Why You are Here. The Social Factor of Lublin’s Polarization.

Despite the fact that Poland is a homogeneous society where Catholics form more than 85% of population, yet, contrary to the known fact, the social structure is resilient to warmly embrace new comers. Religious traditions have kept an ethical matrix alive in the daily treatment of people.  The Poles, who suffered the most during World War Two, have developed a unique tendency to fight with extremism: peace.

Foreigners who live in Lublin keep repeating that they have not seen any violent behavior by the locals, that people of Lublin are genuinely polite, that they will help aliens with warm intentions, and that foreigners receive all support from the locals of Lublin. Such tolerant community has eased the challenging time students and visitors spend outside their motherlands.

Internet connection has revolutionized communication means between people; students will update their Facebook and Twitter status regularly mentioning their current situations. They will share the information about their place of, study, visiting or work. That will reach out hundreds of their “friends” in a spur of a moment. When they are properly welcomed in a certain city, they will publicly spread the news. That will create a grassroots base of fans for such warm receiving place; Lublin is a clear example.

Moreover, the aftermath of the WW II has played a crucial role for the benefit of foreigners in Lublin. The Soviet took control over Poland due to the Post World War Two settlements with the Western Pole. Polish society was a de facto isolated one where the Soviets made sure that the one and only ideology to be was communism. Fighting the western way of life, including democracy, accepted was communism. Fighting western way of life, including democracy, wearing jeans, and multiculturalism, made a priority for the occupiers trying to prevent any breeze to enter from the window.

Although existing on the map, Poland at the time of the Soviet occupation, as all of the former Soviet Union’s colonies, was to be suffocated for a prolonged 50-year period. Poland’s rooted religious life, civil society, economic investment, and foreigners’ existence were among the victims in post-WW II Poland. As soon as communism collapsed in Poland in 1989 during the Autumn of Nations, Poland leaped towards reviving its civil society with opened arms for foreign students, investments and visitors. This policy was crowned with Poland joining Erasmus Programme back in 1998.

A series of political reforms that aimed at decentralization of authority were positively reflected on the ability of Lublin City to adopt its own foreigners’ friendly policies. The essential period in the establishment  of the political and economic new order was the beginning of 1990. Tadeusz Mazowiecki’s government introduced the long-term reforms of local governments that constitute the basis of local public life. Part of those revolutionary amendments was that the basic unit of local government, gmina, was actually independent and empowered, assuming many governmental functions previously controlled by the central government.Its gmina council is elected in separate elections, it controls communal property, has its own revenue base, and it is to structure its executive within limits set by law. In 1998, an additional pact of reforms that targeted local government was implemented. Backed with a social desire to embrace  Hence, Lublin’s City, gmina, enjoyed a kind of autonomy that gave it the luxury to enact a series of local provisions that bridged the gap with students and foreigners around the world.

The above-mentioned facts are a small part for the social dimension that attracts students to be in Lublin. The REAL reason why the Pretty Pride lures thousands of scholars every year to be there, with most come frequently for visits, remains unknown! 

By: Assef Salloom