave to remain in Poland.

Fourth phase: After 1989
Vietnamese migration to Poland continued after the fall of communism,
with sharp increases in 2007 and 2011 (Table 2).4 It is possible that many
4

No data on border crossings (arrivals) were available before 1994; this is according to a representative of the Border Guards whom I interviewed.

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11

Table 2. Border crossings (arrivals) of Vietnamese citizens (all types of visas), 1994–2014.
Year

Number of border
crossings (arrivals)

1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013

2014

3,629
4,162
5,986
7,165
4,492
3,952
3,264
3,128
3,528
3,986
5,956
8,007
8,910
10,761
3,057
1,882
2,872
11,094
5,156
3,687
3,754

Source: Border Guard, 2015.

migrants entered Poland in the early part of 2007 in anticipation of stricter
submission policies once Poland became a member of the European Union
at the end of 2007. The reasons for the spike in 2011 are not quite clear.
Many of the Vietnamese arriving in this period were economic migrants.

They came to Poland to engage in the bazaar trade of goods imported from
Asia; some went into bars and restaurants serving ethnic food. The number of Vietnamese arriving in Poland was growing each year until 1997,
when Poland adopted stricter immigration policies in preparation for its
joining the European Union. However, the inflow of the Vietnamese
resumed and the total number of Vietnamese staying in Poland increased.
Table 3 shows that the number of Vietnamese with valid residence permits
rose between 2007 and 2013. The notable decline in 2014 can be attributed

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12

Table 3. Number of Vietnamese citizens with
valid residence permits in Poland, 2007–2015.
Year

Number

2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007

9,130
9,042
13,404
11,696
9,257
8,567
8,207
7,206
6,379

Source: Office for Foreigners (UdSC), 2016.

to a change in the methodology of collecting data;5 in 2015, it can be seen
that the number of Vietnamese residence card holders has remained relatively stable.
Concerning the economic activities of the Vietnamese community, most are
involved in trade and the restaurant business. According to data from the
Ministry of Labor, 56 percent of labor permits issued to Vietnamese in 2012
were in the trade sector, and 28 percent were in the service sector (restaurants
and hotels).
The group of migrants who were in Poland after 1989 is internally diverse,
including those who have resided in Poland for more than 20 years and are
relatively well adapted to Polish society, as well as recent arrivals. Various
categorizations of this community can be found in the literature (Halik and
Nowicka, 2002; Wysien´ska, 2012). Although the vast majority of immigrants
perceive their migration as temporary and intend to return to Vietnam in the
future, only some of them actually do return. The factor that often encourages
them to prolong their stay is the children who attend Polish schools
(Szyman´ska-Matusiewicz, 2015b). The second- and 1.5-generation
Vietnamese6 form a distinct category of Vietnamese in Poland, who will

play an important role in the future of cultural flows between the two
countries.
5
According to the Office for Foreigners, the same decline was observed for all foreign nationals in 2014
due to the change of methodology. The data regarding residence permits should be treated only as an
approximation since many Vietnamese residing in Poland legally possess residence permits issued by
other European Union countries (mainly the Czech Republic) in accordance with Schengen regulations.
6
First-generation immigrants are those who immigrate as adults; 1.5-generation immigrants refer
to those who immigrate as children; and the second generation refers to children born to foreignborn parents or the children of first-generation immigrants (Rumbaut, 2012).

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Geopolitical order and individual memories: How
migrants view Poland
Historical processes impacted not only the nature of Vietnamese migration,
but also the migrants’ perceptions of Poland. Interviews with various categories of return migrants who resided in Poland in different time periods
reveal significant variations of their memories about their stay in Poland.

Educational migrants from the communist era
For many returnees who studied in Poland in the communist era, the image of
Poland and memories connected with life in this country are positive.
Informants often expressed gratitude to the Polish state and Polish citizens for
the help and support that they experienced during their stay there. They commonly described their studies in Poland as ‘‘the most beautiful period in their
life.’’ The concept of nostalgia (Boym, 2001; Ritivoi, 2002) can provide a good

analytical frame to understand their experience, enabling the grasping of the
specific emotion of ‘‘longing for what is lacking in a changed present . . . a yearning for what is now unattainable, simply because of the irreversibility of time’’
(Pickering and Keightley, 2006: 920). In their narratives, they often stressed that
during their studies in Poland they experienced a couple of years of comfortable,
peaceful and wealthy life. For example, Mr. Danh described his arrival in
Poland as a fulfillment of socialist utopia. As he expressed:
In the school, we were told that socialism is a paradise. And when we arrived in
Poland, it was true—it was socialism there and it was a paradise. There was
good food, good clothes, high-rise buildings. . . (Mr. Danh, returnee, interviewed
9 August 2014).

Their perceptions of Poland were heavily influenced by the conditions in
Vietnam, which at that time was a poor and unstable country due to many
years of war. Students arriving in Poland were provided with accommodation
in student houses dedicated to foreigners, which offered good living conditions,
but also served as a means of isolating the foreign students from the Polish
population (see Pirvelli and Rykiel, 2007). They were also provided with food
and additional money for daily expenses. The scholarship given to the students
in Poland was sufficient not only to cover everyday needs, but also to support
their families in Vietnam. Several informants said they bought items, such as
textiles or household equipment, and sent them to Vietnam (usually through
the graduates returning home). Therefore, studying in Poland somehow contributed to the improvement of the lives of students and their families as well.
Former students, particularly the older cohorts, valued the education and
professional skills they obtained in Poland. It is particularly interesting that

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they mentioned the importance of ‘‘soft skills’’ (i.e., open-mindedness, flexibility, the ability to solve problems independently and time management skills)
that could not be gained through education in Vietnam or in the Soviet Union.
One example is Mr. Manh who, after completing his studies in a technical faculty in Poland, became general director of a state-owned company in Vietnam.
According to him, staying in Poland equipped him with good organizational
skills, which led him to fast promotion in his career. Located on the margins of
the Soviet Bloc, they considered Poland to be a country with a relatively high
degree of individual freedom, especially since the 1970s.
Some returnees experienced difficulties in adjusting to the conditions in
Vietnam. Upon their return, they received a ‘‘decision’’ (quyet dinh) from the
authorities concerning their work assignments. In some cases, the work
entailed working away from their hometown, or working at a job that was
below one’s level of qualifications. One of my interviewees, Mr. Danh, was
very disappointed when he received the decision requiring him to work in a
high school. He did not submit to the decision and, as a result, he was unemployed for some time. Later, he decided to get additional training in Vietnam
to become a journalist, a profession that he considered gave him some personal freedom, a value that he attributed to the influence of his stay in Poland.
Some of the students mentioned that studying in Poland made them more
‘‘cultured’’ (va˘n ho´a) and ‘‘civilized’’ (va˘n minh) because of their exposure to
Polish and Western cultures. They often expressed admiration for Polish poetry
and prose. This is confirmed by the fact that many Polish literary works have been
translated into Vietnamese by former students. In so doing, they played the role of
‘‘cultural ambassadors of Poland in Vietnam.’’ During my stay in Vietnam, I was
invited by the official state organization, the Association of Vietnamese Writers
(Hy i Nha` Va˘n Vig t Nam), to the book launch of a collection of poems by Wislawa
Szymborska. The poems were translated by Mr. TA Minh Chaˆu, who studied in
Poland and later became an ambassador to Poland. At the meeting, I met a handful
of people translating Polish literature, both classic and popular contemporary
books. According to them, translating works from the Polish language is an expression of gratitude towards the country that provided them with an education.
To sum up, the cultural flows transmitted from Poland to Vietnam by the

Vietnamese migrants indicate that, in the ‘‘socialist ecumene,’’ Poland occupied a more central position than Vietnam, as indicated by the direction of
these flows. However, it must be remembered that Vietnam, a periphery, sent
Vietnamese specialists to other countries of the socialist ecumene, such as
Angola or Mozambique, to educate local elites (Bayly, 2007).

Economic migrants in the 1990s and 2000s
In this part of the article, I present the results of my fieldwork research in one
of the villages situated in Nam uinh province. The village has a history of
_

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emigration to Poland of almost 20 years. During my stay there in July 2014,
I interviewed four returnees from Poland and their family members. All four
returnees were irregular migrants to Poland: two were deported while the
other two voluntarily returned to Vietnam.7
For this group of migrants, their contacts with Polish society were circumscribed by their unauthorized residence status as well as the nature of their
work. They worked at big bazaars or trade centers (as they are called now) in
the capital, Warsaw, and its suburbs, such as Stadion Dziesi˛eciolecia and Wo´lka
Kosowska (Huewelmeier, 2013b, 2015; Klorek and Szulecka, 2013; Szulecka,
2007). Their economic activity is a typical example of an ‘‘ethnic enclave’’
(Portes, 1987; Portes and Jensen, 1987; Waldinger, 1993), as indicated by the
spatial concentration of enterprises and the engagement in selected sectors of
the economy, typically the trade in clothes and ethnic restaurants. As such,
Vietnamese migrants tend to have limited contact with Polish society. The

low levels of language competence, participation in communal activities or
maintaining social contact with Polish neighbors had been noted in other studies
regarding the Vietnamese community (Go´rny et al., 2007; Klorek and Szulecka,
2013; Wysien´ska, 2012). These were confirmed during my fieldwork in Nam
uinh, during which I observed that despite spending a couple of years in
_
Poland, my interviewees had limited knowledge of the Polish language (with
the exception of some words commonly used in trade). When asked about their
first impressions connected with Poland, or about the things that they liked and
disliked most during their stay in Poland, the return migrants had problems
formulating any detailed answers. For example, they were unable to mention
popular Polish food products; they said they ate only Vietnamese food. During
their stay in Poland, they not only worked with other Vietnamese, they also
lived together, renting common apartments. They spent their leisure time almost
entirely together with other co-ethnics. Most of them associated Poland as a
place where they worked hard, and had some unpleasant experience with
Polish authorities (representatives of the Police and the Border Guard).
However, in the narrative of Nha^ t, a man in his thirties, the aspect of cultural influences appeared and played an important role. When I asked him
how his stay in Poland affected his life, he claimed that although he was not
able to achieve economic success, the experience of living in Poland was
important because he was able to experience Polish culture (va˘n ho´a). When
I asked him to explain this issue in detail, he mentioned such issues as a better
level of hygiene and a cleaner environment. He also claimed that Poland is a
civilized country (va˘n minh), standing higher than Vietnam in terms of civilization and development. However, he did not discuss any specific cultural
differences.
7

Before going to Vietnam, I had an opportunity to interview a relative of one of the returnees who
was still residing in Poland.

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1.5- and second-generation migrants
In comparing Vietnamese migrants during the Cold War and post-Cold War
periods, their different experiences may be due to the nature of their migration (educational vs. economic). To understand the impact of the current
geopolitical frame, an analysis of the 1.5- and second-generation migrants
who returned to Vietnam is instructive.
I interviewed seven people who were born and raised in Poland and are
now living in Vietnam. Currently in their late twenties or early thirties, five
returned to Vietnam together with their parents and two decided to return to
Vietnam without their parents. This category of return migrants demonstrate a
more nuanced and intricate image of Poland. Some of them stressed mostly
the positive aspects, often with some kind of nostalgia, while others complained about the feeling of non-belonging and experiencing some discrimination and racism during their stay in Poland.
From the point of view of my research, the most interesting aspect was how
the experience of life in Poland impacted their life in Vietnam. The interviewees’ peers in Vietnam were either not familiar with Poland or viewed it
as an exotic country. It is much different from the situation during the Cold
War era when Polish culture was quite well-known among the educated stratum of Vietnamese society. Poland was known during this period, thanks to
the poem Em oi Ba Lan (My Sister Poland), written by Vietnamese author To
Huu, and the circulation of movies and TV productions among the countries
of the Soviet Bloc (Halik and Nowicka, 2002).
Although their university diplomas from Polish academic institutions are
regarded highly by prospective employers, they are considered to be less
prestigious compared to diplomas received from universities in Western countries, such as the USA or Great Britain. Except for two women, Nha`i and Kim
Cu´c, who were employed with Polish companies, the other informants were
not able to make use of their competence in the Polish language or the personal connections gained during their stay in Poland,

However, almost all of the research participants claimed that life in Poland
enriched them with open-mindedness, the ability to solve problems independently and time management skills. Those who worked in the private sector,
i.e., in foreign-owned companies, valued these skills as very important and
useful in their professional career.
The case of the 1.5- and second-generation return migrants has implications
for future cooperation between Poland and Vietnam. During the communist
era, the Vietnamese were one of the largest groups of foreign students in
Poland; they accounted for almost 30 percent of all foreign students in the
1970s (Chilczuk 2001). Presently, although Vietnamese are eager to study
abroad, educational exchange between the two countries is much less significant. In 2012/2013, they formed less than 1 percent (0.7 percent) of the overall

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population of foreign students in Poland. For the same period, Vietnamese
students were the fourth largest group of students from Asia (after the
Chinese, Taiwanese and Indian citizens) (Fundacja Edukacyjna
Perspektywy, 2013). Just 10 governmental scholarships, covering free education (i.e., covering tuition fees), are offered to students from Vietnam each
year; other students who decide to study in Poland have to pay for their
education. During my research, I examined the reasons why few
Vietnamese choose to study in Poland. The family of Mr. Danh provides
some insights. Mr. Danh, now in his sixties, studied in Poland in the early
1970s. Currently, one of his nieces also studies at the same university that he
attended. Mr. Danh strongly encourages another member of his family to
study in Poland, invoking his own positive experiences. However, he also
acknowledged that this option is not very attractive to young people, who

prefer to study in countries such as the USA or Australia. My fieldwork confirmed that, indeed, more affluent Vietnamese families prefer to send their
children to the more developed Western countries. If students choose Poland,
they prefer to study in the English language, which requires tuition fees.
Recipients of government scholarships do not pay tuition fees, but they do
have to enroll in classes conducted in Polish.

Conclusions
The geopolitical changes and the reconfiguration of the world order is a crucial macro-level factor that had an impact on educational cooperation between
Vietnam and Poland. In the communist era, the Vietnamese arriving in Poland
were educated to become part of the socialist ‘‘intelligentsia,’’ which equipped
them with the abilities to become agents of cultural exchange. When the two
countries ceased to be part of the ‘‘global socialist ecumene,’’ they turned
toward the new center, the West, exemplified by the USA in the case of
Vietnam, and the countries of the European Union in the case of Poland.
Currently, both countries could be described as semi-peripheries in terms of
Wallerstein’s world-systems theory (1974); they also occupy the same status in
international education. While more and more students leave Vietnam to
study abroad in ‘‘Western’’ countries, the universities in Poland are introducing teaching in English, and Polish students participate in student exchange
programs that allow them to gain educational experiences in various countries
of the European Union. On the other hand, both countries experience an influx
of students from the neighboring countries that can be described as ‘‘more
peripheral’’ in terms of Wallerstein’s theory: Ukraine, in the case of Poland
(Fundacja Edukacyjna Perspektywy, 2013), and the Lao People’s Democratic
Republic and Cambodia, in the case of Vietnam (Doan, 2012).
The 1.5- and second-generation migrants who stay in Poland and those
who came back to Vietnam can play an important role in strengthening the

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18

links between Poland and Vietnam. With their bi-cultural competence, they
can be cultural mediators between the two countries. Concerning the return
migrants belonging to this group, it is particularly interesting whether they
will be interested in maintaining the Polish part of their identity. While returnees of the first-wave migration have established formal organizations, such
as the Vietnam–Poland Friendship Association (H y i h* u nghi Vi g t Nam-Ba
_
Lan), there seems to be no such initiatives among the 1.5- and second-generation migrants. However, the Internet and social networks may create opportunities for maintaining contacts with each other and with the Vietnamese in
Poland. Further research can provide answers to questions on whether the
bi-cultural experience of the 1.5- and second-generation Vietnamese will lead
to transnational social spaces and whether the young returning migrants will
play the role of cultural mediators between the two countries. Overall, they
will provide some indications on the future of the cultural flows between two
semi-periphery countries that were once joined by a common history of
belonging to the socialist world-empire.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this paper.

Funding
This work was supported by grant no. 2013/09/D/HS6/02675, SONATA programme,
National Centre for Science (Poland).

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