Remarques terminologiques et méthodologiques en marge des recherches sur une communauté immigrée/émigrée. Les points de vue d’un pays d’origine et d’un pays d’accueil (l’exemple des Polonais en France)

The aim of this paper is to analyze the content and meaning of selected terms employed in the research on the history of immigration that may create misunderstandings between researchers from various countries. For this study the example of the Polish immigrants living in France is used. The studied issues are following: 1) difference between terms “Polish community”, “Polish ethnic group” and “Polonia”, 2) distinction between terms “assimilation” and “integration”, 3) misunderstandings in the meaning of terms “nation” and “nationality”, 4) difference of perspectives between the “historiography of immigration” in a country of immigration and the “historiography of emigration” in a country of emigration. It is always important to well define the terms employed – sometimes without any reflection – in the historiography of immigration. Furthermore, such an effort is essential if any research work pretends to be of value beyond a one-sided national perspective and beyond a single national historiography.