Polish Diaspora (Polonia) Worldwide

We have already series of articles about history and geographical
distribution of Polish immigration (Polonia) in the USA. I apologize
to all people of Polish origin who live outside the USA that until now
I did not post any review of Polish immigration in other countries. I
know that among our readers we have people of Polish origin from
Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Germany and probably much more other
countries.

Let me start with a short introduction to Polish immigration around
the world. We can divide Polonia abroad into two different groups -
these who left Poland more or less voluntarily: sometimes because of
the hopeless economical situation, sometimes because of the political
persecution. Our immigration to Americas, Western Europe and Australia
is of this kind.

There are also quite numerous groups of Poles who were living on the
"wrong" side of the boarder before WW II - and after the war ended up
in Soviet Union. Now these people live still in today Lithuania,
Belarus or Ukraine. Some people who live in Russia are the descendants
of Poles who were sent to Siberia under Russian partition from 1773 to
1918. There are also a numerous groups of Poles who were sent to
Siberia or Kazakhstan during the WW II when Soviet Union invaded a big
part of Poland two weeks after Germany started a war on September
17th, 1939 in an effect of a secret part of Ribbentropp-Molotov
treaty. It is very hard until now to calculate the exact number of
peoples who were sent to the East, the numbers are estimated into
millions. Many of these people perished forever. Some were able to
return to Poland, some could not and stayed in Russia, mainly Siberia
and Kazakhstan.

There are also some Poles who are living in today Czech Republic and
Slovakia, mainly mountaineers. Some parts of Spisz and Orava were
difficult to divide between Poland and Czechoslovakia because the
villages were ethnically very mixed. Polish settlements reach even
Romania (the region of Suchava) and Turkey (Adampol).

Now, a bit of statistics:

About 20 million people count the Polish Diaspora. It is almost 50% of
the total amount of Poles who live in Poland. Poles live in over 90
countries of the world.

Here are the estimated numbers:

USA 10 millions
Germany 1.6 million
Brazil 1 million
France 1 million
Canada 650,000
Belarus 600,000
Ukraine 300,000
Lithuania 300,000
Australia 200,000
Argentina 180,000
Great Britain 170,000
Russia 150,000
Kazakhstan 100,000
Sweden 100,000
Czech Republic 70,000
Latvia 70,000
Belgium 65,000
Austria 45,000
South Africa 35,000
Italy 35.000
Netherlands 16.000
Denmark 13.000
Switzerland 10.000
Hungary 10.000
Norway 6.000
New Zealand 6.000
Romania 5.000
Turkmenistan 5.000
Slovakia 5.000
Urugway 4.000
Ex-Yugoslavia 3.000

About 2,000 Poles live in Israel, Finland, U.A.Emirates, Greece,
Spain, Chili, Mexico, Luxembourg and Georgia.
About 1,000 Poles live in Moldavia, Estonia, Turkey, Peru, Paraguay,
Venezuela, Bulgaria, Portugal and Ireland.

(These data were published in "Nasz Dziennik", 20.10.2002).
....

I KNOW THAT THERE IS MORE POLONIA IN USA - ESTIMATE MIGHT BE BIASES
TOO - DEPENDS TO WHICH GENERATION CENSUS ASKS FOR THE MATHERLAND
ORIGIN AND
IF THE CENSUS REACHES THE POLISH MINORITY.

THE WORD IS THAT THE POLISH DISPORA IS NEARING THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE
IN
POLAND. WHY SO HUGE?

IS THAT THAT POLISH PEOPLE BECAME THE FACTO SLAVES OF OTHERS WHEN
THEY
WERE FORBIDEN THE LANGUAGE AND ACCESS TO OWN CULTURE, THUS SOUGHT THE
REFUGE; OR MAYBE IN PART THEY WERE SOLDIERS WITH THE ENGEENIERING
BACKROUND SOUGHT AROUND THE WORLD BY OTHERS ( THAT BE SMALL NUMBER BUT
POSIBLY POWERFULL INFLUENCE - THERE ARE SEVERAL MILITARY TRENDS THAT
ARE HISTORICALLY KNOWN; SOME HAVE TRAVELING EXHIBITS EVEN IN USA)?

WHEN COUNTRY WAS STRONG THE TRADE AND PRECOURSOR OF TURISM TO KNOW THE
OTHER WAS HIGHT; NOT ALWAYS RETURNING; BLOCKING THE COMMUNICATION
OCCURED NOT ONLY DURING THE WW II AND NOT ONLY TO AMBASADOR
CIECHANOWKI
( BY THE WAY, JEWISH).

LOTS MORE TO UNDERSTAND THIS PHENOMEN.

LACK OF RESPECT FOR THE NATION AND EVEN INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT WHEN
POLAND GOT SUPPORT OF OTHER NATIONS CAN BE ASCRIBE ONLY TO FEW, YET
POWERFUL NATIONS.