Pope Francis's visit to Poland this week celebrates the country's rich Catholic heritage, but it also highlights tensions with the Polish Catholic culture and the current right-wing government's anti-immigrant stance.

Here & Now's Meghna Chakrabarti speaks with historian Piotr H. Kosicki, a University of Maryland professor and a former scholar at the Wilson Center, about Poland's evolving relationship with Europe and the world.

Interview Highlights: Piotr H. Kosicki

On the power of right-wing Law and Justice Party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski

"So this is a party that he co-founded with his late twin brother about 15 years ago. What I can say is that he commands the personal loyalty of several generations within the party and of substantial numbers of people in the Polish populace who feel like he represents something different to what's been going on in the past 15 or 20 years that hasn't worked perfectly for them."

On contrasting generational support for Kaczynski

"I would say two things. First, there are big generational differences in terms of education. Particularly, if you look at the 20-somethings or 30-somethings who have had the opportunity since Poland joined the European Union to go and study abroad, then you really get a tremendous difference in terms of them being firmly opposed to Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

But if you're looking at generations who have university educations but feel like in some way they've been held back — maybe they didn't get the European Union grant they were applying for, 'It's not just about working classes for me' — I think that those who feel like they haven't fully gotten to take advantage of the opportunities of the past 26, 27 years feel like this is their moment and he is their leader."