How Refugees Transformed Polish Society During the Past Year (September 2021 – September 2022)

This work is devoted to exploring different political and social reactions to “refugee crises” occurring at Polish borders with Belarus and Ukraine and reverberating across the country. The research is based on media reports as well as a dozen of interviews conducted with people either affected by the “crisis” geographically or those engaged in humanitarian aid. The key motivation stems from contrasting behaviour of the Polish government and society towards both “crises” as if only Ukrainians were to be helped and not Asian or African refugees who came from the Belarussian side as often portrayed in European discourses. The article attempts to offer more comprehensive explanation than just the argument of racism and cultural distance.