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Paper Short Abstract:

The paper shows the impact of institutionalized inequalities on intra-diasporic tensions. Exceptionalising war movers from Ukraine as “refugees” by the Polish institutions and the general society means de-exceptionalising or rather – de-refugizing other Ukrainians living in Poland before 2022.

Paper Abstract:

The paper is based on fieldwork with Ukrainian migrants (including war migrants), conducted since 2021 in three Polish cities. The title refers to the legislation created in Poland ad hoc after February 24, 2022, treating people who arrived from Ukraine after that date as exceptional and care-worthy. They faced a simplified residence procedure, an employment path, easier access to medical care, language learning, and free transport. They were recognized as refugees. This is a term with which many of them do not identify due to the sense of threat to their agency and being labeled as deprived of capitals. In turn, those who have lived in Poland for many years, or even arrived there a few months before the war escalated, remain invisible. Meanwhile, contrary to popular beliefs, the latter were also affected by the war - by loss of property, the impossibility of returning, anxiety about the fate of relatives, and uncertainty. However, they do not have the privileges and “discursive vulnerability” provided to "later" movers. Different institutional perspectives on assessing who deserves and who does not deserve special treatment due to the full-scale war in Ukraine causing increasing inequalities in access to social benefits, which in turn cause internal Ukrainian-Ukrainian tensions in Poland, incomprehensible for the rest of society. Ukrainian diasporans use and reproduce the Polish law (blurred) categories and the social constructions of “a (war) migrant from Ukraine”. Tracing social constructs of “these other Ukrainians” reveals intra-diasporic tactics of inclusion/exclusion and potential conflicts.