Page - 23 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Horst Pöttker | Successful Integration? 23 5. Conclusion: Why did the integration of the Ruhr Poles fail? The analysis of both the German majority newspapers and the Polish minority newspapers indicates that the Polish ethnic identity, which was linked to the Slavic mother tongue, the Roman Catholic faith, and to Polish national history, was not accepted in the German majority culture. Indeed, it seems that the existence of this ethnic identity was hardly noticed. Apparently, the dissatisfaction that led many of the Poles to migrate further was less a matter of salary and economic affairs than of obstacles to their customary cultural practices in their new environment. In the case of the Ruhr Poles prior to World War I, cultural differences between the ethnic minority and the majority were ignored by local newspapers like the Recklinghäuser Zeitung on the one hand, and explicitly denied by political parties, authorities and the regional and national press on the other. The effect was the same. Disregard for the collective minority identity evoked counter-reactions, as had been the case with the press of the Polish minority: adherence to a cultural identity which had been declared illegitimate was proclaimed; the ignorance exhibited by the majority culture was interpreted as an attack from external sources and thus reinforced the communicative barriers between majority and minority. These barriers and the resulting alienation of the minority, and the eventual failure of the integration process, certainly were effected by interdependencies between the actions of both the majority and the minority. Yet, which of the phenomena was the initial one is a debatable matter: the pressure to assimilate and Germanize the Ruhr Pole minority or their Polish nationalist separatism. All of the known sources indicate that no political nationalism among the Polish migrants existed during the first decade of migration from the East to the industrial region in Rhineland-Westphalia. Indications of organized Polish nationalist movements first emerged in the 1890s, approximately at the time when German authorities started to monitor the Polish ethnic press in the Ruhr area. Both the German (local) press (e.g., Recklinghäuser Zeitung) and the Polish ethnic press (e.g., Wiarus Polski) contributed to the failure of the process of integration. To further intercultural integration, the German local press should have taken note of the Poles in the Ruhr area, informed the majority about their particular way of life, and thus prepared the way for public acceptance of this lifestyle. The Polish ethnic press, on the other hand, should have helped interest its readers in the German majority culture instead of promoting uncompromising and exclusive positions. Neither of these developments actually took place. Hence, the effect of the media on the process of intercultural integration was detrimental rather than encouraging.