Próba rekonstrukcji aksjologicznych podstaw polskiej polityki społecznej wobec mniejszości narodowych i etnicznych

Abstract

Currently, ethnic minorities make up about 4% of the population in Poland. Social policy in this area underwent a fundamental transformation in the nineteen eighties. Since that time, legislation aimed at safeguarding the interests of ethnic minorities been slowly enacted. On the basis of an analysis of these legal instruments it appears that they were based on a specific axiology whose fundamental feature is the concept of personalism and, arising out of this concept, respect for every individual acknowledging their ethnic, religious and cultural identity. It is essential to recognise the value of ethnicity, human dignity, fraternity as well as of cultural and religious diversity towards the members of other racial and ethnic groups. This axiological catalogue has practical implications in the material and financial sphere which safeguards the legitimate expectations of minority groups wishing to freely develop within their own culture and religion. Therefore, the reconstruction of the axiology of Polish social policy towards ethnic minorities shows that Poland is a country that satisfies the demand of multiculturalism understood as ‘diversity in unity’.