ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book draws on the astonishing number of more than one million return migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers who made their way back to Polish territory once the country had regained its long-awaited independence. It analyses both the perspective of the Czechoslovak state officials towards the refugees from Nazi Germany and the varied perspectives of the refugees themselves. The book investigates the return migration of Jews from Israel to Poland and its impact on the dynamic processes of nation-building and national discourse in both countries. It argues that the late socialist period was an important phase in the development of multicultural societies in Eastern Europe. The book describes the contours of the ‘refugee crisis’ at these different junctures and explains how a ‘refugee regime’ emerged in order to address it, thereby offering a historical perspective on current practices and policies across Europe.
