“Testing Solidarity” in the Time of Crisis. The Refugee Discourse in the Polish Media

One of the most relevant symbols of Polish character is solidarity. The value of Solidarity - the 1980s trade-union movement that overthrew Poland’s communist government – is manifested with regime’s victims and freedom fighters during the Ukraine crisis. However, the plan of the European Union to redistribute asylum seekers between EU member states, arouses strong resistance among Polish political parties and society. The refugee crisis demonstrated that solidarity can be interpreted and framed in different ways due to the current circumstances and needs. Using the approach of the critical discourse analysis (Fairclough and Wodak 1997), the paper aims to examine how the refugee issue and solidarity are framed and referred in the Polish media, including the quality centre-right Rzeczpospolita, conservative Do Rzeczy, quality center-left daily Gazeta Wyborcza and weekly Newsweek Polska, left-liberal weekly Polityka, and catholic-weekly Tygodnik Powszechny. The paper will show how solidarity is (re)interpreted and (mis)used by different actors in public discourse.

Fairclough, N. L. and Wodak, R. (1997).  Critical discourse analysis. In  T. A. van Dijk (ed.), Discourse Studies.  A Multidisciplinary Introduction, Vol. 2, London: Sage, pp. 258-84.