Who doesn't leave Poland?:

...Some came with a full name...

...This is what democracy is all about...

...The purity of their intentions is questioned and their voices are ignored...

...Quite simply, it is the same kind of people who leave...

...Young scientists and professionals are among the best adjusted among Polish emigrants...

...Thus, consciously or not, people strive to get out of this "twilight zone" as soon as possible...

...I don't care about anything over there...

...The poor run from poverty and victims flee from oppressors...

...Physical laborer: A man can be himself anywhere...

...Here lies the essential difference: rather than regret the necessity of leaving, Poles in 1988 regret it when they must stay at home...

...It was a meeting that surprised me more than others of this kind...

...They face little uncertainty when going West...

...Epidemiologist: Their conversations are so terribly boring at those "parties" of theirs...

...Let everyone live where they wish...

...There is a moment, a hard-to-perceive borderline, which, if crossed, renders return impossible...

...Their very reason for leaving is to escape from the " pretense of working " and to get a chance to'' work for real.'' But two generations of a system that pays salaries-meager though they are-whether you work or pretend to work, whether your work makes sense or not, have made their way insidiously into the subconscious minds of many, destroying the old work ethic, and weakening the sense of responsibility for managing one's own life...

...Sadly, one thief or psychopath is more visible than a thousand honest people who must suffer an undeserved odium...

...Hope" is the key word for the Poles...

...Attorney: (Recites a verse by Poland's leading poet) "I long for this land, O Lord, where they bend to pick up a breadcrumb out of respect for Thy gifts...

...The scale of comparison is always relative: as time goes by, people cease to compare their condition with that in Poland, and begin to compare it with that of their new neighbors...

...So what...

...The departure interrupts existential monotony, it requires ingenuity and multilevel preparations...

...They were scared, at least some of them...

...Some were immediate and self-assured...

...The "Polish boom" in the wake of martial law brought them a bounty of scholarships and exchange programs...

...Our own Poland has become something to hate...

...Polish Jew returned from Israel: You see, my "roots" became inflamed...

...It is normal for people to emigrate when things go wrong at home...

...Nutritionist: I am not the type to leave...

...So who's leaving...

...Even old people daydream: "If only I were a little younger, I wouldn't wait another minute...

...However, the enjoyment of a living standard superior to that in Poland passes as fast as a dream...

...They also know that life in these camps is far from sweet...

...It was an experience that rid them of their unjustified inferiority complex vis-a-vis their Western colleagues...

...How can they counter the emigrants' charges of the "senselessness of it all," including work...

...It's a key that opens an enormous field for apostolic work, for every man and woman of good will...

...Would you ask this question of a citizen of France, England, Italy...

...Otherwise, there are people of dramatically differing means among the emigrants...

...Mostly average Polish families, people referred to by the "people's" Polish media as being "in development...

...Virtually all social and demographic strata were represented: many young people, even high school students (boys, mainly) as well as people of working age and older...

...But there is sadness in their joy...

...Physicist: Where in America can we have a conversation like this...

...Like the one we are having right now...

...The shock of national loss manifested itself in different ways with different people...

...Over there, I would have been merely one efficient technician on a fat payroll...

...They are running from the crisis, from their own fears...

...Even the love for the pope could not subdue the intense desire to leave this country...

...I am at home here, for centuries...

...But time proved otherwise...

...High school student: I'm staying...

...The poor, and they do exist in our country, never leave for the simple reason that they lack the means even to prepare for departure...

...You hear often from the emigrants that even a minimum living standard in the new country means a decent living...

...I am an optimist...

...I want to work for it, for a better tomorrow, even if it sounds funny, I'd say even if it doesn't sound serious...

...Take us...

...There's no denying it...

...They were leaving, oblivious to the national euphoria around them...

...But they do exist...

...one emigrates and the other wouldn't even think about it...

...Poland is my homeland...

...Engineer, returned from South Africa: It's difficult to be happy in Poland, but it's much easier to be unhappy somewhere else...

...Amazingly, even among the German Poles of Mazury or Opole-people who, even under independent Poland, were taught to resist "Polishness" for generations-some emigrate today, and some don't...

...Now they were "forced" to leave...

...WHY DO YOU STAY IN POLAND...

...Some came after a long, embarrassed pause...

...Steel mill worker: No way...

...To answer the question: Who stays...

...I cannot forget what a young boy told me: that those who leave are mainly those estranged from their environment...

...The roots of attachment to the country where I was born...

...I chose the latter...

...These hidden problems strike back painfully when one is confronted with the reality of the Western world...

...Then, in the wake of the relaxation of passport laws in 1980, the river of emigration swelled up...

...Yet, both those with impressive "roots" and those without them are leaving Poland in equal numbers...

...Physical laborer: Because my son said he would go to live with his aunt if we decide to leave...

...My brother emigrated to the U.S...

...No, this time it was "take us with you...

...I couldn't care less about such a philosophy...

...Their son has just been promoted as a lecturer...

...They are experts in all the current exchange rates, in all the tricks of the trade, including such geopolitical nuances as that the refugee camps in Greece are "orientated" mainly to Australia, while those in West Germany and Italy to the United States...

...I hate dry faucets and queues at the food stores...

...Is it possible to collate these answers, analyze them, and synthesize them into a coherent picture...

...We believed we were marching toward it...

...Welder: It would be like jumping the Titanic before women and children...

...One hears horror stories about the fraudulent behavior of Polish emigrants, but nobody will convince me that these crowds who besiege Western embassies, jump ships, leave tourist buses with a single suitcase in hand, that all these Poles who populate refugee camps of Western Europe are nothing but a mass of conniving scamps...

...Being here is the normal condition for me...

...Let every citizen keep his or her passport in the drawer at home...

...Only they have no hope of "developing" in their own country...

...Woman who makes her living knitting sweaters: You see, those sunsets over the Kosciuszko Mount...

...After the colloquy, I was given a lift by a couple...

...and, finally, "I don't want my kids to...

...For a long time, on various occasions such as the colloquy at Warsaw's Redeemer Church, I asked people: Why do you remain in Poland...

...On December 13, 1981 Poland's borders were slammed shut...

...These words do not pretend to be a synthesis, but they are close to my heart...

...Aware though I am of what the subject of emigration portends for us Poles, I was astonished by the attendance-the church was bursting at the seams despite a torrential rain-and by the charged atmosphere of the meeting...

...Physicist returned from a successful assignment in France: In Poland nobody will ask me: "Where are you from, and why are you throwing your weight around...

...The spinning wheel of unfulfilled desires starts to whir again...

...Computer expert: Money and money alone...

...My wife would never agree...

...They are socially lonely, utterly without hope...

...What they, perhaps, do not fully know is that, once they reach their target country, they will have to work their backs off in order to'' make it...

...Some were accompanied by a request for anonymity...

...To many, it culminated in the inevitability of emigrating As the government internment camps were emptied, the wave of emigration grew...

...One way is to force upon themselves a process of adjustment by purging their memories of everything that has anything to do with the old country...

...I was not prepared for the drama of this group...

...For the Polish specialists it was a good experience , even if they did not'' make it big...

...The drama of empty walls, and desperate compensatory endeavors...

...it also carried a deep longing...

...They invited me to dinner at their home...

...These people live in a state of suspension-a state that cannot last indefinitely because, quite simply, it's unbearable...

...Architect: I care about everything over here...

...It occurs at different junctions for different people, but all are subjected to it, including those who failed miserably in their new homes...

...It was pouring cats and dogs...

...Famous surgeon: I am known here...

...the "stiflingbureaucracy...

...as was the case before, even amidst the gloom of mar-tial law...

...The more substantial contracts that followed were no longer acts of mercy on the part of the West...

...They were right to do so...

...Not "stay with us...

...Here I don't have a heated swimming pool, but I count...

...Those "less motivated" returned to Poland...

...With Solidarity on the rise, historic things were happening in the cities of Poland, but the emigrants went on camping at the embassies, waiting obstinately for their turn to get a visa...

...The facts simply do not support this theory...

...It is obviously untenable to theorize, as some do, that children of "patriotic Poles" do not emigrate, that only those whose image of Poland has become blurred, whose parents failed to instill a sense of duty toward the motherland are leaving the country today...

...Physiologist, Medical Academy: Why do I walk, breathe, eat, drink, sleep...

...Mining engineer, German background: Over there, big money and loneliness...

...Not that they are eager to speak up...

...It would be an oversimplification to assume that most of those who leave are people with a prospect of spending the rest of their lives in a one-bedroom apartment or "on the in-laws' backs...

...Some arrived scribbled hastily on a piece of paper, others in the form of a lengthy soliloquy...

...Hopelessness, lack of a future, is a prevalent reality which, of course, translates into subjective motives in each individual case...

...Is there an all-encompassing answer...

...I make all the crucial decisions, including how we train future surgeons, those who will operate on me in the future...

...This time it was not the anonymous element who were leaving but personalities well known in their communities, leaders who had been involved in the pre-martial-law processes...

...We won't leave because of them...

...They were silent, reflective...

...they know that every argument in favor of staying will meet with a massive rebuke by the emigrants...

...People who feel injured, even if it's only in their own minds...

...When I hear the key words-identity, duty, responsibility, the roots (so often), motivation, personality-it seems that the answer is around the corner: "Wanner, warmer, let's drill here...

...They prepare for it meticulously, in stages, sometimes planning years in advance...

...it's the loser's cliche, as lost as the fate of this generation's fathers and grandfathers...

...However, while, historically, emigration was a sad necessity, today, in the minds of many, it's tantamount to liberation...

...Within the same group of people who long for their own place to live, some emigrate, some don't...

...The "Polish Cause" loomed large throughout the evening...

...On the contrary, the criminally inclined are a marginal minority, as are those who run from unsolved personal problems...

...It was two weeks too long...

...I don't know...

...Two brothers are brought up the same way in the same home...

...But, as you are about to "drill," things get very complicated: each human case has its own answers...

...over here, little money and lots of good friends...

...You don't hear much about them...

...If I were to drill, it would be here...

...I am staying because I love Poland...

...the departures doubled...

...Relieved, they say: "I wouldn't know how to live here any more...

...Biochemist: Leaving means a definite professional degradation over there...

...High school student, comfortable family conditions: I was only waiting to graduate to split, but then I met some fantastic folks at the Academic Evangelical Organization and, what do you know, I am not leaving...

...That's something to ponder, especially for their parents, but not answer in definite terms...

...All of a sudden, I found myself obsessed with the idea of, somehow, crawling out and into freedom...

...A normal condition requires no justification...

...Scientist employed by the Polish Academy of Sciences: I hate our everyday chores...

...Physician, anesthesiologist: I couldn't...

...The answers I received were vastly different in form and content...

...The only thing they have in common is a universal disappointment-with the country, themselves, careers, jobs that lead nowhere...

...I hate the cold heaters in our apartments...

...Or even: "I spent two weeks over there...

...Later the conversation skidded to more personal topics...

...The term ' 'your country" rings somehow false here...

...Let the decision to emigrate be a matter to decide privately with the help of family and friends, and not the government bureaucrats and secret police...

...I can't do it to him...

...Journalist (about his son who emigrated): Just think of it, I would have my hands chopped off for this country, and he...

...Geologist: I was looking at the Rocky Mountains and my mind was in the Tatras...

...Biologist, female: Even though equal in professional terms, I was always an "ethnic" over there...

...But my father would be ashamed to tell people I'd left...

...What a country, what a country" they repeat, and these words comprise all the horror that has been described so many times...

...they cried despite his admonitions that "it's necessary to stay...

...they resulted from the fact that the Poles had proven themselves in their professions...

...What did the pope hear from the throngs who welcomed him last June in Poland...

...This spontaneous cry from the depth of the heart expressed more than love for John Paul...

...The problem is that these emigrants have "unlearned'-" the Polish lifestyle while failing to learn that of their new homeland...

...Candy factory worker: This is my country...

...Some did make it big-those who could place their careers, literally, above everything else...

...The Poles are no exception: all of the nineteenth century saw them migrating West, in search of either bread or freedom...

...It's fashionable nowadays to talk about one's "roots...

...The emigrants are not only highly visible today, they have also become vociferous...

...legend sings only about the winners...

...First dad was ill, now mom is old...

...People who find no support in their communities, professional or otherwise...

...But, while the attraction of the old country lost its power, the new country never began to "attract...

...In those days, looking at the throngs of visa applicants at the foreign consulates, I mused naively: "There are fascinating things happening here, why do they want to leave...

...I put this word in quotation marks not to underrate the drama of such pressures, or to pass judgment on anyone...

...They would feel offended if you told them so...

...Sooner or later, the effort pays off, especially after a brief visit with relatives in Poland...

...Physician, female: My life somewhere else would be somehow unreal, like behind a glass panel...

...My hosts' daughter and son-in-law are making a brilliant career at one of America's leading universities...

...I love this universe of values, this heritage...

...Let's first try to determine who's leaving-the other side of the same coin...

...For those who decide to emigrate from Poland, those who decide to stay are somehow suspect...

...True, people were leaving even during the Gierek era, but they did it quietly...

...At the Redeemer's Church, I stared at the parents whose children had left...

...I do it merely to emphasize the fact that not all those under pressure to leave succumbed to it, even though the indomitable ones had their limits of endurance, too, under a combination of internal and external pressures...

...But the homeland is an ethical proposition...

...how do you live without an apartment...

...The nation paid no attention to them...

...Engulfed in our Cause, we looked at them indifferently, the way you look at something fixed but insignificant in your city scape...

...They are leaving...

...Who, then, wants to stay at home...

...Don't even try to tell them you are staying because you love your country...

...We regarded the emigrants in those days with a sense of tolerance, a principle which, we believed, we would finally be able to make good in Poland...

...Teacher, female: My father used to ask my mother (during the Nazi occupation): "Do you think it will last much longer?'' That's exactly what I keep on telling my kids...

...Construction technician: Over here a cabby and I understand each other without words...

...Those who-as the Americans call it-were "most motivated...

...The images of the land on the Vistula have paled in their hearts and minds...

...Psychologist: Over here, you must make choices all the time, and it's fascinating...