Since 2021 thousands of asylum-seekers from Middle East, Asia and Africa tried to enter the EU by crossing Polish-Belarussian border. Polish right-wing authorities denied them entry, for a long period established even a state of emergency in the border zone barring outsiders from entering it, and in fact forefended direct help for refugees. For ‘security reasons’ five meters high border fence was constructed. ‘Illegal migrants’ who manage to cross the border are subjected to harsh treatment, often pushed back. Local people react to this policing regime differently: from fear and rejection of refugees to compassion and support for them. Help extended to people wandering in often freezing woodlands is an act of resistance to authorities that violate human rights and deny humanitarian aid.
In February 2022, Russia waged war and invaded Ukraine, and in the following months several million refugees fled to Poland or via Poland farther west. In contrast to a radical rejection of migrants coming from regions considered Muslim, refugees from Ukraine have been welcomed and helped by the state, NGO’s and above all spontaneously reacting civilians who hosted most of them in their homes.
These two opposite reactions raise questions about the attitudes towards diverse groups of refugees fleeing wars and poverty. Why have majority of people welcomed some of them and rejected others? What historical, political and ideological reasons inform so distinct patterns of behaviour? Is it ‘just’ a question of a difference between Muslims and Christians? Can concepts of Distant Aliens and Familiar Others help to understand phenomena of antipathy and discrimination on the one hand and sympathy and acceptance on the other. By referring also to ethnographic materials from an ongoing project on othering and racialization I will try to interpret contrasting refugee treatment.
