TY - BOOK ID - 78139721 TI - The exile mission PY - 2004 SN - 082144185X 9780821441855 0821415263 9780821415269 0821415271 9780821415276 PB - Athens Ohio University Press DB - UniCat KW - Polish Americans KW - World War, 1939-1945 KW - Refugees KW - Displaced persons KW - Persons KW - Aliens KW - Deportees KW - Exiles KW - Ethnology KW - Polish people KW - History KW - Cultural assimilation. KW - Refugees. KW - Civilian relief KW - Forced repatriation KW - Cultural assimilation UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:78139721 AB - At midcentury, two distinct Polish immigrant groups-those Polish Americans who were descendants of economic immigrants from the turn of the twentieth century and the Polish political refugees who chose exile after World War II and the communist takeover in Poland-faced an uneasy challenge to reconcile their concepts of responsibility toward the homeland. The new arrivals did not consider themselves simply as immigrants, but rather as members of the special category of political refugees. They defined their identity within the framework of the exile mission, an unwritten set of beliefs, goals, and responsibilities, placing patriotic work for Poland at the center of Polish immigrant duties. In The Exile Mission, an intriguing look at the interplay between the established Polish community and the refugee community, Anna Jaroszy?ska-Kirchmann presents a tale of Polish Americans and Polish refugees who, like postwar Polish exile communities all over the world, worked out their own ways to implement the mission's main goals. Between the outbreak of World War II and 1956, as Professor Jaroszy?ska-Kirchmann demonstrates, the exile mission in its most intense form remained at the core of relationships between these two groups. The Exile Mission is a compelling analysis of the vigorous debate about ethnic identity and immigrant responsibility toward the homeland. It is the first full-length examination of the construction and impact of the exile mission on the interactions between political refugees and established ethnic communities. ER -