In the month and a half since the beginning of the war in Ukraine on Feb 24, the Operational Data Portal estimates a total of 4,244,595 refugees have fled Ukraine, causing the largest European refugee crisis since World War II. Despite the terror and fear pervading Eastern Europe, the continent has expressed unrelenting support for Ukraine and its people.
According to the BBC, Europe’s generosity towards refugees has been nothing short of “extraordinary.” Human Rights Watch identifies numerous countries bordering Ukraine that have opened their borders to refugees, with citizens that have been vigilant in donating food and offering their homes, and the European Union has established a mechanism by which refugees can begin life outside of typical asylum procedure.
What is it that has spurred on this generosity? According to Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, “There’s a slightly double-edged aspect to the situation – ‘Ukrainians are more like us, these are Europeans’ and so it’s a bit easier to welcome.”
Reports show that not everyone is on the receiving end of the generosity, with many noting the stark contrast in treatment and acceptance of refugees from various wars in the Middle East.
Due to the Syrian refugee crisis, Europe received over one million refugees in 2015. In response, in March 2016, the European Union entered an agreement with Turkey to slow and ultimately limit the arrival of asylum seekers, reports the Migration Policy Institute. Numerous Turkish migrants attempting to enter Greece were deported, and the European Union decided “to resettle Syrian refugees from Turkey on a one-to-one basis and reduce visa restrictions for Turkish citizens.” According to the UN Refugee Agency, of the 6.6 million Syrians forced to become refugees in 2011, only 1 million are hosted in Europe.
During the beginning of the Russian invasion, an article by the Guardian reported on a statement by CBS News correspondent Charlie D’Agata: “Ukraine isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan, that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European – I have to choose those words carefully, too – city, one where you wouldn’t expect that, or hope that it’s going to happen.” The reporter later issued an apology. A French journalist for BFM TV offhandedly stated, “We’re not talking here about Syrians fleeing the bombing of the Syrian regime backed by Putin. We’re talking about Europeans leaving in cars that look like ours to save their lives.”
The Washington Post reports an ITV News correspondent, while in a Ukrainian train station, said, “Now the unthinkable has happened to them. And this is not a developing third-world nation. This is Europe.”
In a BBC segment interviewing David Sakvarelidze, former deputy prosecutor of Ukraine, he described his emotional response in seeing “European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed, children every day.” Even Prince William of Britain joined in the fun, suggesting it was “alien” to see war in Europe, per the Washington Post.
In comparison to America, a country with a rich and rampant racist past, it is easy to overlook both past and present racism in the continent of Europe. It is generally held as an ideal in the West, after all. However, this shocking inequality in response to a “white” refugee crisis has revealed deep fractures in need of dire healing, if not only for the international students and Ukrainians of color affected and traumatized, but for the future of Europe itself.
The response of Eastern Europe has appeared especially surprising in comparison to its recent and marred history with refugees and immigrants. According to the BBC in 2015, the country of Slovakia announced it would only host Christian Syrian migrants. A 2015 report by Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty hosts a comment from then Czech president, Milos Zerman, said that the “wave of refugees that has come to Europe this year is ‘an organized invasion’ and that young Syrians and Iraqis should be fighting against the Islamic State group.”
In 2020, according to Al Jazeera, the court of the European Union ruled that Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic had violated the law due to their refusal to harbor refugees and ease the load of southern countries such as Greece and Italy. In late 2021, as Syrian and other Middle Eastern refugees were finally making their way to Eastern Europe, a migrant-centered crisis arose at the border between Poland and Belarus.
Eastern European hostility to non-white refugees has reared its ugly head amid the conflict. As Ukrainians have fled into neighboring countries, multiple sources reported instances of racial discrimination at their borders. Numerous international students, originating from countries across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, were met with hostility in comparison to their white counterparts. ABC News reports male African migrants watched as Ukrainians of all ages and genders boarded a train to Poland, only to be prevented by police who insisted it was only for women and children. A British black medical student living in Ukraine waited with her family in a line of cars for 40 hours at the Romanian border and were met with hostility by white Ukrainians who did not want them to enter. Bloomberg Equality recounts three international Ukrainians of color who “found themselves repeatedly pushed back, forced out of evacuation trains and threatened with violence when they did try to board.”
Time tells the story of a Congolese migrant displaced from her home in Ukraine. Upon fleeing and seeking a train to safety, the Ukrainian military divided people into groups based on whiteness. When her train stopped at the Polish border for 17 hours, Ukrainian train guards passing out bread and sausages to refugees overtly ignored the African passengers. Later, they received stale ends. A report by The Guardian indicates that refugees of color faced racist violence from Polish nationalists once inside its borders.
Photo courtesy of Imad Alassiry at Unsplash