The specific nature of the detention of foreigners, and its exploration : the Polish context

This text seeks to present basic knowledge on the detention of foreigners in Poland and the research perspective adopted in the project involving the authors of the papers published in this volume. The article has been divided into two parts. The first one contains characteristics of the detention of foreigners in the Polish context: directions of migration flows resulting from the location of our country, as well as the whereabouts and profiles of the centres administered by the Border Guard. Part two familiarises the reader with the specific nature of our detention study project: its conceptual apparatus, the adopted research paradigms, the applied methodology, and the challenges related to our exploratory efforts being performed in a very specific place - the guarded centres for foreigners. In the authors’ intention, all this information is to constitute a useful background to the detailed considerations contained in the subsequent papers presented in this volume of the journal.