Contribution short abstract:

How can a proclaimed ‘watershed moment’ be mobilized to unveil the racist dynamics underpinning European asylum procedures and to intervene collectively? What potential for radical imagination might such a moment have for anthropological critique?

Contribution long abstract:

The bureaucratic hurdles in asylum procedures wear down. These procedures are lengthy, uncertain, exhausting, externally determined, and restrict the freedom of movement. However, in the European Union, we can currently observe a joint and unparalleled agreement on the prompt and non-bureaucratic processing of asylum and temporary protection procedures for refugees from Ukraine, which is extremely important and necessary. Regardless, the question of why these procedures take so long for refugees from other parts of the world and from supposedly ‘safe countries of origin’ is equally pressing. This vast disparity reveals yet another dimension of ‘uncommoning asylum,’ reflecting a racialized hierarchy of humanity. Several political and public stakeholders justify these differences by invoking shared European values such as democracy and liberalism. Ironically, these values are rendered ad absurdum by implementing the overtly unequal treatment of people seeking international protection. Extreme right-wing politicians put this regime of global apartheid bluntly. Taking advantage of the war, they have intensified their harmful discourse against migrants by drawing a boundary between ‘innocent European’ refugees and young, often ‘male Muslims who threaten to invade and colonize Europe’.

I want to discuss if and how this ‘watershed moment of European history’ – as high-ranking EU politicians have called the Russian government’s war against Ukraine – can be mobilized to unveil the historically constituted racist dynamics underpinning European asylum procedures and to intervene collectively. What potential for radical imagination might such a watershed moment have for anthropological critique, knowledge production, and transmission?