Everyday transnationalism of the far right: an interdisciplinary study of Polish immigrants' participation in far-right groups in Britain

As a consequence of EU enlargement in 2004 over one million Polish nationals have moved to the UK, creating Polish communities in almost every British town. Although there has been a significant amount of research looking into what is now one of the biggest British ethnic minorities, research into their political activism is still lacking. Furthermore, there are worrying signs of growth in popularity of far-right ideologies and groups among Polish immigrants. This issue has been reported by the media, NGOs monitoring radicalisation and Polish communities themselves who in vast majority refrain from legitimizing far-right ideologies. The trend has also attracted the interest of the British authorities due to an observable increase in racially aggravated acts of violence perpetrated by Polish immigrants in the UK. Coupled with growing influence of the far right in Poland, it is clear that we are witnessing a new kind of transnationalisation of far-right politics not just in terms of transnational connections between distinct national groups, but in terms of immigrants from Europe being attracted to far-right groups in receiving countries, run by host local populations. In addition, many Polish political parties and organisations are active in the UK, some of them forming alliances with local political parties. For example, a well-known Polish far-right activist living in Wales was also a candidate in 2021 local elections on behalf of UKIP.

This project is a pioneering, risky and innovative study of this new phenomenon using a combination of ethnographic, qualitative methods and political science tools of discourse and ideology analysis. In six locations in Britain we will carry out observations of public events, rituals and gatherings of these organisations. We will conduct semi-structured interviews with members of these groups, as well as interviewing their British colleagues, and some members in Poland. Alongside this, we will conduct discourse analysis of their written communication - manifestos, pamphlets, blogs, songs, political declarations and so on.

We aim to explore the migration-radicalisation trajectory of people, their reasons to join far-right groups, the extent to which their activism was imported or stimulated by their migration history, and how they make sense of their far-right ideas as migrants, white Europeans, Brits and/or Poles. The project will also explore the extent to which British localities have acted as radicalisation stimuli. In particular we will analyse the intellectual, practical and personnel exchanges between the British and the Polish far-right groups.

Due to rise of far-right populism the project's departing assumption is that it is vital to examine the phenomena on the ground not as distant and external observers but as ethnographers who wish to understand the person behind the ideology. The overarching objective of this project is therefore to understand in order to prevent and mitigate. We believe it is crucial to approach, talk to, understand and intellectually engage members of far-right groups in order to design educational and policy tools to prevent people from being attracted by far-right discourse or acting upon far-right ideas. This research thus has clear social impact, both locally and internationally. This project will disseminate the findings among user groups such as: state institutions, and political decision-makers as well as local Polish communities that will find this knowledge useful when attempting to understand and address the phenomena examined by this project.