THE POLISH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

The Indian Diaspora and Poland–India Relations

Authors:

Patryk Kugiel and Konrad Pędziwiatr

Warsaw, November 2014

© Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych, 2014

Copy editor: Anthony Casey

Technical editor and cover designer: Dorota Dołęgowska

ISBN 978-83-64895-28-9 (epub)

ISBN 978-83-64895-29-6 (mobi)

ISBN 978-83-64895-30-2 (pdf)

Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych

ul. Warecka 1a, 00-950 Warszawa

phone (+48) 22 556 80 00, fax (+48) 22 556 80 99

pism@pism.pl, www.pism.pl

Contents

Executive Summary

Introduction

The Indian Diaspora from the Global Perspective

General Overview

The Significance of the Diaspora for India

The Diaspora in India’s Foreign Policy

The Indian Diaspora from the Local Perspective: The Case of Poland

History of Indian Migration to Poland

Key Features of the Indian Community in Poland

Main Elements of the Indian Institutional Base

Indians in Poland: A New Factor in Polish–Indian Relations

Political Cooperation

Economic Cooperation

Cultural Cooperation

Conclusions

Recommendations for Poland

Annex 1: List of Indian Interviewees

Annex 2: List of Informants from the Contact Area

Annex 3: Participant Observation

Executive Summary

- The Indian diaspora is one of the largest national overseas communities. Around 22 million Indians and people of Indian origin live abroad and are in almost all countries of the world. They play an increasingly important role in Indian national and foreign policies, as Delhi has been dynamically re-engaging with Indians globally and involving them in the development of the country. The overseas Indians have a significant political, economic and soft power role in Indian domestic and international aspirations. As this diaspora continues to grow and the government in Delhi emphasises its importance, one may expect it will play a larger role in cooperation with India.

- The Indian minority in Poland is a relatively new phenomenon, which emerged only after the end of the Cold War, especially after Poland joined the EU, since when the number of Indians in Poland has more than doubled. It seems that the size of the community will increase in the future, as the Polish economy continues to grow, and as more foreign direct investments, including those from India, are made in Poland, enhancing the country’s economic attractiveness for migrants.

- Today, the Indian community in Poland is made up of almost 4,000 people. This makes it the eighth largest immigrant community in Poland. Although still relatively small, if compared with those established in many Western European countries, it is the main concentration of Indians in Central Europe, and among the New EU Member States. This gives Poland a certain comparative advantage over countries in the region vis-à-vis India.

- Indians in Poland constitute a prosperous and relatively well-educated group. They contribute to the country’s economic growth and tend to create new workplaces. Most of them integrate well with Polish society and generally do not face problems of discrimination or intolerance. To guide the future inflow of Indians, the Polish administration should on the one hand introduce more active immigration policy tools, which will encourage the migration of professionals and students in particular, and on the other hand put in place integration mechanisms.

- Indians in Poland make a new human bond between Poland and India, and form a natural constituency strongly interested in closer Polish–Indian ties. They already act as natural ambassadors of Indian culture, contribute to better understanding between the nations, and facilitates more intense economic cooperation. They can be instrumental in attracting more investments, tourists and students from India to Poland. Their success stories can be a useful argument for campaigns promoting and raising awareness of Poland in India. Moreover, a formal mechanism of a regular consultation with the representatives of the community would be helpful, in order to work out new ideas and initiatives for strengthening Polish–Indian cooperation in economy, culture and education.

- Both Poland and India are among the countries with the largest diasporas in the world, and their governments have been searching for new ways of reconnecting and re-engaging with their overseas communities. This should create a common platform to share experiences and exchange best practices, not only in extracting obligations from members of diasporas, but also in their capacity of building and extending rights.

Introduction

The increasing size and strength of diasporas is one of the key manifestations of globalisation, and thus also an important dimension of international relations. Diasporas, understood as groups based on a degree of national, cultural, or linguistic awareness of a relationship, territorially discontinuous, with a group settled elsewhere[1] are privileged by the processes of globalisation. These processes popularise worldwide mobility, increasingly deteritorialise social identities, create new cosmopolitan cultures, and lead to the formation of “global cities” and faster, denser networks of communication. Globalisation is on the one hand questioning and redefining the boundaries of states’ sovereignty and, on the other hand, it allows the same states to extend their power beyond their national frontiers, to groups and individuals living abroad, creating new spaces of governmentality.[2] Thus, diasporas became increasingly important elements of international politics. They can be both key elements of building a country’s prosperity and regional stability, as well as agents contributing to national and international destabilisation (for examples, Russians in contemporary Crimea and Ukraine).

There are three main types of diaspora engagement policies implemented by both developing and developed countries: capacity building, extending rights, and extracting obligations.[3] The first type of policy is aimed at discursively producing a state-centric ‘transnational national society’ (symbolic nation building), and developing a set of corresponding state institutions (institution building). The second type of policy usually involves providing some elements of welfare protection and tourism services for members of the diaspora (civil and social rights) as well as political incorporation in the form of, for instance, active and passive voting rights. The third type of policy is usually linked with investment policies (such as remittances and FDI capture) and lobby promotion.

This report will shed light on all key elements of these policies, taking as an example one of the largest communities of this type, namely the Indian diaspora. It will assess the character of this heterogeneous group and its relation with India and receiving country/countries, not only from the global perspective, but also from the relatively lesser known Polish perspective. Although the Indian community in Poland is a rather new phenomenon, and numerically it constitutes only a fraction of the larger global Indian diaspora, an assessment of this group can provide important lessons not only for students of diasporas but also for national and international policy makers. The report will assess the processes of its emergence, key features of the Indian community in Poland, and key elements of its institutional base. It will also analyse the impact of the formation of the Indian community in Poland on Polish–Indian relations, and locate these processes within a wider web of connections between the global Indian diaspora and India.

The report begins with an overview of the Indian diaspora from the global perspective, then moves towards presenting the Indian community in Poland and its role in intra-state and inter-state relations, and ends with insights on how this emerging diasporic community may improve these relations.

It draws on a broad range of sources, including limited scholarly literature, information from governments, implementing agencies, embassies, migrant associations and own research data. In the course of last year, the authors have carried out 20 in-depth interviews with members of the Indian community living in different parts of Poland. The authors have also conducted some interviews with members of the contact area, that is, Poles who are in more or less permanent contact with Indians in Poland through business, professional, associational, personal, academic or other links. Additionally, participant observation was carried out during various events organised throughout the year by Indian individuals or associations in Poland, or while visiting Indian businesses, places of worship or meeting places. Being aware of the limitations of our qualitative snowball sample, additional data was collected by means of an online and offline survey of the Indian community in Poland. An extensive questionnaire was completed by 80 Indian respondents across Poland between March and June 2014.[4]

The Indian Diaspora from the Global Perspective

The term “Indian diaspora” is understood here as a group of people scattered around the globe, based on a degree of national, cultural, or linguistic awareness of a relationship, territorially discontinuous with India. It is regarded as the second largest national overseas community in the world after the Chinese.[5] The “Global Indians” as they are called by the Indian government are considered a significant “strategic resource” and a major tool of Indian “soft power.” They are natural goodwill ambassadors, bringing Indian culture, religions, values, cuisine and traditions to the farthest corners of the globe. Its significance lies not only in its size but even more so in the importance of the contribution it makes to the development of India and its relations with other countries.

General Overview

There are around 22 million Indians and people of Indian origin living outside India, in almost all countries of the world and on all continents. This group includes a few categories of people, not all of whom are Indian citizens. In administrative terms, the Indian diaspora is divided into three types of legal categories: Person of Indian Origin (hereafter PIO), Non-Resident Indians (hereafter NRI) and a newly introduced category, Overseas Citizens of India (hereafter OCI).[6] The first group, PIO, is made up of people who were (or whose ancestors were) born in India or nations with Indian ancestry, but who at present hold citizenship/nationality of another country. Some of the PIO are also former citizens of India who had to renounce their Indian citizenship while going through the procedure of naturalisation (in the case of countries that do not recognise multiply citizenships).

NRI, on the other hand, are defined as Indian citizens who are usually residing outside India and hold Indian Passports. If PIO are sometimes called an “old diaspora,” NRI are viewed as a “new diaspora.”[7] Finally, OCI is a new scheme that allows dual citizenship to be granted to foreign nationals, and it denotes a certain category of PIO who are registered OCI under section 7A of the Citizenship Act, 1955. In addition, there is the not so numerous category of Stateless Persons of Indian Origin, which includes people with no official documents to demonstrate their Indian origin, mostly based in South Asia, in countries such as Sri Lanka, Nepal and Myanmar.[8] In practice, two groups are most common: PIO and NRI. The number of Indian citizens abroad (NRI) is calculated at around 11 million,[9] and the people of Indian origin (PIO) group is about 10 million strong.

Map 1. Overseas Indians in the world

Source: Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, 2009.

In several states, ethnic Indians form a majority (in Mauritius—60%, Guyana—51%) or a significant minority (Fiji—41%, the United Arab Emirates—32%, Qatar—24%).The largest Indian communities live in the United States—2.245 million, Malaysia—2.020 million and Saudi Arabia—1.789 million. There are 28 countries with over 100,000, and eight countries with over 1 million Indians (see Table 1).

The Indian community overseas is highly heterogeneous, reflecting the ethnic, linguistic, religious and racial diversity of India. The composition of this community in a given country depends on the time of their arrival, migration patterns, and many legal, economic and social circumstances. In general, however, it can be said that the Indian diaspora is mostly of economic origin. As the High Level Committee on the Indian Diaspora reported, “the majority of Indians had left the country because of economic reasons or in search of better employment prospects and not because of political, social or ethnic factors.”[10]

From a historic perspective, the Indian diaspora could be divided into two categories: the old and the new. Although important Indian expeditions overseas were already being undertaken in ancient times and the Middle Ages, as now illustrated by impressive Hindu and Buddhist monuments in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Cambodia and Afghanistan, the large-scale emigration took place only in 19th and 20th centuries. The old Indian diaspora includes those who emigrated during the colonial period, to the British, French, Dutch and Portuguese colonies, as slaves, convicts, contract labourers under the indenture system or kangani (foreman) system, and “free” or “passage” emigrants, as traders, clerks, bureaucrats and professionals. They were sent mostly to South-East Asia, South Asia, East Africa and the Pacific region. It is estimated that more than 30 million Indians emigrated from India in this way between 1834 and 1937, although the majority of them (almost 24 million) returned after their contracts expired.[11] Decedents of those emigrants who stayed abroad received citizenship of their new homelands and today have often only symbolic links with India. They make up the majority of Indians in such countries such as Malaysia, Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji and Suriname.

Table 1. Countries with the largest Indian communities

Country name

Size of Indian

community

Country name

Share of Indian community in total population of the country

1.

U.S.

2,245,239

1.

Mauritius

60.1%

2.

Malaysia

2,050,000

2.

Guyana

52%

3.

Saudi Arabia

1,789,000

3.

Fiji

41%

4.

UAE

1,750,000

4.

Trinidad and Tobago

38%

5.

Sri Lanka

1,601,600

5.

Suriname

36%

6.

UK

1,500,000

6.

UAE

32%

7.

South Africa

1,218,000

7.

Reunion

31%

8.

Canada

1,000,000

8.

Nepal

27%

9.

Mauritius

882,220

9.

Qatar

24%

10.

Oman

718,642

10.

Bahrain

20%

11.

Singapore

670,000

11.

Oman

15%

12.

Nepal

600,000

12.

Kuwait

13%

13.

Kuwait

579,390

13.

Malaysia

7%

14.

Trinidad Tobago

551,500

14.

Saudi Arabia

7%

15.

Qatar

500,000

15.

Sri Lanka

6%

16.

Australia

448,430

16.

Singapore

5%

17.

Myanmar

356,560

17.

Myanmar

5%

18.

Bahrain

350,000

18.

Canada

3.5%

19.

Guyana

320,000

19.

UK

2.3%

20.

Fiji

313,798

20.

South Africa

2.2%

Source: Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, website, 2014.

The new diaspora, on the other hand, includes those who migrated from India in the 20th century, especially after the Second World War, mainly to developed countries in Europe, North America, and Australia, and to the Middle East. The post-war Indian immigration to the United Kingdom was, for example, closely linked with the post-colonial ties and significant demand for cheap labour in a country devastated by war. Many Indians living in Africa (for example in Uganda) decided in the 50s, 60s and 70s to move to the UK, thus earning the name “twice migrants.”[12] Indian immigration to many other developed countries was possible after they introduced special immigration programmes that attracted particular groups of immigrants—mostly professionals and skilled workers such as doctors, engineers, scientists, managers, architects, teachers, nurses, and students. This process accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s, when globalisation and development of high technologies created the demand for IT specialists and professionals from India, especially in the U.S. and some European countries. This new wave of Indian immigrants formed quite successful and affluent minorities in various parts of the globe and became a face of a “new shining India.”[13]

Another group of migrants went to the Gulf countries, where oil revenues, especially after the hike in income after the crisis in 1973, allowed for massive investments and created demand for immigrant workers. The Indian diaspora in the Arabian Gulf is made up mostly of low-skilled, semi-skilled and un-skilled workers. A typical Indian in the region is not an IT professional, although one may find many, but rather a construction worker.

The Significance of the Diaspora for India

Many overseas Indians maintained close relations with their country of origin and with their relatives who stayed in India. This happened usually despite a lack of active Indian diaspora engagement policy. For many decades, up until recent years, the Indian authorities paid little attention to its overseas citizens. The Indian government was neither building the capacity of its own diaspora nor extending its rights and extracting obligations from it (to recall Gamlen’s categorisation). Such lack of an active policy towards its diaspora was partly due to the Nehruvian doctrine of non-alignment.[14] For many decades, the official Indian position towards its emigrants was that they were deserters of their country, and a harmful force that was at odds with the country’s interests.[15]

The government of India has started to change its attitude towards the Indian diaspora profoundly, and adopted a very dynamic diaspora engagement policy only after the Cold War. Today, by contrast, the emigrants are portrayed as “angels of development” to whom the country’s government has made a firm commitment by creating permanent institutions and dedicating resources for services that cater to their needs at the global, national and local levels.[16]

There is a clear economic and political rationale behind such a significant transformation of the Indian diaspora engagement policy. The Indian diaspora plays an increasingly important role in Indian domestic growth and the realisation of its aspirations in international affairs. Generally speaking, its value lies in three fundamental aspects: economic, political and soft power. First, the Indian diaspora is an important source of capital for India’s development, in a form of both remittances and foreign direct investments (FDI). India is today the largest recipient of private money transfers in the world, and is most likely to retain this position in the future. In 2013 alone, $71 billion was sent to India.[17] This represents a steady increase in recent years, from $15.8 billion in 2002 to $69 billion in 2012. Total remittances received during the decade 2002–2012 have reached $427 billion, which is actually more than total inflow of foreign direct investments to India in those years ($235 billion) and earnings from the export of IT services (see Graph 1).

The money transfers from the diaspora are important sources of foreign exchange reserves for Indian government. They have played a crucial role especially since the post-2008 global financial crisis, when FDI inflow decreased considerably. On a lower level, remittances are often a major or additional source of income for many families in India, especially in certain states such as Kerala or Gujarat. It is estimated that a major proportion of financial resources from the diaspora is sent by an increasing number of unskilled and semi-skilled Indian workers employed in the Gulf countries and Malaysia,[18] followed by those in North America and Europe. The net remittance flows from Europe to India reached between $7 billion and $9 billion, which is equal to 0.6% of India’s GDP.[19] According to the World Bank’s estimates, Indian remittances contributed overall to almost 3.9% of India’s GDP in the year 2009.[20]

Moreover, overseas Indians played a significant role in the recent inflow of foreign investments to India. For instance, it was estimated that the Indian diaspora contributed 9%, or $4 billion, to the country’s foreign direct investment in 2002.[21] Importantly, migrants from India very often occupy managerial positions in the biggest transnational corporations and can influence investment decisions of their companies.[22] These decisions might go in one of two directions, that is, they might increase investment in India, or lead to more money being spent in a country with a significant Indian diaspora. The case of Mauritius, home to a considerable Indian community, is a clear example of the first type of process. Although, especially by Indian standards, it is a tiny country, it is the largest source of FDI in India. The United Kingdom is a clear example of the second type of process, as India has emerged there as one of the largest investors.

Graph 1. Remittances and FDI inflow to India 2002–2012

Source: World Development Indicators, 2014.

India is very successfully extracting obligations from its migrants not only in the financial domain. Apart from making an economic contribution to the development of India, overseas Indians play a crucial role in enhancing political ties with other countries, in both formal and informal ways. By acquiring important economic or political positions, members of the diaspora also become an influential lobby group insisting on forging closer ties with India and supporting decisions favourable to India. Here one may cite examples such as Cheddi Jagan (prime minister of Guyana (1957–1961)), Mahendra Pal Chaudhary (prime minister of Fiji (1999–2000)), and Anerood Jugnauth (twice prime minister and president of Mauritius (2003–2012)), as well as Kamla Persad-Bissessar (the current prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago).

The new diaspora in the developed countries has also managed to climb the political ladder. In the United States, for instance, Indo-American Rajiv Shah was nominated in 2009 as head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Obama administration has appointed more than two dozen Indian–Americans to senior positions in the administrations, the judiciary and the White House.[23] Bobby Jindal, born in the U.S. to immigrants from Punjab, is governor of Louisiana, and one of the Republican Party’s potential presidential candidates in the next elections. The Indian lobby (represented for instance by U.S. India Political Action Committee, USINPAC) in Washington has played a supportive role in Indo-U.S. rapprochement of the last decade, including successful lobbying for the controversial nuclear deal between the U.S. and India of 2006. It is even regarded by some as the “next most influential lobby group in the United States” after the Jewish lobby.[24] People of Indian origin serve and work for strengthening cooperation with India in various other parliaments outside the United States, including those in Canada, the UK and Germany. In non-political circles, in capacities as journalists, entrepreneurs, and academicians, they also exert influence on the policy of their receiving country regarding issues important for India.

One can observe a clear pattern that India has close and intense relations with countries with significant Indian communities. It is no coincidence that India’s closest partner is the United Kingdom, and India’s recent engagement with the United States, Canada and Australia happened only after strong Indian communities emerged there. As was observed by the influential Centre for Strategic and International Studies: “One of the strongest assets of the U.S. relationship with India is the expanding connection between Indian and American people.”[25]

Finally, the Indian diaspora is also important soft power tool, essential in spreading a positive image of India abroad. In fact, many people of Indian origin emerge as new elites of their new motherlands. It is enough to say that one can find among them the richest people in the world (for example, the steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, the fourth richest man in the world, is British–Indian), CEOs of the largest multinationals (the recent nomination of Satya Nadella as CEO at Microsoft is best example), influential journalists (such as CNN commentator Fareed Zakaria) and Nobel Prize winners (Amartya Sen, Nobel laureate for economics who now lives in the UK). As successful entrepreneurs, doctors, scientists or artists they deconstruct the old stereotype of India as an impoverished and underdeveloped country, and build a notion of a modern and successful India.

They are often first contacts and brokers between host societies and India. They can act as natural bridges and facilitate contacts in economy, culture, tourism or education. Bringing with them old Indian traditions, they can enrich the cultural and social life of hosting nations. It is enough to mention that “chicken tikka masala” is sometimes considered as the national dish in Britain, and “bhangra music” is very popular in British dance halls.[26] The popularisation of various yoga schools across the globe is yet another manifestation of Indian cultural diffusion.

To sum up, according to Indian government: “these ‘Global Indians’ can serve as bridges by providing access to markets, sources of investment, expertise, knowledge and technology; they can shape, by their informed participation, the discourse on migration and development, and help articulate the need for policy coherence in the countries of destination and origin.”[27]

It is important to note that, although the Indian diaspora is often an asset for a country, it can also be a liability and a source of tensions in relations with other states. The Indian Tamil minority in Sri Lanka and alleged discrimination against them has been a constant point of frictions between India and Sri Lanka. The coup in Fiji in 2000, which ousted a prime minister of Indian origin (PIO) led to a serious crisis in India–Fiji relations. Several attacks on Indian students in Australia in 2009 emerged as a major issue in bilateral relations. More recently, safety and labour rights of Indian workers in the Gulf states have become a serious concern in Indian relations with the region. The war in Iraq in 1991 forced India to evacuate around 100,000 of its citizens, and this was repeated on a smaller scale during the recent civil war in Libya in 2011, and more recently in Iraq in 2014 again.

The fact that several million Indians live and work in Gulf states limits the room for manoeuvre for the Indian government, and makes it extra cautious while dealing with the Middle East. Sometimes, members of the diaspora may disagree with the Indian government’s official policy, and support internal opposition groups or separatist forces. For example some Sikh emigrants in the West supported, financially and politically, the violent struggle for an independent Khalistan in India in the 1980s, and Kashmiri emigrants extend support to their fellows struggling for independence from India.[28] Therefore, for many reasons, good and bad, it is crucial for the governments to develop good relations with the Indian diaspora, to engage in capacity building and extending rights, and have it rather on Delhi’s side in pursuing certain aims.

The Diaspora in India’s Foreign Policy

As mentioned earlier, the Indian government discovered the utility of its diaspora only by the end of the 20th century, when it grew and became increasingly prosperous. As soon this happened it developed special mechanisms, initiatives and institutions to employ this asset for the pursuance of national objectives. By the end of 1999 it had started offering special schemes for Indians not residing in India. In August 2000, the Ministry of External Affairs formed the High Level Committee on the Indian Diaspora to do a comprehensive study of “characteristics, aspirations, attitudes, requirements, strengths and weaknesses of the Indian diaspora and their expectations from India.”[29] It has analysed the situation of Overseas Indians in most other countries, and drawn some lessons from other countries’ policies to their respective diasporas (including Jewish, Polish, Lebanese, Italian, Filipino, Japanese, Chinese and Irish). It presented a detailed report in 2002, in which it suggested several reforms to strengthen relations with the Indian diaspora.

In order to improve links between members of the diaspora and India, the government has been issuing PIO Cards since 1999. They are designed for people who do not have an Indian passport, but can prove Indian origins up to four generations back. PIO Cards entitle the bearer to several privileges that are available to Indian citizens (no visa requirement to travel to India, the right to buy real estate in India, etc.) but give no voting rights. In 2006 the government introduced the “Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI)” scheme, which, for the first time in Indian history allows a limited form of dual citizenship, and give extra privileges to Overseas Indians.

In May 2004 a special Ministry of Non-Resident Indians’ Affairs was established to oversee all issues concerning relations with Indian Nationals settled abroad. The Ministry was renamed as the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (hereafter MOIA) in September 2004, with a mission to “connect the Indian Diaspora community with its motherland.” The ministry focused on developing networks with and amongst overseas Indians, with the intention of building partnership with the diaspora. Besides dealing with all matters relating to overseas Indians, the ministry was engaged in several initiatives with Overseas Indians for the promotion of trade and investment, emigration, education, culture, health and science and technology.

Among other things, it organised an annual conference of Overseas Indians (Pravasi Bharatiya Divas), conferred the highest national award to some global Indians (the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award, PBSA), organised short courses and studies in India for children of Indian migrants (the Study India Programme and the Know India Programme) and facilitated study visits for those PIOs interested in their Indian origins (the Tracing the Roots scheme). It has set up several institutional arrangements, some in the form of private-public partnerships, to take care of overseas Indians, including the Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre (OIFC) serving as a one-stop shop for economic engagement, investment and business in India; the India Centre for Migration, as a state think tank to analyse overseas employment markets and assist Indians seeking job opportunities abroad; the India Development Foundation (IDF), a not-for-profit trust serving as a credible single organisation to facilitate diaspora philanthropy in India; the Overseas Indian Centres (OIC) for welfare and protection, and a variety of other public private partnerships.[30] It paid special attention to key problems of Indian migrants in foreign countries and took an interest in their relations with host countries and societies. In recent years it has signed Social Protection Agreements with other governments to regulate status of Indian migrant workers, and negotiated higher level Human Resource Mobility Partnership (HRMP) with several countries. MOIA was also responsible for issuing and managing Overseas Indian Cards.

The most important event in forging links and connecting to the Indian diaspora has become an annual convention of Overseas Indians—Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD, Day of the Overseas Indian). This event has been organised since 2003, with the participation of the highest level Indian officials (including presidents and prime ministers of India), and serves as a platform for discussing key issues concerning members of the global Indian diaspora and their links with India. It is celebrated on 9 January, since it was on this day in 1915 that Mahatma Gandhi, “the greatest Pravasi,” returned to India from South Africa after 21 years abroad. Given this symbolic meaning, the event marks the contribution of the Overseas Indian community to the development of India.

The Indian government continuously encourages its diaspora to become a part of the development process and internal transformation of India into a developed country and a major power in international relations. It seeks to transform the old pattern of “brain drain” into “brain exchange” through the reverse use of potential of overseas Indians. At the recent PDB in January 2014, for instance, commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma encouraged the NRI community to invest in India, informing them that the government had relaxed foreign direct investment rules in several important sectors, such as retail and civil aviation.[31]

Since the new Indian government, led by the Bharatya Janata Party, took power in May 2014, several structural reforms have been introduced to the existing diaspora engagement policy. One of the key transformations has been merging the MOIA with the Ministry of External Affairs. In contrast to what this may seem at first sight, this move was not meant to downgrade the importance of the diaspora for India, but was aimed, above all, at improving coordination between different aspects of foreign policies and secure better effectiveness. The ruling BJP and its leader Narendra Modi have often underlined the importance of Overseas Indians for the country’s development and for the realisation of its international aims. This has been well illustrated by the special meeting with Indian Americans in Madison Square Garden in New York, during visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the U.S. in September 2014. At the formal level, the importance of relations with the diaspora has been maintained by appointing a separate Joint Secretary responsible for Overseas Indians’ affairs.

The Indian Diaspora from the Local Perspective: The Case of Poland

Poland is not a traditional destination country of Indian migrants. Historically, the Indian diaspora in Europe is connected with the colonial history of several European states. Apart from the UK, France and Portugal also had colonies in India, while other countries, such as the Netherlands and Belgium, ruled over territories with significant Indian populations (for example Guyana and Surinam). The first Indians came to European cities (mostly in the UK) in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but large scale immigration started only after the Second World War, when there was a high demand for cheap, unskilled labour. In the 1960s and 1970s other waves of Indian immigration to European countries took place, from former colonies in Uganda, Kenya and Surinam, which after gaining independence went through a series of internal crises.

Since the 1970s emigration from India has taken a different shape, as migrating Indians were mostly skilled professionals, entrepreneurs and students. The last wave of Indian migration by the end of the millennium was linked with globalisation and the development of new technologies that created a demand for Indian professionals in the fields of IT, medicine, and management, in other well-developed European countries too. Therefore, besides the traditional (post-colonial) migration destination countries, Indians have gradually diverted their migration to new directions, with a particularly fast increase in numbers observed in Italy, Spain and Germany.[32] Eventually, with the EU enlargement in 2004 and 2007, the new Member States, including Poland, have been gradually becoming attractive to Indian migrants too.[33]

India today constitutes the fourth largest country of origin of immigrants to the European Union from outside, after Turkey, Morocco, and Algeria. The Indian community in Europe is made up of around 2 million people, counting both PIO and NRI. Its highest concentration is to be found mainly in the UK (1.5 million people), although several other West European countries have considerable minorities of Indian origin. They include the Netherlands (215,000), Italy (100,000), Portugal (80,000) and Germany (75,000). (see Table 2).

Table 2. The Indian diaspora in Europe

Country

Number of Indians (PIO+NRI)

1.

UK

1,500,000

2.

Netherlands

215,000

3.

Italy

99,127

4.

Portugal

80,000

5.

Germany

70,500

6.

France

65,00

7.

Spain

30,000

8.

Austria

23,000

9.

Sweden

18,000

10.

Ireland

19,365

11.

Belgium

18,000

12.

Russian Federation

15,007

13.

Switzerland

12,354

14.

Greece

12,013

15.

Norway

9,747

Source: Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs website, 2014.

History of Indian Migration to Poland

Poland is a country that has not yet undergone a migration transition or a change from country of migration to country of immigration. More people are migrating from the country than immigrating to it, but this situation is rapidly changing. The mass exodus from Poland in the last decade is potentially the final stage in the long history of Polish emigration and the beginning of a new chapter of Poland’s history as country with a growing number of immigrants, who would outnumber Polish migrants.[34]

One of the groups of immigrants for whom Poland has become a new destination country are Indians, whose number has been steadily growing over the last two decades, from a mere few dozen in the 1980s to several thousand at present. Clearly, Indian immigration is a new phenomenon in Poland, and on a much smaller scale than in most European countries, but nevertheless it has been growing dynamically, especially after 2004. According to Indian estimates, in terms of size Poland has the 20th biggest Indian community in Europe, and 16th in the European Union.

The first Indian pioneers started to settle in Poland during communist times. They were usually former students of Polish universities, diplomatic personnel and a few specialists temporarily assigned to some academic or other institutions. The largest group amongst them constituted Indian students. Still it was not very numerous, as in the total number of more than 3,000 students who came to study in communist Poland from the whole of Asia, Indians constituted only a small fraction, with the highest number of students coming from Vietnam.[35] Those Indians who decided to settle down in Poland did so mostly because they married Polish partners and set up a family here.[36]

The collapse of communism, the beginning of economic reforms and the emergence of new business opportunities marked a new opening not only in Polish-Indian state cooperation, but also in business, tourism, academia and personal relations. By the beginning of the 1990s, Poland had already attracted some entrepreneurial Indians who came to explore the country’s potential. One of them was an Indian businessman from Małopolskie voivodeship, who explained his decision to immigrate to Poland in the following way: “I got married to a Polish lady in 1977, and we lived together in Bombay. When we were getting married I promised my wife that, if the situation in Poland changed, we might move to that country. In 1989 the situation changed completely and we decided to relocate to Poland. Our children were nine and eleven, so it wasn’t an easy decision, but we never regretted it.” (Interview 18).

Therefore, the first major wave of Indian migrants, including textile traders and small businessmen, came to Poland in the 1990s. They were mostly of Sindhi or Gujarati ethnicity and arrived in Poland not directly from India but via a third country—the United Arab Emirates or South Korea, where many Indian businesses were located. The majority were involved in the import of Asian goods, mostly textiles, from East Asia or Gulf countries. Many of them decided to open their own businesses in Poland and expand activities into new sectors and countries. Later on, the arrival of big wholesalers in the late 90s, and the tightening of eastern borders in view of future EU accession, had a negative impact on Indian businesses and forced some of the Indian entrepreneurs to close their firms and migrate further to the European Union, the U.S. or Asia. Those who stayed in Poland opened new businesses (for instance, many shifted from the textile and trade to run Indian restaurants), and re-arranged their companies to operate under new conditions.

The key event that further boosted Poland’s attractiveness as a tourist, business and migration destination was the accession of Poland to the European Union in 2004. This is clearly reflected in data on Indian cross-border mobility, provided by Polish Border Guard Headquarters. Whereas in whole 1990s, the number of Indian arrivals in Poland was at steady level of some 4,000 a year, it rose significantly just before and after 2004. Although the number of Indian arrivals in Poland increased by 37% in the three years between 2000 and 2004 (from 4,430 to 6,092), it more than doubled in the next four years, until 2007 (see Graph 2). Then, Poland’s accession to the Schengen area in late 2007, and new visa regulations, led to a drastic fall in Indian arrivals to Poland, from more than 15,500 a year, to fewer than 8,000 in 2008 and fewer than 6,000 in 2009. In recent years, however, this trend has been reversed, and the number of Indian visitors to Poland has been rising again, to almost 10,000 in 2013. It is important to note here, however, that in reality there could have been more Indians travelling to Poland in recent years, as some of them could have come to Poland over the land border with a Schengen visa, and would not therefore have been visible in the official border guard statistics. That might be the reason why the Indian Ministry of Tourism estimates the number of visits by Indians to Poland at 15,000 a year.[37]

Graph 2. Number of Indian citizens arriving in Poland between 1994 and 2013

Source: Polish Border Guard Headquarters.

One major factor that determines flows of Indians to Poland and influences the future of the Indian diaspora is the Polish migration policy and, within this, the visa regime in particular. As is shown above, there is a clear correlation between visa regime and Indian arrivals in Poland. The restricted and time-consuming visa application process following Poland’s accession to the Schengen area kept in check trips from India to Poland. In 2009, the Polish Consulate in India issued only 2,180 visas. Since then, however, a sharp increase in the number of visas issued can be observed, to over 5,500 in 2013 (see table 3). The change occurred mostly as a result of simplification of visa procedures for businessmen in 2011. This led to a significant rise in visa applications and an increase (150% in a single year) in the number of visas issued. The percentage of visa applications rejected is also low, with only around 10% of Indians who apply for visas to Poland being turned down.

Along with a steady inflow of business visitors, a new pattern of immigration to Poland emerged, related to the arrival of Indian investors and international companies employing Indian professionals. The management teams at Indian companies such as ArcelorMittal, Infosys and Wipro, as well as at the multinational corporations such as Phillip Morris, IBM and Citibank, are often made up of Indians or people of Indian origin. Thus, Indian professionals have become an important element of the Indian diaspora in Poland. Although most of them are in Poland only temporarily, on contracts lasting three to five years, some prolong their work or decide to settle down in Poland, due to personal, economic or other reasons.

Table 3. Number of visas issued to Indians by the Polish consulates in India between 2009 and 2013

Year

Visa applications

Visas issued

Applications rejected

Rejections as percentage of applications

2009

(from 23 February)

2,683

2150D/503C

2,180

345

12.8%

2010

2,432

1523D/909C

1,521

788

32%

2011

2,273

1799D/474C

1,825 (up by 19%)

506

22%

2012

5,095

4382D/713C

4,567 (up by 150%)

528

10%

2013

6,263

5,550 (up by 21%)

(4,716: Schengen,

834, national)

713

11%

Source: Polish Consulate in New Delhi, 2014.

Yet another important channel of Indian immigration to Poland constitutes student migrations. Following Poland’s accession to the EU there has been an increasing interest among Indians in higher education in Poland. The height of this interest came just before Poland entered the Schengen Zone. Since 2007, when there were 360 Indians studying in Poland, the country’s popularity as a destination of educational migrants has decreased (see table 4). According to the latest data from the Central Statistical Office, there were 217 Indian students at Polish Universities in the 2012–2013 academic year.[38] Only 52 out of them were women, and 31 were enrolled for the first year of studies. One of the reasons might be that the Polish authorities became less keen to issue student visas to Indian citizens as well as other Asians, after some of them started using higher education as a useful immigration channel to Western Europe, when a Polish visa gave them the right to travel freely in the EU post-2007.[39] A number of so-called “fake students” applied to Polish Universities, and once in Poland, they did not continue education but moved westward to work in other EU countries. As a result, to control and counteract this process, student visa regulations became more restrictive and burdensome, also decreasing Poland’s attractiveness for “genuine students.”

Table 4. Indian students enrolled at Polish universities 2004–2012

Year

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

All Indian students

156

167

267

360

347

324

263

215

217

First year students

37

41

61

127

80

47

44

32

31

Female students

33

35

64

71

85

85

75

56

52

Graduates

10

5

23

23

42

48

42

44

50

Female graduates

7

3

6

2

11

12

15

15

10

Source: GUS, 2005–2012.

As far as the illegal immigration of Indian citizens is concerned, apart from temporary problems with “fake student migration,” at present this kind of immigration is rather a marginal phenomenon and, as such, it does not pose a significant threat to the Polish security or legal system. In 2012 only 25 Indian citizens were expelled from Poland, which constituted 0.4% of all foreigners expelled from Poland that year (6,664 people).[40] In 2013, only four Indian citizens were requested to leave Poland (by comparison, in the same year such requests were issued with regards to almost 4,500 Ukrainian citizens), whereas 14 were deported, and nine were not allowed to enter Poland at the border.[41]

Here it is worth mentioning that, in the past, and especially before Poland became part of the EU, the phenomenon of illegal entry and residence of Indians in Poland was more significant. According to UDSC statistics, there were 423 Indians expelled from Poland in 2002, and in 2003 almost 500 were deported; in 2004, when Poland was joining the EU, this number decreased to 124 deportations, then dropped to 15 in 2005.[42]

There were also relatively few Indians amongst the foreigners trying to enter Poland illegally, either by misusing refugee status, or engaging in fake marriages. More frequently, Indians were among those undertaking fake education, and carrying out activities not in accordance with visa permissions. Between 2009–2012, 47 Indian citizens were caught working illegally in Poland.[43] Numerous Indians (471) also tried to use recent regularisation campaigns to legalise their stay in Poland in 2012. A significant percentage of negative decisions (234 negative and 43 positive) suggests that many Indians came to Poland from other EU countries in order to legalise their status within the EU, as part of so-called “regularisation tourism.”

Due to its very nature, the future of the Indian diaspora in Poland depends largely on the evolution of the economic situation in Poland and conditions in the global economy. In the past, many Indians who encountered problems in business due to changing conditions in the late 1990s left Poland and went back to India or migrated to other Western states. Some members of the Indian community in Poland interviewed by the authors suggested that “economic crisis in Europe makes Poland not an easy place for business, and the prospective fast growth of the Indian economy may decrease the inflow of new migrants from India to Poland” (interview 4). It was observed that Indian migrants are “global citizens,” quite flexible and mobile, and can quickly move to states which offer better economic prospects (interview 1). As confirmed in another opinion: “Indians are there where the money is” (interview 17) and thus may leave Poland if economic conditions deteriorate there.

Apart from economic considerations, Indians coming to Poland benefited also from the positive attitude of Polish society. Despite limited contacts in the past, Poles have quite favourable attitude towards India, partially due to their similar history of foreign occupation and long struggle for independence, as well as the domination in Poland of the romantic vision of an exotic and spiritual Orient. This is confirmed in several recent surveys, which show Poland as one of the most pro-India societies in Europe. In a 2013 survey, which included Poland among responding countries, 33% of Poles saw India’s influence in the world as mostly positive, whereas 16% reported a negative opinion.[44] This was the same result as in a similar survey in 2006.[45] The only European country polled in 2013 where India got a more positive rating was Russia (42% positive and 9% negative). Notably, India was seen more favourably in Poland than, for instance, in all its European “strategic partners,” the UK, France, and Germany.

Key Features of the Indian Community in Poland

The Indian community in Poland, as relatively small and new group, is little known and under studied. Therefore there are serious challenges in presenting its precise characteristics, not least in providing correct data regarding its size. The estimates of numbers of Indians in Poland vary from 2,000 to 4,000 according to different sources. The Indian government estimated its size at around 2,000 people (1,800 NRI and 200 PIO) as of May 2012. This number is, however, clearly underestimated. It seems that more accurate are representatives of the Indian community in Poland who put the size of their community between 3,000 and 4,000 people (interviews 1, 2, 3, 13 and 18). The most reliable official data given by the Office for Foreigners (in Polish Urząd do Spraw Cudzoziemców—UDSC) mentions 2,639 Indian citizens legally residing in Poland by December 2013.[46] It means this group has more than doubled since 2007, when there were around 1,200 Indian citizens legally residing in Poland.[47]

Graph 3. Number of Indian citizens legally residing in Poland between 2007 and 2013

Source: UDSC, 2011, 2014.

To get a more accurate estimate of people of Indian origin one should add to this official data Persons of Indian Origin holding either Polish or other non-Indian passports. According to the official statistics, between 2000 and 2012 Polish citizenship was granted to 253 Indians.[48] The rate of naturalisation of Indians in Poland significantly increased after Poland joined the EU. In 2012, 55 Indians were granted Polish citizenship (see table 5). This data clearly confirms that Polish accession to the EU, and continuous improvement of living standards in the country, make Poland an increasingly attractive place for Indians to settle in. One should also include children born to Indian parents in Poland and who have received Polish citizenship as an increasing portion of PIO.

Table 5. Naturalisation of Indians in Poland

Acquisition of Polish citizenship by country of previous citizenship

YEAR

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

India

3

8

3

7

9

23

10

20

11

35

24

45

55

Source: GUS, 2013, 2008.

Moreover, there were also 184 Indians who had their visas (mostly Schengen ones) extended in Poland and might also be staying in the country for an extended period of time. In addition to this, one can add at least 100 illegal immigrants (interview 1). Only when all these groups are taken into account is it possible to reach an accurate estimate of the size of the Indian diaspora in Poland, which could be around 4,000 people.

Still, in light of the official statistics only (i.e. without PIO or illegal immigrants) the Indians constitute the eighth largest immigrant community in Poland from outside the European Union, after the Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Russian, Byelorussian, Chinese, Armenian, and Turkish. According to the Office for Foreigners, Indians constituted 2.17% of a total 121,000 foreigners legally residing in Poland in 2013. As one may see on the table below, Indians make up a community that is almost 14 times smaller than the largest immigrant community in Poland, of Ukrainian origin, and almost five times smaller than second largest group of immigrants, of Vietnamese origin. The Chinese community in Poland is almost twice bigger than the Indian. At the same time, Indians are more numerous in Poland than the citizens of the U.S. and South Korea.[49] (see Table 6).

Table 6. Number of foreigners legally residing in Poland as for 9 December 2013—top 10 nationalities

Citizenship

Asylum

Supplementary protection

Settlement

Long-term residency EU

Tolerated residency

Refugee status

Short-term residency

Total

1.

UKRAINE

-

7

17,959

2,198

142

1

17,372

37,679

2.

VIETNAM

-

1

4,340

1,947

368

4

6,744

13,404

3.

RUSSIA

-

2,243

4,813

425

610

530

4,024

12,645

4.

BELARUS

1

15

7,077

367

38

92

3,570

11,160

5.

CHINA

-

4

514

259

16

-

4,223

5,016

6.

ARMENIA

-

11

1,675

662

274

3

2,217

4,842

7.

TURKEY

-

8

587

280

6

2

1,835

2,718

8.

INDIA

-

-

558

317

7

-

1,757

2,639

9.

U.S.

-

-

834

80

2

2

1,572

2,490

10.

SOUTH KOREA

-

-

60

122

-

-

1,673

1,855

Total number of foreigners in Poland

1

2,446

51,027

7,490

1,838

888

57,529

121,219

Source: UDSC, 2014.

The majority of Indians in Poland hold short-term residence permits (1,757), while approximately one third of them plan to settle at least temporarily in Poland: 558 held settlement permits, whereas 317 possessed long-term resident permits. The data collected by the Office for Foreigners also provide information about the number of Indian citizens who last year received tolerated residency (seven people) and refugee status (nobody).

The Indian community, similarly to other new ethnic minorities arising as a result of recent immigration to Poland, is concentrated mostly in and around the capital of the country. According to the Office for Foreigners, more than 50 per cent of Indians (1,327 people) residing in Poland are to be found in Warsaw and in its vicinity.[50] The villages of Raszyn and Wólka Kosowska in the neighbourhood of Warsaw are even called sometimes “Little India”[51] due to the high concentration of Indian immigrants. It must be noted, however, that this is an area well known for the presence of other immigrants too, especially from Vietnam, China and Turkey.[52] Smaller Indian communities can be found in Łódzkie voivodeship (345), Małopolskie voivodeship (308) and Dolnośląskie voivodeship (177). The lowest number of Indians live in the Świętokrzyskie (7 people), Lubelskie (8 people) and Opolskie (13 people) voivodeships.[53] This distribution of Indian migrants in Poland also resembles concentration patterns of other immigrants, and is clearly linked with the level of development and economic prosperity of various parts of Poland.

Table 7. Distribution of Indians across Poland

Citizenship

UDSC

Dolnośląskie Voivodeship

Kujawsko-pomorskie Voivodeship

Lubelskie Voivodeship

Lubuskie Voivodeship

Łódzkie Voivodeship

Małopolskie Voivodeship

Mazowieckie Voivodeship

Opole Voivodeship

Podkarpackie Voivodeship

Podlaskie Voivodeship

Pomorskie Voivodeship

Śląskie Voivodeship

Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship

Warmińsko-mazurskie Voivodeship

Wielkopolskie Voivodeship

Zachodniopomorskie Voivodeship

Total

INDIA

1

177

29

8

62

345

308

1327

14

25

21

88

70

7

20

100

37

2,639

Source: UDSC, 2014.

Quite typically for relatively newly established immigrants, the Indian community in Poland has not reached an equal sex ratio. There are approximately three times more Indian men living in Poland than women. Out of 1,125 settlement, residency and EU residency permits issued to Indian citizens in 2013, 75% were given to male Indians and only 25% to women. This is confirmed in data of the Central Statistical Office. According to the Demographic Yearbook, among 1,236 Indians who arrived from abroad and registered for a temporary stay longer than three months in 2011, 74% were men (915) and 26% were women (321).[54]

The gender imbalance of the Indian community, and other factors, push many of its male members to choose their life partners from outside their community. An increasing number of Indian men in Poland marry Polish women. For instance, 43 citizens of India married Polish women in 2011,[55] and 30 marriages between Indians and female Poles took place in Poland in 2012.[56] Marriages between Indian women and Polish men are so far very rare.

Like Indian society, the small diaspora formed in Poland is ethnically and religiously diverse. Although the pioneers who nowadays form the largest groups came mostly from northern India (Punjabis, Sindhis and Gujaratis) there has been an increasing number of southerners arriving to Poland in recent years (from Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala). In religious terms, Indian immigrants in Poland reflect the diversity of India, with a sharp Hindu majority, but also significant and visible minorities of Sikh, Muslim, Christian and atheist.

Similarly to the new Indian immigration in Western countries, Indians in Poland are relatively well educated, entrepreneurial and well-off. For instance, the Demographic Yearbook points out that among 1,236 Indians who registered for a temporary stay longer than three months in 2011, 32% had higher education (394), 30% had secondary education (378), and the education of 19% was unknown (235).[57]

In terms of economic activity, Indians in Poland are very often entrepreneurs, professionals, skilled workers and students. In 2013 Polish authorities issued 1,300 work permits to Indian nationals, who were the 5th largest group of recipients of such permits after citizens of Ukraine, China, Vietnam, and Belarus. 775 Indians received category A permits, given to foreigners who work for an employer who has headquarters in Poland, and 399 received category C permits given to foreigners who work in Poland usually for a temporary period, for an international company with headquarters abroad.[58] Interestingly, Indian citizens received relatively more C, D and E permits in comparison to other nationalities, which suggests that the “work of Indians in Poland occurs relatively more often as delegation from a company based abroad.”[59] This confirms that the rise in the size of the Indian community is partially due to an inflow of Indian and foreign investments to Poland, especially in BPO and IT sectors, where more Indian specialists and consultants are hired.

According to the most recent data from the ministry, 206 Indians are employed as managers, experts, and consultants, 310 as skilled workers, 98 as IT specialists, 12 as medical staff and 19 unskilled workers. When it comes to sectors of economic activities, most of them were employed in the wholesale trade and retail trade (292), IT and communication (210), and gastronomy and accommodation services (153). In comparison with other foreigners who work in Poland, Indian nationals are the most numerous group of immigrants in the information and communication sector (30% of all foreigners) and financial and insurance activities (15%), and the second largest nationality working in professional, scientific and technical activities (5%).[60]

Main Elements of the Indian Institutional Base

Along with growing in size and rising in economic status, the Indian community in Poland has started to create its institutional base. The process of building such a base began quite early and manifested itself in efforts to establish several formal groups serving different needs of the community, including social, cultural, religious and economic needs. The organisations that started to emerge from the 1990s, unlike Poland–India friendship groups operating in Poland during the Cold War, were created and run by Indians and not Poles.[61]

One of the first organisational initiatives was the establishment of the Indian Association in Poland, formed in 1996 in Warsaw by Indian businessman J.J. Singh. Initially, it had around 60 members, and from the very beginning it served as a meeting point for Indians in Poland and a platform for exchange of experiences of life in Poland for Indians and provision of community help. Its mission is to “to provide a common identity to the Indian Community (in Poland, PK & KP) and facilitate cultural, social and economic integration with the host society; as well as to foster those activities that enhance mutual understanding and appreciation between the Indo-Polish community.”[62] Recently the association has been less active and its website has not been updated since 2008. The current head of the IAP claims there are currently around 400 members and 1,000 followers on a mailing list, 60% of which are Poles and the rest Indians (interview 6). The IAP organises cultural events and cooperates with Polish organisations, as well as with other minority groups on different multicultural occasions (such as Continent Warsaw, an online platform promoting multiculturalism in the capital).

The second oldest and most active Indian organisation in Poland is the Indo-Polish Cultural Committee (IPCC). The idea of formation of the IPCC was born in Kraków during the Diwali celebration in autumn 2001 (Interview 2). The aim of the IPCC is to promote Indian Culture, celebrate Indian festivals (mainly Diwali and Holi) and strengthen the cultural bond among Indians living in Poland and Poles. One of the tasks of the IPCC is to keep alive Indian culture among the community of Indian origin. Since its foundation, the president of the IPCC has been an Indian academic in Poland affiliated with Jagiellonian University, Umesh Nautiyal. The IPCC cooperates closely with the Indian Embassy in Warsaw and the Indian Council of Cultural Relations in Delhi. At present the IPCC has, along its main office in Kraków, five divisions: in Warsaw, in Poznań, in Śląskie and Zagłębie, in Pomorskie, and in Małopolskie together with the Podkarpackie voivodeship.[63] In 2013 it started to publish a magazine called Namaste Polska featuring, articles on Indian–Polish relations, Indian culture and the Indian community in Poland. The Diwali celebrations organised by the IPCC in Kraków in November 2013 attracted more than 500 people to Nowohuckie Centrum Kultury, and Indians constituted around 30% of the audience (PO1).

Apart from the cultural associations, Indians in Poland have also established economic organisations. The most important is the Indo-Polish Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IPCCI), formed in 2006 by J.J. Singh, an Indian businessmen living in Poland since the late 1980s. Its members now include more than 100 firms and individuals from both Poland (20%) and India (80%). Its activities in Poland include promotion of Indian economic opportunities among Polish businessmen, organisation of trade missions to India, and seminars and conferences on India. The IPCCI also supports numerous cultural events and cooperates closely with the Indian Embassy in Warsaw, aiding its initiatives financially or logistically. Since 2011 it has been issuing a monthly newsletter featuring its activities and accomplishments, and contributing to promotion of knowledge about Indian economy and culture. In 2014, the IPCCI has set up two regional offices in India, in Delhi and Kolkata, to further facilitate contacts between businessmen from both countries (interview 1).

Some other organisations that have been formed in recent years by Indians in Poland or with their engagement include: the Mantra Culture and Community Centre (MCCC), Friends of India in Wrocław (FIW), Friends of India in Poland (Warsaw) and the India Study Circle in Poland (ISCP). An important role in organising Indian life in Poland is also played today by various Indian groups on the Internet. Some of the most popular include Facebook groups: Indians in Warsaw (more than 1,000 members), Indians in Poland (almost 500 members) and Indians in Wrocław (more than 100 members).

Construction of the first places of worship by members of the community confirms that many have made the decision about permanent settlement in Poland. The two temples are located on the outskirts of Warsaw in the areas of high concentration of Indians Thanks to the financial support of the entire community, the first Hindu temple (Hindu Bhavan) was opened in Wólka Kosowska in 2007 (12 Przezorna Street). Two years later, a Sikh temple—Gurudwara Singh Sabha—was officially opened in Raszyn (56 Na Skraju Street), becoming the first Gurudwara in Central Europe. They have become important centres not only for religious worship but also as part of the social and cultural life of many Indians. In December 2007, the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs officially registered a religious community of Sikhs in Poland.

Indians in Poland: A New Factor in Polish–Indian Relations

Poland–India relations, albeit not so close as during the Cold War years, are back again on the upward trend.[64] Bilateral trade has increased fourfold since Poland joined the EU, from $367 million in 2004 to $1.9 billion in 2012. Moreover, more Indian investments are flowing to Poland not only in IT and BPO sectors, but also in others, from the pharmaceutical industry and agriculture machines to packaging. In recent years there has also been a more frequent exchange of high level visits, including Indian President Pratibha Patil’s official visit to Poland in April 2009, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s trip to India in September 2010, and Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski’s visits in July 2011 and November 2013.

Yet the level of bilateral trade and economic cooperation is far below its potential, as Poland is responsible for only 1.5% of EU–India trade, and attracts a fraction of Indian investments in Europe. Although Poland would be interested in upgrading bilateral ties to a higher level, it does not appear as a strategic partner for India. Mutual knowledge about the countries is very limited, and the level of people to people ties is still low.[65] It seems, therefore, that the emergence of a significant Indian diaspora in Poland can add a new dimension and create a strong people to people link in Polish–Indian relations. As aptly observed by one Indian with long experience in Poland, “the diaspora is the real bridge between Poland and India” (interview 6). This gives new potential to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in three areas: political, economic and cultural.

Political Cooperation

Given its small size, the Indian diaspora has not yet been recognised as an important tool in Indian policy towards Poland. The government of India has not signed with its Polish counterpart the Social Security Agreement (SSA) or the Human Resource Mobility Partnership (HRMP), and the role of the diaspora does not occupy an important place in bilateral dialogue, except for visa regulations and occasional problems of Indian nationals. Indians in Poland do not hold high public or political positions in Poland and their lobbying capacity is limited. Unlike in many Western countries, in Poland so far there is no member of parliament of Indian origin. In contrast to, for example, people of African origins (two of whom, John Godson and Killion Munyama, both Civic Platform, are members of parliament), Indians seem to be more focused on economic and cultural cooperation. Yet it was also due to their constant pressure that the Polish embassy in Delhi introduced simplified procedures for business visa applications, which led to a significant increase in the number of visas granted to Indian nationals and a surge of trips to Poland.

However, the Indian community is an important partner of Indian diplomats at the national level. The cultural and economic organisations formed by Indians (the IPCC, IPCCI and IAP) complement official efforts of Indian representatives in Poland, and expands the reach and effectiveness of their activities. In the words of one member of the Indian community, “the diaspora does better job than the embassy …) Ambassadors come and go, while Indians live here for long” (interview 6). Indeed, with only two to three career diplomats at the embassy in Warsaw, many of its activities would not be possible without cooperation and support from the Indian community. By co-organising Indian holidays and co-sponsoring cultural events, they act as soft power tools for India. They also offer better expertise on Poland and provide information and contacts to diplomats arriving in Warsaw from Delhi. The embassy, for its part, intervenes on behalf of its nationals at the intergovernmental level, financially supports Indian cultural associations in Poland and the organisation of cultural events, and helps individuals who get into trouble in Poland.

Although diasporas are usually natural partners for the originating country they can be a useful asset for the host state as well. In this context, the Polish government is already quite actively engaging leaders of the Indian community in order to attain some national objectives, such as, for example, increasing export opportunities, promoting Poland, and attracting more Indian investments. Leaders of the community are occasionally consulted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Economy, invited for seminars and conferences, and included in trade missions to India. Members of the Indian community can be important partners for Poland for several other reasons.

First, Indians in Poland have a personal interest in building stronger ties between the two countries and can offer their experiences and knowledge to build a more beneficial relationship. They are usually quite optimistic about the future of India and relations with Poland. As one Indian interviewee pointed out, “India is a global power, it is the future. All countries will have to cooperate with India” (interview 4). In this sense, another interviewee pointed to the importance of Asia as the centre of international affairs: “Poland must look for new partners in Asia, not only China, but also should engage with India” (interview 1). Positive prospects for economic growth of both states are to be major factors drawing countries together. In yet another opinion of our Indian interviewees, “relations will be better, Poland is developing fast, and Indians are increasingly looking abroad, therefore perspectives are good” (interview 18).

Proper utilisation of that goodwill and enthusiasm can be instrumental in raising the profile of Poland in India and creating a positive atmosphere for cooperation. As Indian public opinion is more interested in countries with Indian diaspora, popularisation of knowledge about Indians in Poland would give the country more visibility and recognition. Also, the presence of Indians in Poland may open new areas for cooperation. For instance, the growing popularity of Indian spas and traditional medicine (Ayurveda) can give impetus to cooperation in the health care sector. The current prime minister, Narendra Modi is known for his deep attachment to Indian tradition and hence might be keen on starting new bilateral initiatives in the field of traditional medicine.

Another important role is the facilitation of economic and political contacts with Indian partners. For instance, the IPCCI had organised study visit to Gujarat and a meeting with Nerendra Modi long before he was elected as prime minister. In 2014, Indians in Poland have also formed a group of “Friends of BJP” and can provide contacts with people from the new establishment.

Indians in Poland are also a useful source of information about possible impediments and challenges for closer bilateral cooperation. Among the barriers to closer cooperation pointed out most frequently are restrictive visa regulations and Polish immigration policy. As one Indian interviewee observed, “More immigration to Poland would be beneficial for two sides. Like the Polish emigration to the UK … There are some jobs that local people do not want to do, and foreigners can. Immigrants have built up America and many other countries. They enrich culture, diversify society. These are some of the benefits. There are also some risks and problems. … but economy needs immigration to grow. I do not say that everyone [should come], but the educated for instance.” He, like many other Indians living in Poland, considered Polish immigration policy unfriendly (interview 3).

Apart from the visa issue, some Indians also brought up the problem of complicated and fast-changing regulations, including taxation, labour laws and public insurance requirements (ZUS), which can actually limit the inflow of Indian investments and business to Poland. In their opinions, burdens imposed on entrepreneurs in Poland are difficult to comprehend and scare off many potential investors who eventually locate their investments in other countries in Europe. Some interviews reported problems in getting residence permits for family members, and problems with tax and income regulations (among others, interviewees 1, 3, 8).

Many Indians complain about the inaccurate image of India in Poland, full of stereotypes and myths, which hamper more intensive relations. In one view, “media presents India only when something bad, some disaster happens there. India does not exist in Polish media. If it does, then it is usually a very stereotypical image: cows on the streets, monkeys in trees, and slums. In reality there are more contrasts: there are both poverty and richness, India is the greatest democracy, although there is also chaos and corruption” (interview 3).

Economic Cooperation

The Indian community in Poland plays a limited role as a source of remittances or foreign direct investments for India. Although most of the people interviewed and surveyed did admit sending remittances to India, it is not of major significance due to the modest size of this population, and its levels of income, which are lower than in more developed countries. However, many Indians in Poland are directly engaged in fostering economic cooperation with India, working as traders, investors or consultants. Some entrepreneurs who migrated to Poland in the early 1990s to import goods (mostly textiles) from Asia have subsequently broadened and developed their activities into new spheres (electronics, food, etc.) and now play crucial role in Poland-India trade. Linking knowledge about the Polish market and contacts with exporters in India, they quickly gained a comparative advantage over Polish traders and monopolised trade in certain areas. For instance, the largest importer of tea to Poland (66% of the total sold) in 2002 was an Indian.[66] It can be assumed that India’s growing trade surplus (around $1 billion in 2012) is also linked to the activities of the Indian diaspora.

Secondly, numerous Indians in Poland are employed by Indian companies that have made in recent years significant investments in the country. According to the official Polish statistics, Indian foreign direct investment in Poland rose from $6.7 million in 2004 to $92 million by the end of 2012.[67] This was more than FDI from Turkey or Australia, and equal to total FDI from all Arab Gulf countries. Moreover, Indian investments in Poland are much bigger, when one includes Indian capital flown via third countries, and therefore not regarded as Indian in official data. There are at present more than 20 large Indian investments in Poland and they will most likely multiply. Several companies (e.g. U-flex, Indorama, and Infosys) that have already invested in Poland, plan additional expansion. These can serve as good examples for other Indian firms interested in the Polish market.

Finally, Indians living in Poland function as consultants for other firms interested in the Polish market, as well as for Poles interested in business opportunities in India. They have gathered a unique expertise on the conditions of doing business in Poland, which they can share with their compatriots in India and members of the Indian diaspora across the world. Their success in Poland can work as a powerful and credible incentive for other companies to follow. Thus, it is quite frequent that the Polish state administration sends managers of Indian companies based in Poland (Infosys, Wipro, U-flex, etc.) to participate in the business summits and trade shows in India, to share their first-hand experiences with new prospective investors. These managers may not only help practically in linking partners from Poland and India, but also spread a positive massage about Poland in their motherland. For example, in June 2012 a popular newspaper, the Hindustan Times, quoted in a report IPCCI chief J.J. Singh, who had portrayed “Eastern Europe as the West without complications” where “technology transfer rules are easier and regulations less complicated.”[68] That kind of personal testimony about Poland’s economy can certainly help more in attracting Indian businesses than many official campaigns and trade shows.

One concrete example of the positive impact of the Indian diaspora in enhancing economic cooperation between Poland and India is given by the aforementioned Indo-Polish Chamber of Commerce and Industries (IPCCI). It is one of two bilateral chambers of commerce operating in Poland. It operates in practice as a consulting company and facilitates contacts between businessmen from both countries, provides information about economic opportunities in India and doing business in Poland, and organises B2B meetings. It regularly cooperates with Polish administration, public institutions (the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency, Polska Agencja Informacji i Inwestycji Zagranicznych (PAIiIZ) and the Polish Chamber of Commerce, Krajowa Izba Gospodarcza (KIG)), and academia, and participates in seminars and conferences concerning India. It has emerged as partner for trade missions to India and study visits for Indian businessmen to Poland. For instance, in 2013 the IPCCI co-organised three trade missions to India (to Gujarat in February, to Bangalore in April, and to Delhi in October), and five seminars on economic cooperation with India in Warsaw, Gdynia and Wrocław. Other Indian groups, such as the IAP and IPCC, and individual Indians, also provide occasional assistance to Indian firms and professionals interested in investing in Poland. Many individuals and organisations have played a role in bringing to Poland some of the largest investments and, recently, Bollywood productions such as “Kick.”

There is also some correlation between the activities of the Indian diaspora and rising tourism flows between India and Poland. On the one hand, the growing presence of Indian culture in the public sphere in Poland contributes to rising interest in India as a tourist destination. Also, some Indians own tourist firms (such as The Exotic Travel, owned by Poland-based Jahangir Mangalia) specialising in trips to India and facilitate similar for other tours operators. In recent years, the number of Polish tourists to India has risen from 8,445 in 2004 to more than 25,000 in 2012.[69] On the other hand, the Indian community in Poland has contributed to more tourist trips from India, as family members, friends and business partners of Indians living in Poland account for some of the visitors.

Finally, another area which can benefit from the presence of a stronger Indian diaspora is education. Currently, the number of Indian students in Poland is also very low when compared to other EU countries. In 2009, only 0.8% of Indian students in the EU were studying in Poland.[70] The Indian student market is the second largest in the world, after China’s, with almost 200,000 overseas students and a 6.2% share in total international students in 2009. It is argued that “this represents great potential for European universities seeking to internationalise their student intake.”[71] For instance, in 2009, there were 44,315 Indian students at European Universities, three-quarters of them in the UK. Although most Indian students (80%) choose English speaking countries for their education (mostly the United States, Australia, Canada or the UK), and Poland is not the obvious choice for getting a higher education, other EU countries are more successful in attracting increasing numbers of Indian students (especially Germany, France and Sweden). The Indian diaspora, with their family members back in India, can be considered as a potential source of students to Poland. Also, the EU–India Council, an organisation founded by Indian Pradeep Kumar, is actively lobbying for creating a more conducive environment for students from India. This could include easing visa procedures, active promotional campaigns by Polish universities, and creating new funding and working opportunities for Indian students.

Cultural Cooperation

Promotion of Indian culture and raising awareness about modern India in Poland has become a prime area in which the diaspora helps Indian aims and contributes to cooperation between the two nations at the moment. The day to day interaction with a quite homogenous Polish society helps to increase understanding about India. More than 30 Indian restaurants have been established in the last two decades in major Polish cities, and two Indian temples and numerous Indian cultural events give Poles opportunities for first-hand contact with this distant civilisation. Bollywood parties and cultural programmes, co-organised by Indian associations and restaurants, have contributed to the growing popularity of Indian classical dance and Bollywood music. There are already dozens of dance groups specialising in Indian dance across the country. These groups are composed usually of Polish nationals, but some have also Indian participants. Interestingly, Indians in Poland contribute also to the popularisation of yoga and new sports disciplines, which were previously little known in Poland, such as cricket, polo, carrom, and badminton. Indians organise local tournaments and leagues to compete in these disciplines. In summer 2013, for instance, a special team of polo players from the Indian Army paid a visit to Poland to play in a friendly match against local partners.

The IPCC is a major organisation involved in the promotion of Indian culture in Poland. For over a decade it has been organising annual celebrations of two major Indian holidays, Diwali and Holi, in Kraków, as well as in other major Polish cities. It has often served as the Polish partner for the Indian Council of Cultural Relations and the Indian embassy in Poland in the organisation of concerts of Indian classical music, dance performances, art exhibitions, and more. The IPCC also offers free Hindi language classes at a culture centre in Kraków’s Podgórze district. Its general convention, held in March 2013, gathered together 40 members, both Indians and Poles interested in Indian culture. Its activities are supported financially by the Indian Embassy and affluent Indians, including managers of the ArcelorMittal steel plant in Kraków.

Organisation of cultural events is also a main area of activities of other Indian associations in Poland. The IAP organises around six events a year, including an annual party in Warsaw for Diwali, for Indians living in Poland and their Polish friends, and three to four times a year it receives a delegation from India (interview 4). It used to offer free Hindi and yoga classes at its premises in Warsaw.

Moreover, the Indo-Polish Chamber of Commerce and Industries also supports many cultural initiatives, financially and logistically. Although the IPCCI acts mostly in economic domain, according to its president, “Culture is a very good means to promote economic cooperation” (Interview 1). For instance, thanks to efforts of the IPCC and IPCCI, several Indian film productions have been shot in Poland (including the most famous movie “Fana,” and most recently “Kick,” in 2014) and cooperation in audiovisual production has been emerging as a significant element of Polish–Indian relations.

Conclusions

The global Indian diaspora continues to grow, and its increased size and prosperity also has a direct influence on Indian national and foreign policies. As has been shown above, the government in Delhi has changed its attitude profoundly towards Indian citizens and people of Indian origin living outside India over the last decade, thus recognising their economic, political and cultural significance nationally and internationally. It has developed numerous policies that aim not only at extracting obligations from overseas Indians, but also at assisting them in building the capacity of Indian institutions abroad and extending the rights of Indians and people of Indian origin living abroad. Today “global Indians” are treated by Indian politicians not as “traitors” but as “angels of development.” The Indian diaspora already plays a very important role in Indian domestic and international policy, and most probably this significance will only grow.

Although Poland is not known as an important immigration country, over the last two decades more Indians have come to see it as attractive destination. The Indian community has emerged as one of the largest and most visible immigrant groups in Poland, especially in several big cities. Although most of its members concentrate solely on economic activities and the private sphere, there are several individuals and organisations that actively engage in strengthening relationships between Poland and India, especially in two dimensions: economic and cultural. The dynamism and prosperity of this new diasporic community brings a great potential and new impetus to official Polish–Indian relations.

Although a more detailed study of the Indian community in Poland is required to better understand its integration patterns, the collected materials show its significant adaptive skills. Indians often marry Polish partners, have Polish friends, learn the Polish language and adapt to Polish traditions and social norms. They become increasingly involved in cultural, social and economic life in Poland, which they often consider as their new homeland. Indians constitute a prosperous and skilled minority and enrich Polish society, adding colour to an otherwise quite ethnically and racially homogenous social fabric. They broaden the variety of cuisine options, propose new cultural events with an eastern flavour, and contribute to religious pluralism in Poland. If the community continues to grow, one can expect more Indian temples, cultural associations, and business groups to be more present in social life.

It seems that, thus far at least, Indians in Poland do not compete for jobs with Poles, but rather quite successfully create new workplaces and have a positive input to Polish economy. They play a facilitating role in expanding bilateral trade and have contributed to attracting some Indian investments to Poland.

Good economic prospects for Poland and strong migration pressures in India, as well as strengthening of Poland–India relations, are most likely to contribute to further enlargement of the Indian community in Poland. At the same time, the Indians already established in Poland will make these future migration flows and processes of integration of Indians in Poland easier. The actual size and dynamism of these immigration flows will depend ultimately on the growth of the economy and the final shape of Polish migration policy, which at the moment is under review.[72] Some of the proposed regulations, such as allowing foreign students who complete their studies in Poland to reside legally there and search for employment are clearly the type of laws that are highly welcomed by both the foreigners and their prospective Polish employers. Moreover, the long negotiated EU-India Free Trade Agreement, once it is signed and comes into force, will allow for free movement of skilled professionals from India to Europe, some of whom may come to Poland.

This all means that the Indian community in Poland will be growing, and will possibly play a more visible role in the future. In order to facilitate these processes, Polish decision makers at various levels of state administration should take into consideration the following legal, economic, social, political and cultural recommendations:

Recommendations for Poland

In the light of upward trend of Indian migration to Poland, it is advisable to control the process and direct it in beneficial ways. India can be seen as an important source of immigration to the EU, especially regarding highly skilled professionals. Also, Polish business raises concerns that there is already a shortage of more than 2,000 professionals, and one possible solution is increased immigration.[73] For instance, Germany launched a special work permit scheme in 2000 to attract IT specialists, mainly from India. Although the policy was quite successful (it attracted 5,300 IT professionals between 2000 and 2004), many of these highly trained specialists left eventually for other countries in search of better paid jobs and careers.[74] Similarly, Poland can rethink its immigration policy and visa regime concerning Indian nationals to encourage certain groups (for example, doctors, IT specialists and nurses) to move to Poland. Easing the business visa application process in last years was a good step and led to a significant increase in business trips and economic contacts with Poland, without increasing immigration risks. This can be further developed to include more Indian nationals visiting Poland.

Poland should also encourage more Indian students to come to Poland. It is argued that they make their education choices based on quality of education in English, availability of financing options (scholarships), visa policy, part-time work opportunities and job prospects after graduation, as well as the visibility and attractiveness of the education available in certain countries.[75] This suggests that, in order to increase the intake of Indian students significantly, the Polish government should introduce special incentives, such as a scholarship scheme, introduce a more flexible visa regime for students, change labour laws to allow students to have part-time jobs, work on mutual recognition of degrees, at least in crucial sectors, and support Polish universities in promotional campaigns and recruitment process in India.

Poland can use the diaspora to benefit more from the rising outbound tourism from India. It is estimated that this market will rise to 50 million people by 2020, and Europe will remain one of the preferred tourism destinations for Indians.[76] Today, however, Indian arrivals in the EU concentrate mostly on the UK, Italy, Germany and France, while the whole of Central Europe accounts only for 6.1% of Indian visits to Europe. It is meaningful that countries that attract the most Indian tourists are those which have the biggest Indian diasporas, which points to a possible link between the growing number of residence permits being granted to Indian migrants, and the flows of tourism from India to these countries. Poland should capitalise on these trends, encouraging more tourism flows to Poland, but at the same time mitigating possible risks of rising irregular migration.

Moreover, Polish diplomacy should recognise the Indian community as a useful asset in strengthening relations with India. Discussions about the status, well-being and role of the diaspora can become an important element in official political dialogue between the nations. Bearing in mind the prospect of even more Indian migrants coming to Poland, both sides can start negotiations and conclude the Social Security Agreement soon. The fact that India has this kind of agreement with other countries in our neighbourhood (Hungary and the Czech Republic) may give the impression that Poland is a less friendly place. Furthermore, Poland can start talks on the more advanced Agreement on Human Resource Mobility Partnership (HRMP).

The Polish government can more actively use success stories and the good position of Indians in Poland in its promotional campaign in India, to generate more political interest and new investments from India. The personal testimony of positive experiences of Indian businessmen in Poland will be more effective than traditional promotional campaigns in generating a positive atmosphere around Poland in Indian economic circles. The government can also start a regular platform with representatives of the Indian diaspora in Poland, in order to learn their perspectives and ideas for future Poland–India relations.

Having one of the largest diasporas in the world itself, Poland can more closely cooperate with the Indian government to learn from Indian experiences of how to engage with nationals abroad. As India in the past, while developing its diaspora engagement policy, analysed the policies of various countries (including Poland), thus today Poland, while searching for new ways of reconnecting with its old and especially new diaspora (around 2 million Poles who left the country in recent decades[77]), should study some of the elements of Indian diaspora engagement policy, with its capacity building, extending rights and extracting obligations dimensions. One of the elements of the first type of policy, which among other things, promotes the notion of the diaspora, and which is worth considering, is the organisation of an annual diasporic congress with the participation of the highest ranking politicians. Such congresses and their media promotion contribute significantly to symbolic nation building beyond national boundaries. As far as the second type of policy is concerned, Poland should analyse the ways in which India is extending political rights to members of its old and new diaspora (for example, through implementation of the PIO card scheme). Thirdly, the ways of constructing successful national lobby groups in the diaspora should be analysed closely.

Annex 1

List of Indian Interviewees

(when quoted, then interview with the respective number):

1. Businessman, male 46, in Poland since 1989. Interview conducted in Polish, 16 October 2013, Warsaw.

2. Director of Polish–Indian NGO, male 47, in Poland since 1995. Interview conducted in English, 18 October 2013, Kraków.

3. Owner of Indian restaurants, male 49, in Poland since 1985. Interview conducted in Polish, 21 October 2013, Kraków.

4. Businessman, male 37, in Poland since 1996. Interview conducted in Polish, 26 October 2013, Warsaw.

5. Cook in an Indian restaurant, male 24, in Poland since 2007. Interview conducted in English, 30 October 2013, Kraków.

6. University teacher, male 65, in Poland since 1984. Interview conducted in English, 7 November 2013, Warsaw.

7. Manager at an international corporation, male 29, in Poland since 2009. Interview conducted in English, 13 November 2013, Kraków.

8. Owner of an Indian restaurant, male 42, in Poland since 1997. Interview conducted in Polish, 15 November 2013, Kraków.

9. University researcher (Post-doc), male 30, in Poland since 2012. Interview conducted in English, 23 November 2013, Kraków.

10. University researcher (PhD candidate), male 30, in Poland since 2009. Interview conducted in English, 25 November 2013, Kraków.

11. Manager at an international corporation, male 31, in Poland since 2009. Interview conducted in English, 28 November 2013, Kraków.

12. Owner of Indian restaurant, male 43, in Poland since 1994. Interview conducted in Polish, 13 December 2013, Warsaw.

13. Businessman, male, in Poland since 1984. Interview conducted in Polish, 18 December 2013, Sulisław.

14. Ayurveda therapist, male 31, in Poland since 2012. Interview conducted in English, 18 December 2013, Sulisław.

15. Ayurveda therapist, female 25, in Poland for six months. Interview conducted in English, 18 December 2013, Sulisław.

16. Cook in a restaurant, male 45, in Poland since 2008. Interview conducted in English, 18 December 2013, Sulisław.

17. Indian businessman and IT specialist, male 44, in Poland since 1987. Interview conducted in English, 19 December 2013, Warsaw.

18. Businessman, male 63, in Poland since 1992. Interview conducted in Polish, 18 January 2014, Czorsztyn.

19. Ayurveda therapist, male 37, in Poland since 2007. Interview conducted in English, 23 March 2014, Warsaw.

20. Ayurveda therapist, male 40, in Poland since 2009. Interview conducted in English, 29 March 2014, Warsaw.

Annex 2

List of Informants from the Contact Area

(when quoted, then CA with respective number)

1. Polish co-owner of a Polish–Indian company, female. Interview conducted in Polish, 20 December 2013, Wrocław.

2. Polish employee of an Indian restaurant, female. Interview conducted in Polish, 3 March 2014, Kraków.

3. Polish member of Indian association, female. Interview conducted in Polish, 10 March 2014, Kraków.

4. Polish wife of Indian citizen living in Poland, female. Interview conducted in Polish, 15 March 2014, Warsaw.

5. Polish student of Indian Studies, female. Interview conducted in Polish, 10 March 2014, Kraków.

Annex 3

Participant Observation

(when quoted, then PO with respective number)

1. Diwali celebrations, Nowohuckie Centrum Kultury, 7 November 2013, Kraków.

2. Attending the prayers in the Warsaw Gurudwara, 23 February 2014, Warsaw.

3. Visit to Kinga Hotel Spa owned and run by Indian businessman, 18 January 2014, Czorsztyn.

4. Visit to Sulisław Hotel Palace managed by Indian businessman, 18 December 2013, Sulisław.

5. Numerous visits to Indian restaurants in Kraków and Warsaw. Restaurants included Indus, Bombay, Hot Chili and Ghanesh, between October and June 2014.

1 R. Marienstras, “On the Notion of Diaspora,” in: Minority Peoples in the Age of Nation-States, G. Chaliand (ed.), Pluto, London, 1989.

2 C. González Gutiérrez, “Fostering Identities: Mexico’s Relations with its Diaspora (2),” Journal of American History, vol. 86, no. 2, 1999, Special Issue: Rethinking History and the Nation-State: Mexico and the United States.

3 A. Gamlen, Diaspora Engagement Policies: What Are They, and What Kinds of States Use Them?, Working Paper No. 32, University of Oxford, 2006.

4 Detailed list of Indian interviewees, respondents from the contact area and places (and dates) where participation observation was carried out can be found at the end of the report in annexes 1, 2 and 3.

5 Annual Report 2012–2013, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs.

6 Ibidem, p. 8.

7 M.K. Gautam, Indian Diaspora: Ethnicity and Diasporic Identity, CARIM-India Research Report 2013/29, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute.

8 D.K. Thussu, Communicating India’s Soft Power: Buddha to Bollywood, Palgrave Macmillan, New York–Basingstoke, 2013, p. 76.

9 Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011, The World Bank, 2011.

10 The Report of High Level Committee on the Indian Diaspora, Government of India, January 2012, p. XII.

11 A.K. Sahoo, L.N. Kadekar, Global Indian Diaspora: History, Culture, Identity, Rawat Publications, New Delhi, 2012, p. 26.

12 P. Bhachu, Twice Migrants, Law Book Co of Australasia, London–New York, 1985.

13 It is calculated that the Indian minority is the best educated and richest ethnic group in the UK and the United States, with Indians over-represented among the most prestigious professions. A report by an Indian Government Commission found in 2001 that, in the United States, 38% of doctors, 12% of scientists, 36% of NASA employees, 36% of Microsoft employees and 28% of IBM employees were of Indian origin. A.K. Sahoo, L.N. Kadekar, op. cit., p. 9.

14 B. Khadria, “India: Skilled Migration to Developed Countries, Labour Migration to the Gulf,” in: S. Castles, R.D. Wise (eds.), Migration and Development: Perspectives from the South, IOM, Geneva, 2008.

15 S. Castles, R.D. Wise (eds.), Migration and Development: Perspectives from the South, IOM, Geneva, 2008.

16 D.R. Agunias (ed.), Closing the Distance: How Governments Strengthen Ties with Their Diasporas, Migration Policy Institute, Washington, DC, 2009; D.R.A., K. Newland, Developing a Road Map for Engaging Diasporas in Development: A Handbook for Policymakers and Practitioners in Home and Host Countries, International Organisation for Migration and Migration Policy Institute, Geneva, 2012, Spi edition.

17 “Migrants from Developing Countries to Send Home $414 Billion in Earnings in 2013,” World Bank, 2 October 2013.

18 Annual Report 2012–2013, op. cit., p. 36; C. Tumbe, EU–India Bilateral Remittances, CARIM-India Research Report 2012/10, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, p. 4.

19 C. Tumbe, op. cit., p. 9.

20 Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011, op. cit., p. 32.

21 A.K. Sahoo, L.N. Kadekar, op. cit., p. 7.

22 For example, internal lobbying by Indian managers in the Hewlett-Packard contributed to the development of the Bangalore IT industry. HP was one of the first big investors in the city.

23 D.K. Thussu, op. cit., p. 84.

24 M. Kamdar, “Forget the Israel Lobby: The Hill’s Next Big Player Is Made in India,” The Washington Post, 30 September 2007.

25 R.L. Armitage, S. Nye Jr. (cochairs), CSIS Commission on Smart Power: A Smarter, More Secure America, Centre for Strategic and International Studies, 2007, p. 23.

26 K. Pędziwiatr, Od Islamu imigrantów do islamu obywateli: muzułmanie w krajach Europy Zachodniej, Nomos, Kraków, 2007, p. 148.

27 Annual Report 2012–2013, op. cit., p. 34.

28 S. Rehman, Azad Kashmir and British Kashmiri Diaspora: History of Kashmiri Independence Politics and Diaspora Identity Formation, VDM Verlag, Saarbrücken, 2011; D.S. Tatla, The Sikh Diaspora: The Search For Statehood, Routledge, 2005.

29 Report of the High Level Committee on Indian Diaspora, Ministry of External Affairs, Order, 18 August 2000.

30 See more at Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs website: www.moia.gov.in.

31 “Sharma Pitches for NRI Investments,” The Hindu, 8 January 2014, www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/sharma-pitches-for-nri-investments/article5553782.ece?ref=related.

32 P. Fargues, K. Lum, India–EU Migration: A Relationship with Untapped Potential, CARIM-India Research Report 2014/01, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute.

33 P. Guha, (2012), Implications of EU Enlargement for India–EU Labour Mobility. Competition, Challenges and Opportunities, CARIM-India Research Report 2012/13, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute.

34 I. Grabowska-Lusińska, M. Okólski, Emigracja ostatnia?, Scholar, Warszawa, 2009.

35 At present the largest minority group of immigrant origin after Ukrainians.

36 M. Chilczuk, 50 lat kształcenia studentów zagranicznych w Polsce, 2001, www.copernicus.org.pl/kontakt/chilczuk.htm.

37 India Tourism Statistics 2012, Ministry of Tourism, Market Research Division, Government of India, 2013.

38 Higher Education Institutions and Their Finances in 2012, Główny Urząd Statystyczny (Central Statistical Office), Warsaw 2013.

39 C. Żołędowski, M. Duszczyk, Studenci zagraniczni w Polsce: motywy przyjazdu, ocena pobytu, plany na przyszłość, Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Warszawa, 2010.

40 Raport na temat realizacji polityki w zakresie migracji i azylu w 2012 r., Krajowy Punkt Kontaktowy Europejskiej Sieci Migracyjnej, Warszawa, March 2013.

41 Dane liczbowe dotyczące postępowań prowadzonych wobec cudzoziemców w 2013, Urząd do Spraw Cudzoziemców, Warszawa, 2014.

42 Dane liczbowe dotyczące postępowań prowadzonych wobec cudzoziemców w latach 2003–2005, Biuro Informatyki, Ewidencji i Statystyki, Urząd do Spraw Repatriacji i Cudzoziemców, Warszawa, February 2006.

43 Raport na temat realizacji polityki w zakresie migracji i azylu w 2012 r., op. cit., p. 113.

44 “Negative Views of Russia on the Rise: Global Poll,” BBC World Service Poll, 3 June 2014.

45 “Global Poll: Iran Seen Playing Negative Role,” BBC World Service Poll, GlobeScan, 2006.

46 Dane liczbowe dotyczące postępowań prowadzonych wobec cudzoziemców w 2013..., op. cit.

47 Dane liczbowe dotyczące postępowań prowadzonych wobec cudzoziemców w 2011, Urząd do Spraw Cudzoziemców, Warszawa 2011; Dane liczbowe dotyczące postępowań prowadzonych wobec cudzoziemców w 2013..., op. cit.

48 Migracje zagraniczne ludności. Narodowy Spis Powszechny Ludności i Mieszkań 2011, Główny Urząd Statystyczny, Warszawa, 2013.

49 Dane liczbowe dotyczące postępowań prowadzonych wobec cudzoziemców w 2013..., op. cit.

50 Amongst the second largest immigrant community in Poland, the Vietnamese, this concentration in Warsaw and in its vicinity is even higher—almost 11,000 out of slightly more than 13,000 Vietnamese citizens in Poland live in the Mazowieckie voivodeship.

51 “Z Bollywood do Raszyna, hinduski raj nad Wisłą,” Gazeta Wyborcza, 5 November 2006, http://forum.gazeta.pl/forum/w,21149,17392565,41676577,Z_Bollywood_do_Raszyna_hinduski_raj_nad_Wisla.html.

52 A. Piłat, “Między Warszawą a Wólką Kosowską. Cudzoziemscy mieszkańcy gminy Raszyn,” Biuletyn Migracyjny, no. 44, November 2013.

53 Dane liczbowe dotyczące postępowań prowadzonych wobec cudzoziemców w 2013..., op. cit.

54 Demographic Yearbook of Poland 2011, Central Statistical Office (GUS), Warsaw, 2012, p. 468.

55 Ibidem, p. 233.

56 Demographic Yearbook of Poland 2012, Central Statistical Office (GUS), Warsaw, 2013, p. 257.

57 Ibidem, p. 469.

58 According to the article 88 of the Act on Promotion of Employment and Labour Market Institutions of 2004, there are five types of work permits issued, where type A is for employees of Polish companies, B for foreign board members, and C, D and E for various arrangements of employees of foreign companies coming temporarily to work in Poland.

59 W. Kloc-Nowak, Highly Skilled Indian Migrants in Poland, CARIM-India Research Report 2013/38, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute.

60 Zestawienie pozwoleń na pracę dla cudzoziemców, Ministerstwo Pracy i Polityki Społecznej, Warszawa, 2014.

61 The first group of this kind was formed in India in 1937, and Rabindranath Tagore, the first non-European and Asian Nobel prize laureate, was one of its founding members. After the Second World War the Poland–India Friendship Group was re-established, with the Polish economist Oscar Lange, and Indian vice-president as founding members, in 1957. This organisation, with several divisions in different cities in Poland, was very active during the communist period. However, by the mid-1990s, after the collapse of communism it was dissolved.

62 Information from organisation’s website www.iap.pl (1 June 2014).

63 IPCC website, www.ipcc.pl (12 May 2014).

64 See: P. Kugiel, “Sixty Years of Poland–India Relations: Towards a Genuine Partnership?,” PISM Strategic File no. 6 (42), March 2014.

65 See: P. Kugiel, “What Does India Think about Poland,” PISM Policy Paper, no. 15 (63), June 2013.

66 “Z Bollywood do Raszyna, hinduski raj nad Wisłą,” op. cit.

67 Zagraniczne inwestycje bezpośrednie w Polsce w 2012 r., Narodowy Bank Polski, Warszawa, 2013; Zagraniczne inwestycje bezpośrednie w Polsce w 2004 r., Narodowy Bank Polski, Warszawa, 2005.

68 P.P. Chaudhuri, “Poland: German Quality, Smaller Tag,” Hindustan Times, Warsaw, 3 June 2012.

69 India Tourism Statistics 2005, Ministry of Tourism, Market Research Division, Government of India; India Tourism Statistics 2012, Ministry of Tourism, Market Research Division, Government of India.

70 S. Mukherjee, R. Chanda, Indian Student Mobility to European Countries: An Overview, CARIM-India Research Report 2012/12.

71 P. Fargues, K. Lum, op. cit.

72 See the plan of its implementation: Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych, Plan wdrażania dla dokumentu “Polityka migracyjna Polski – stan obecny i postulowane działania,” Warszawa, 2014.

73 “Potrzebujemy pracowników z zagranicy,” Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, 23 June 2014.

74 P. Gottschlich, The Indian Diaspora in Germany, presented at the “Away but not Apart: Evolving Relationships between India and Her Diaspora,” Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata, 2007.

75 P. Fargues, K. Lum, op. cit.; S. Mukherjee, Indian Students Mobility to European Countries: An Overview, CARIM-India Research Report 2012/12, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute.

76 S. Gopalan, Mapping India–EU Tourism Flows, CARIM-India Research Report 2013/15, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute.

77 Migracje zagraniczne ludności..., op. cit.

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