Capricious pathways – a comparative analysis of local identity building in border regions. A case study of Polands Western and Eastern border

Abstract

The shaping and re-shaping of borders became a characteristic for the political development in Central-Eastern Europe after the Second World War. While the exchange of population and territory had been the bitter reality, post-war socialist societies were shaped by a tabooing of public debates on the topics. Borders became heavily guarded and securitised lines, serving as ideological symbols of socialist friendship. With the end of the Cold War and EU accession a re-definition of the understanding of identity and borders became necessary. This contribution provides a comparative analysis between German-Polish and Polish-Ukrainian border regions, stressing on the similarities and differences in the everyday life of borderlanders. The article highlights regional identity building and investigates how identities are shaped. In the conclusions the role of the border as a resource for local economic development and transnational co-operation is discussed. The paper is based on a PhD research project. The fieldwork was done in the border towns of Frankfurt (Oder) and Słubice at the German-Polish border and the border city Przemyśl at the Polish-Ukrainian border.

Full text

Belgeo
Revue belge de géographie
2 | 2020
Peripheralborders,softandhardre-borderingin
Europe
Capricious pathways – a comparative analysis of
local identity building in border regions. A case
study of Polands Western and Eastern border
MartinBarthel
Electronicversion
URL: http://journals.openedition.org/belgeo/38736
ISSN: 2294-9135
Publisher:
National Committee of Geography of Belgium, Société Royale Belge de Géographie
Electronicreference
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regions. A case study of Polands Western and Eastern border », Belgeo [Online], 2 | 2020, Online since
07 May 2020, connection on 08 May 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/belgeo/38736
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International.

Capricious pathways – a
comparative analysis of local
identity building in border regions.
A case study of Polands Western and
Eastern border
Martin Barthel
Prologue – Life in two border regions
1 Krzysztof is leaving every morning at 8:00 the German border town Löcknitz. At that
time his children are already at the local school. His wife will take the train to Szczecin,
since her work starts later. On his way across the border Krzysztof is in the middle of a
steady stream of commuters like him. Things got better after Poland joined Schengen,
since no control jeopardizes his commute. Although Szczecin is just 30 kilometers
away, Krzysztof and his family moved to Germany, as the real estate prices in the Polish
suburbs became too high (Malkowska et al., 2016). For German towns like Löcknitz or
Gartz, which had been faced with declining population, the cross-border
suburbanization came as a savior and for commuters like Krzysztof, the border in its
physical form is becoming less relevant for their everyday life and “… sleeping abroad
but work at home” became convenient (Balogh, 2013).
2 At the same time of day, Olga has already left her home in the Ukrainian city Lviv. In
order to supplement her small pension, she is heading towards the border crossing of
Medyka, where she will spend the day working as a “mrowka” (ant). She will buy vodka
and cigarettes and take them to Poland, where she will sell them and buy products to
be sold in Ukraine. Her profit depends on the crossings she can manage in a day
(Byrska-Szklarczyk, 2012). Until 2004 the border was easy to cross, but since then
things have gotten worse. Waiting lines on the border have increased and the controls
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have become more rigid. Crossing the border is for her a daily insecurity. In the 90s she
would never have thought that the border would become ever that divisive again
(Barthel, 2016).
3 These two characters and their everyday routines are a typical representation of
borderlanders, based on the findings of many scholars (Scott, 2015).
4 The article will provide a brief overview of the development of both border regions
since 1989 and examine the impact of the border on the everyday life. A key question of
the research was how the border is used by the local borderlanders and which impact
this has on the perception of the other. The shaping and re-shaping of borders became
a part of the political realities in Eastern Europe after the Second World War. While the
exchange of population and territory had been the bitter reality, the postwar socialist
societies became determined by tabooing the drawing of the border. Heavy guarded
and securitized, borders served as ideological symbols of socialist friendship (Barthel,
2016, p. 207).
5 Between 1945 and 1947 the German-Polish and the Polish-Ukrainian border regions
witnessed likewise the re-settlement of huge parts of the population, alienating the
border regions, and creating a local society with broken identity. With the end of the
Cold War and the EU enlargement a re-definition of the understanding of identity and
borders became necessary. The border with Germany became an internal EU border,
facilitating free cross-border mobility and deregulation. The border with Ukraine
became part of the heavy controlled EU external border with a visa regime, leading to a
gradual closure of the border (Stoklosa, 2012).
6 Thus, the article strives to highlight the duplexity of connected and disconnected
border regions in Europe.
7 The analysis is based on desktop-research, literature review and fieldwork with
interviews in the German-Polish border region of Szczecin and the Ukrainian-Polish
border town Przemysl.
Narrating the border – regional discourses on the
border
8 In order to understand the developing paths of the two border regions, it is insightful
to analyze the local discourses on the border after 1989, which until today determine
similarities and differences in cross-border interaction.
9 The relations at the German-Polish border had not just been shaped by the Post-War
history but by the perceptions of especially the early 80s. The Poles perceived the GDR
mainly through the relatively good economic situation and the Germans appreciated
the relative freedom in Poland. This notion was skeptically rejected by the local
authorities. From 1980 on, the SED used openly anti-Polish resentments in the local
media, condemning especially the rise of Solidarność. This resulted in the closure of the
border and the establishment of a strict visa regime (Keck-Szajbel, 2013). The isolation
was revoked in the wake of the German reunification. However the local perceptions
had been two folded – while the local Poles feared that the border and their life in the
former German areas could become questioned again, the local Polish realized
pragmatically the chances of neighboring a strong economy in the European
Community (Hinrichsen, 2015).
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10 The Germans felt as well threatened by opening the border, due to the fear of a rise of
border related crime and corruption, causing an exaggerated impact (Beurskens et al.,
2015).
11 Still, the open border enabled a new degree of interaction, Poles started to work in
Germany, while Germans went to Poland to buy cigarettes, petrol and alcohol. The
citizens of Szczecin discovered in the late 90s the German heritage of the city, which
had been suppressed during the communist times, resulting in a number of novels and
literature which contributed to a new regional identity. Scholars like Musekamp
described it as an acquisition of identity, where the memory of the German
grandparents’ became preserved by the Polish grandchildren (Musekamp, 2013).
12 Although negative resentment and attacks of German Nazis on Poles regularly fired
heat in the local media (Ruf, Sundermeyer, 2009), the broad discourse went in favor of
cooperation and connectivity (Kinder et al., 2014).
13 Nowadays even German extreme rights from the Freie Pommern movement in
Mecklenburg coordinate with “patriotic football fans” of Szczecin their protest against
the influx of refugees into the cross-border region (Sakson, 2017).
14 The Euroregion Pomerania, consisting of the border region of Germany, Poland and
Sweden, provided since 1995 a solid base for institutionalized cooperation (Zielińska,
Koszyk-Białobrzeska, 2009). With the accession of Poland to the EU in 2004 and the
Schengen acquis in 2007, the border started to fade in the everyday life and enabled,
combined with the rising housing prices in Szczecin, a new transnational suburban
area on the German side.
15 Poles moved in empty houses and apartments in German towns like Löcknitz or Gartz,
commuting daily towards work in Poland. Situated in the German economic and spatial
periphery, the regional planning strategies ignored for a long time the positive
metropolitan effects and concentrated on scenarios of shrinking and decline (Lis, 2013).
16 The question on how the new suburbanization could be integrated in spatial planning
had been soon raised in the region. As the German side faced ignorance from their
regional planers, the Polish communes were even confronted with resistance from
their planning authorities. Poland did not favor the establishment of a transnational
planning structure, while in Germany there was no interest. Thus, the regional
cooperation was initiated through personal local contacts and funded by cross-border
programs of the EU, establishing a de-facto bottom-up shadow planning. Still, the
networks depended on individuals, resulting in fragility and limited impact. With the
revision of the national planning policies and the urge to create metropolitan regions
in the frame of the European spatial planning, Szczecin went ahead and initiated
together with its Polish neighbor communes the Association of the Szczecin
Metropolitan Area (Stowarzyszenie Szczecinskiego Obszaru Metropolitarnego) in 2009
(Małachowski, 2013).
17 The degree of integration and connectivity was still too less for the German communes.
Driven by the major, Gartz strived to become an associated member of the Polish
planning region, which was rejected by the German State1. However the bottom-up
regional initiatives resulted in the German-Polish development concept for the trans-
border metropolitan region Szczecin, where the regional planning authorities from
Germany (the Länder Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg) and those from
Poland (the Voivodeship and the city and powiat of Szczecin) implemented for the first
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time a trans-national regional development plan for a common cross-border
metropolis (MIR, 2014).
18 The ongoing spatial integration was supported through the cohesive policies of the EU,
enabling the local transnational cooperation even against resistance from the nation
States. Scholars like Lis (2014) claimed that the cross-border area would be turned into
a laboratory for everyday life, language, education, work and leisure – providing a
space of ideas of how Poles and Germans can develop the region together and test new
forms of European identity.
19 The Polish-Ukrainian border was in 1991 in a similar setting. The drawing of the border
was a product of the Second World War, resulting in forceful population exchange and
civil war. The creation of the border had been tabooed by the communist regime, which
led to an atmosphere of conspiracy and rumors, considering the past (Zhurzhenko,
2014).
20 With the independence of Ukraine, the border became wide open and for the first time
since 1945 interaction across the border became possible. Despite the difficult past,
Poland as a nation had vivid interests in the Europeanization of Ukraine. Since 1995
Warsaw strived for deeper cooperation with Kiev, which led to a liberal border regime,
opening the border wide (Wolczuk, 2008).
21 However, the open border created a series of strong local nationalistic replies in
Przemyśl (Buzalka, 2008). Exploiting the perceived fear of “Ukrainisation” of the town
the former vice-voivod Stanisław Żółkiewicz became the most important single actor,
favoring local discourses on national uniformity (Kowal, 2018). When in 1991 the
Catholic Church planned to return the Carmelite Church in Przemyśl to the Ukrainian
Church, his local committee for defending the Poles in Przemyśl was formed and
occupied the church even against the will of the Vatican. In 1993 he organized a
movement against the accession of Przemyśl to the Euroregion Carpathia (Hann, 2000,
p. 101) and blocked in 1995 with his “society of the defenders of the memory of the
Eagle of Przemyśl”2 the plans to hold a festival of the Ukrainian minority in Przemyśl,
narrating the festival as an attempt of a re-Ukrainisation of the region (Hobal, 2008).
22 Despite the nationalistic activities, which dominated headlines, the cross-border
cooperation on institutional level and between civil society groups increased.
Administrative employees, NGOs and local business realized that the border forms a
resource for regional development. The national symbolic function of the border
became less relevant and local elites embraced narratives on cooperation.
Consequently in 2007 the town recognized in the “Strategia sukcesu” (Strategy for
success) the border as the key resource for future structural development (Miasta
Przemysl, 2014).
23 Local historic identity patterns like “Galicja” or “Ziemia przemyska” became more
relevant than the nationalistic patterns “Podkarpackie” or “Kresy” (Barthel, 2017). The
interviews which the author conducted in his field work found a certain identification
with “living at the border” and a regional identity in the making. Based on the model of
local transborder cooperation developed by Bürkner and Mathiessen (2001) trans-
national oriented circles are striving to institutionalize the border for cooperation and
development of the region.
24 The ethnic minorities have a key role for cross-border relation since the Polish
minority in Ukraine is the natural partner for many local NGOs. The Ukrainian
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minority in Poland is acting trans-nationally, but does not feel particularly integrated
and there is the notion that the cooperation with Polish institutions increase, the
further away from Przemyśl it is (Barthel, 2016, p. 209).
25 An important transnational catalyst are the bazaars, which became the prime space for
cross-border personal contacts (Barthel, 2010). The traders, who are most dependent
on the border, sense a feeling of otherness and are strong advocates of a border
identity (Polese, 2012, p. 22). Alas the difficult past has a negative effect on the
collaboration, and mechanisms that Paasi (1995) describes as healing the border can be
observed.
26 The border takes for each generation a different symbolic meaning. While the older
generation holds on to imagined or real wounds of history, the younger is more
relaxed, as for them the border has always been there and they have become
accustomed to its open character (Kennard, 2004).
27 Both regions, despite being at the internal and external border of the EU, share a series
of common features. The impact of individual actors on the cross-border interaction is
immense and a sense of otherness and of being “left-behind” can be witnessed, fed by a
“borderlanders identity”, in the making, as described by Martinez (1994), supported
through cohesive EU policies. The border is used as a local resource. While in Przemysl
locals engage in various forms of border trade, Szczecin is aspiring to create a wider
trans-national cross-border metropolitan area, each helping to foster local
development.
28 The main difference is the connectivity across the border. While the divide faded in the
German-Polish region, enabling cross-border commuting and rethinking the border
area as a bi-national laboratory of ideas, the Polish-Ukrainian border region perceives
the border as a filter or an obstacle. Alas, the language barrier is lower, the interaction
is mostly limited to commercial activities and for the locals the border is the only
peculiarity of the town. Therefore, they favor an open border but are afraid of its
disappearing since in their narrative it will turn the area into “just another” periphery,
deployed from any development perspective.
Otherness – using the border as a local resource – the
impact on the border regions
29 In regard of Martinez (1994) and O’Dowd et al. (2004) a sign for otherness is when the
border is used as a local resource.
30 As a resource the border is determining the local everyday lives and influences the
individual social-economic strategies of the borderlanders. The border is charged with
personal and local symbolism, which tends to differ from the narratives of the national
State. The gap between national and local narratives might lead to a notion of feeling
left-behind, which is favoring the creation of a regional identity. As discussed both
border regions have this notion, manifesting itself in diverging regional narratives of
the border, both centered around exploiting the border.
31 Przemyśl benefits foremost from border trade. The city is often described as the most
important “inland harbor” of Poland, underlining the hub function of the Medyka
crossing point for the traffic between Ukraine and the EU and as a nucleus for a cluster
for trade, transit and logistic firms (Voznyak, 2000). The region is increasingly profiting
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from the evolution of border trade – facilitating a process of professionalization and
legalization since the opening the border in 1991. The first border trade activities at the
Polish-Soviet border though started already in the late 80s. During organised trips
individuals bought and sold products which were either cheaper or not available,
limited to the content of a suitcase, referred to as “suitcase trade” (Stokłosa, 2013).
32 After 1991, due to the liberal border regime and the economic impact of the economic
transformation, smuggling and the “ant trade”3 became a legitimate way of
substituting the individual economic situation. Borderlanders used the price
differences to buy alcohol and cigarettes on the Ukrainian side, sell them on the Polish
and return with groceries to Ukraine (Byrska-Szklarczyk, 2012, p. 99).
33 The ant trade resulted in the establishing of bazars, where former ants bought stands
and started to sell clothes and groceries to Ukrainians. In 2004 the bazars covered 50%
of the retail areas in the town (Barthel, 2010, p. 145).
34 In an interview with the author, the regional chamber of commerce stated that the
bazars had been the nucleus for the development of bigger trade companies specialized
in trade with Ukraine. Nowadays the ant trade, the bazars and the SMEs exist in
parallel. In the years after 2006 due to the increasing cross-border shopping and the
proximity to Lviv, international companies opened outlets in Przemyśl. Retail chains
like Tesco, Carrefour, Mediamarkt and Castorama settled on the road to Medyka and
the huge shopping mall “Galeria Sanowa”, containing many big cloth retailers, opened.
The products and services are oriented towards Ukrainian customers and compete
directly with the bazars, resulting in a decline of their importance for the local
economy. The SMEs cluster, an influx of additional work places due to the retail chains
and permanent substitution of transformation disadvantages through ant trade are
stimulated by the border. The trade is mostly facilitated through the border crossing
point in Medyka. In 2012 roughly 4,5 million people crossed the border, spending in
average 700 Zloty per person in the region (Mrozek, 2015).
35 The evolution of trade is accompanied by a changing perception of the neighbor. While
Poles felt superior to the mainly Ukrainian ants, they met in the bazars as equal
traders. In the huge supermarkets, the role changed. Ukrainians are customers which
are served by Polish employees, resulting in a re-definition of the neighbor,
consequently in a similar shock as the Germans in the Szczecin region experienced.
36 At the German-Polish border political and everyday feelings of superiority from
Germans over Poles prevailed although the Germans felt helplessness and fatalism
regarding the future development (Bürkner, 2015). In Poland, the accession to the EU
fed political and everyday attitudes displaying pragmatism and optimism. After joining
Schengen, the rising housing vacancies in Germany coupled with a massive demand in
Poland resulted in cross-border commuting, bringing the Polish middle class with its
optimistic everyday culture to the new German suburbs4.
37 The process was enhanced by pull factors like cheaper housing costs, the good
infrastructure, the existence of German-Polish institutions, schools and kindergarten,
and nonetheless the positive attitude of local institutions5.
38 The cohesive policies of the European Union, which enabled the processes of de-
bordering, caused the new, unexpected form of migration which turned the border into
a local resource for regional development (Jańczak, 2017).
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39 The construction of this new cross-border urban agglomeration had been ignored by
German planers or opposed by Polish regional plans (Tölle, 2013). The borderlanders
perceived the ignorance/resistance as a negative impact on the regional development.
In local debates “Schwerin” or “Warsaw” are often blamed for not understanding local
needs – uniting both sides in a notion of feeling left behind (Barthel M., Barthel E.,
2018).
Commonalities and differences – how the border
created two different regions
40 In this rather comprehensive overview of the everyday life in both border regions, a
couple of similar development features are visible.
41 In both regions, the border was a result of the Second World War, connected with
forceful repatriation of major parts of the population. The forceful creation of the
border and the re-settling alienated the neighbors and due to the tabooing of the past,
the scars of history are influencing the cross-border interaction until today (Sternberg,
2017).
42 Still, in both regions the border is an everyday resource for its inhabitants. While at the
German-Polish border borderlanders are exploiting the differences in prices to buy
property on the other side, the border is facilitated at the Polish-Ukrainian region for
trade and income substitution (Bruns, Miggelbrink, 2011). The administrations in both
regions realized the role of the border as a regional resource for development.
Przemysl is exploiting the cross-border trade and the proximity to Ukraine to attract
investments and tourists (Brym, 2013), Szczecin and the German suburbs seek to create
a transnational metropolitan region. Communes like Löcknitz and Gartz are aware that
the proximity to Szczecin and the creation of a cross-border suburbia is their only
chance for local development and are securing their infrastructure and relevance
(Kamola-Cieślik, 2015).
43 The cross-border interaction is driven by single individual actors like majors, activists
or businesses, who influence the local transnational relation positively or negatively.
While the cooperation in Szczecin became more institutionalized and hardly reversible,
the situation in Przemysl is more fluid and under threat from national oriented circles.
44 A common feature is finally a certain sense of otherness, which Martinez (1994) used to
indicate as a first step towards a regional identity. The feeling of otherness is closely
connected to the everyday life at the border. Both regions feel left behind from the
capital: Szczecin due to its struggle to let the trans-border metropolitan region being
recognized, and Przemysl partly due to the peripheralization of the town after the loss
of the voivodship function in 1999 and partly due to the changing border regime,
influencing directly the economic situation of borderlanders (Aring, 2017). However,
the national identity is more relevant than the regional identity, preventing until today
the feeling of separateness.
45 The most crucial difference and perhaps the most important factor for the success of
the German-Polish border regions is the openness and connectivity across the border.
As a direct result of the cohesive policies of the EU borders between member States are
becoming less relevant. The process is increasing the connectivity and influencing the
local everyday life. Connectivity is becoming a crucial resource for the regions –
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enabling the creation of a transnational contact zone which can benefit economically
from being at the intersection between two States (Światek, 2019).
46 The Polish-Ukrainian border region witnessed the negative impact of EU policies.
Because of Poland’s accession to Schengen, the region is located at the external EU
border. The divide became highly securitized and due to the visa regime, the
bureaucratic hurdles rose. The increasing dis-connectivity had been perceived by the
locals as a threat to the border trade and their way of living. On both sides protests
occurred and the feeling of being left behind increased. The EU policies had been
understood as negatively (Byrska-Szklarczyk, 2016, p. 97).
47 Alas national discourses favor control and dis-connectivity the local discourse tend
towards connectivity. This difference in understanding chess-border interaction is
feeding a regional identity in the making (Smutek, Łonyszyn, 2016).
48 The regional resistance towards the “new walls and fences”, can be sensed at other
border regions. In places like the Öresund region or at the German-Austrian border,
where communes face increasing dis-connectivity, lobby against controls, and fences,
this dis-connectivity has a negative impact on the way of living (Khanna, 2016).
49 A sustainable border policy should reflect the interest of the borderlanders, since those
regions will be turned into socio-economic peripheries again when policies towards dis-
connectivity prevail.
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NOTES
1. Interview by the author, see as well https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/gartz-in-der-
uckermark-nachbarschaftshilfe-aus-polen.862.de.html?dram:article_id=448823 (retrieved
3.10.2019).
2. Stowarzyszenia Obroncow Pamięci Orląt Przemyskich.
3. Referred to as Mrowki.
4. as above.
5. as above.
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ABSTRACTS
The shaping and re-shaping of borders became a characteristic for the political development in
Central-Eastern Europe after the Second World War. While the exchange of population and
territory had been the bitter reality, post-war socialist societies were shaped by a tabooing of
public debates on the topics. Borders became heavily guarded and securitised lines, serving as
ideological symbols of socialist friendship. With the end of the Cold War and EU accession a re-
definition of the understanding of identity and borders became necessary. This contribution
provides a comparative analysis between German-Polish and Polish-Ukrainian border regions,
stressing on the similarities and differences in the everyday life of borderlanders. The article
highlights regional identity building and investigates how identities are shaped. In the
conclusions the role of the border as a resource for local economic development and
transnational co-operation is discussed. The paper is based on a PhD research project. The
fieldwork was done in the border towns of Frankfurt (Oder) and Słubice at the German-Polish
border and the border city Przemyśl at the Polish-Ukrainian border.
Le dessin de nouvelles frontières a été une caractéristique des développements politiques en
Europe centre-orientale après la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Alors que les changements
territoriaux et les échanges de population ont été vécus comme des réalités amères, les sociétés
socialistes de l'après-guerre ont entretenu un tabou quant au débat public sur ces questions. Les
frontières de cette région sont devenues des lignes fortement gardées et sécurisées, même si elles
étaient présentées comme des symboles idéologiques de l'amitié socialiste. Avec la fin de la
guerre froide et l'accession de la plupart de ces pays à l'Union européenne, une nouvelle
compréhension des identités et des frontières s'est imposée. Cet article livre une analyse
comparée des régions frontalières de la Pologne avec l'Allemagne d'une part, avec l'Ukraine de
l'autre, en mettant en évidence les similarités et les différences dans la vie quotidienne des
populations frontalières. L'article éclaire la construction des identités régionales frontalières. En
conclusion, il examine le rôle de la frontière en tant que ressource pour le développement
économique local et les formes de la coopération transfrontalière. L'article est basé sur un projet
de recherche doctoral, pour lequel les terrains de recherche ont été les villes frontalières de
Francfort/Oder et de Słubice sur la frontière germano-polonaise, et la ville frontalière de
Przemyśl proche de la frontière ukrainienne.
INDEX
Mots-clés: identités trans-régionales, construction d'identité, régions frontalières, villes
frontalières, coopération régionale transfrontalière, frontière germano-polonaise, frontière
polono-ukrainienne
Keywords: transregional identities, identity building, border regions, border cities, local and
regional cross-border cooperation, German-Polish border, Polish-Ukrainian border
AUTHOR
MARTIN BARTHEL
PhD researcher at the Karelian Institute for Russian and Border Studies, University of Eastern
Finland, martin.barthel@uef.fi
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