Paper short abstract:

Attitudes towards refugees/asylum seekers in Poland apparently depend on political interests and provenance of those seeking protection. In the last decade authorities' practices and society's reactions varied between rejection and enthusiastic acceptance. How can this un/commoning be interpreted?

Paper long abstract:

During and after two Chechens wars (1994-1996 and 1999-2009) around hundred thousand (Muslim) Chechens entered Poland and were welcomed by both authorities and society. Polish citizens’ attitudes towards refugees and asylum seekers – at least according to the European Social Survey’s data – were then consistently most positive in the whole EU (two-thirds in favour). During the ‘refugee crisis’ in 2015 Polish right-wing populist authorities rejected the EU plan of relocation of (mainly) Syrian migrants to the country. Simultaneously, an Islamophobic campaign, reinforced by media coverage inciting cultural anxiety and moral panic, was launched. In result, anti-refugees stance dominated (three-quarter against accepting them in 2017). In 2021 thousands of asylum-seekers from Middle East tried to enter the EU by crossing Polish-Belarussian border. They were staunchly rejected by the authorities, which again invoked Islamophobic sentiments with overt racialised connotations. Pushbacks of migrants have been legalised. On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine and within three weeks more than two million refugees fled to Poland. In contrast to the practices observed in the past seven years, refugees from Ukraine have been welcomed, hosted, and helped by spontaneously self-organised civilians. Is there any pattern in these changing attitudes towards refugees? Has the right to refuge been restored, or is this the case of ‘uncommoning asylum’, a system in which only selected groups are privileged?