Long-term effects of ethnic cleansing in the former Polish-German borderlands

In compulsory population transfers and expulsions such as those wrought by partition, costs may accrue not only to the banished, but also to the places left behind. In particular, forcibly removing portions of the population rends social networks and discards location-specific skills and knowledge; these costs may be even worse if the expellees are replaced by refugees from elsewhere. The case of the interwar German-Poland borderlands, now Polish territory, shows that even six-plus decades after a population expulsion, ethnically cleansed and resettled places are appreciably different, with higher crime rates, lower civic engagement (measured by voter turnout), and less efficient public services (as measured by educational statistics). Although post-conflict population transfers might increase local social cohesion in some dimensions, this does not guarantee improved economic and sociological outcomes. Expelling local populations can, instead, cause highly persistent damage.