Abstract
In this chapter we shall be concerned with the analysis of the third type of adjustment, i.e. conflict. The term conflict, in the context of this work, stands for two, closely related, processes. The first of these is the state of tension which exists whenever the minority group is regarded, or feels itself, to be alienated from the host society.1 The second, is the state of personal disorganization on the part of individual members of the immigrant group which alienates them from the host society and — in some extreme cases — from the minority group itself. The first process affects, therefore, all relations between the two groups; the second affects only certain individual members of the immigrant group. Enough has been said about the predominant pattern of the relations between the Polish immigrant group and the host society to show that save in some isolated cases the case of inter-group conflict does not arise. We can, therefore, dismiss the concept of inter-group conflict from our discussion. The term conflict will be used as a generic term covering all instances of individual disorganization among Polish immigrants and their ensuing behaviour.
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References
Cf. Louis Wirth, “Culture Contact and Delinquency,” Social Forces, Vol. 9, pp. 484–492 (1931). The author applies the term “culture conflict” to this type of immigrant disorganization and also to extended group contacts of all kinds, the diversity of group relationships, the disappearance of the neighbourhood, the transience of personal relations.
See also: Robert E. Park and Ernest W. Burgess, Introduction to the Science of Sociology, Chicago, 1924, pp. 528–532.
I acknowledge my immeasurable debt which I owe to my compatriot and friend Mr. Tadeusz Grygier for drawing my attention to the complexity of the factor I termed war-time oppression. For analysis of psychological forces affecting the behaviour of the victims of war see his Displaced Persons: a Study in Criminal Psychology, Chapter I (unpublished Ph. D. thesis, University of London, May 1950).
For account of housing problems of Displaced Persons in the U.K. see E. Stadulis, op. cit., pp. 227–228.
See R. E. Faris, “Cultural Isolation and the schizophrenic Mentality,” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. XI. (1934), pp. 155–164.
See Chapter VII.
See Chapter XII, Section 3.
A scheme was set on foot by the Polish Combatants’Association and publicized in Dziennik Polski to place unemployed Polish cotton operatives in other industries in establishments already employing Polish labour. No details are available as to the number of succesful placements for the whole country. I was able to ascertain some figures for certain branches of the Polish Combatants’ Association which are indicative of the success of this scheme; in Sheffield the local branch of the P.C.A. found jobs for 68 Poles, in Leeds 90 were placed, in Bradford 73.
There is also a third source of information i.e. the Dziennik Polski. This paper notes every sentence passed on a Polish offender as a warning for “Potential criminals who spoil the good name of Polish refugees in Britain.”
H. B. M. Murphy, Mental health of political refugees in Britain, unpublished paper (September, 1952).
Murphy, op. cit. For illustration of treatment of the Latvians as compared with the Poles see Appendix B, the life story of Maria.
It must be emphasized that this proposition has not been statistically verified, though many Polish doctors in Britain have associated themselves with this view.
Emile Durkheim, Le Suicide, Paris, 1897, p. 223.
See Appendix B. The life history of Maria.
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Zubrzycki, J. (1956). Conflict. In: Polish Immigrants in Britain. Studies in Social Life, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9783-0_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9783-0_13
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