IMISCOE Anti-Racism Working Group webinar series: SC Reflexivities in Migration Studies
Racism at the border with Kamila Fiałkowska (Centre of Migration Research, University of Warsaw) and Katarzyna Czarnota (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań), discussion moderated by Marta Kindler, WSNSiR and CMR University of Warsaw.
At Poland’s Eastern border we witness since February 2022 two separate processes. On the southern part of this border, with Ukraine, people fleeing the war can enter practically without restrictions, are provided with humanitarian aid, and received with great solidarity. In parallel on the northern part of the border, other people fleeing military conflict, war and other atrocities, face “fortress Europe” in its worst version, with a “no go” zone, a wall being built, and people after entering Poland are unable to claim asylum. Those people are not being provided humanitarian aid and forced by border guards to re-enter again Belarus. The source of this double-standard border regime in Poland, with a clear preference for “whiteness” and “Christianity”, has its origin in the current government stand on the so-called “refugee crisis” from 2015 and a politically mobilised Islamophobia. This webinar brings together activists academics to discuss within IMISCOE the criminalisation of non-European migrants as well as criminalisation of humanitarian aid. We aim to consider the role of academia, use of language, categories of analysis and critically the use of the “state of emergency” as a tool for racism and social divisions.
See the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJARcn5re_0&t=112s