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Paper short abstract:

The proposed paper addresses how the solidarity with refugees from Ukraine tackles the deeper structures of exclusion, creates differential welcoming spaces, and reconfigures visions and practices of deservingness in regard to various vulnerable groups, including the Roma.

Paper long abstract:

Refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine arrived in a country that in previous years had almost completely stopped accepting asylum seekers, where social exclusion of racialized minorities had been on the rise, and migration and migrants had been portrayed in the government- controlled media as threats to the country. Soon after 24 February 2022, the official government rhetoric concerning the displaced Ukrainians (but only them) changed. In a few months, however, social media and everyday talks started to contemplate who the ‘real refugees’ were in contrast to those unworthy of help. There are three groups of Ukrainians living in Hungary: those under temporary protection (around 30,000), the agency and migrant workers (around 100,000), and the ones of dual Ukrainian and Hungarian citizenship (no data is available). Paradoxically, it is the latter ones who appear as the most unwelcome. They are Hungarian-speaking Roma who are subject of anti-Gypsyism widespread in Hungarian society. Our interviews show that while some civil solidarians reproduce these prejudices in more or less visible forms, others advocate for working against this dire marginalisation and hierarchization of refugees. Our research team has been scrutinizing the patterns of Hungarian solidarity mobilisation in crisis situations since the 2015 refugee crisis. Most recently, we have conducted 28 interviews and ethnographic observations in Budapest and four rural regions to explore bottom-up solidarity mobilisations. The proposed paper addresses how the solidarity with refugees from Ukraine creates differential welcoming spaces, and reconfigures visions of deservingness in regard to various vulnerable groups, including the Roma.