Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the racialisation of the European migration governance in its Eastern Member States by zooming in on the specific case of Lithuania.

Paper long abstract:

This paper discusses the racialisation of the European migration governance in its Eastern Member States by zooming in on the specific case of Lithuania. The latter has seen the arrivals of migrants from Africa and the Middle East, along with Belarusian citizens fleeing the Lukashenko regime and Ukrainian citizens escaping Russia's war in Ukraine. While these mobilities occur in parallel, they have evoked a strict 'categorical binarism' in the Lithuanian government's policy response and discourse. Drawing on Kalir's concept of Departheid as well as post-colonial and decolonial theories on Eastern Europe, this paper argues that Lithuania's response builds on racialised humanitarian and securitisation agendas at the core of its nation-state building. Wrestling between Western and Russian influences, Lithuania's ambition to belong to the 'European space' is marked by geopolitical manoeuvres aimed at distancing itself from the 'authoritarian East' and confronting the question of race delineating identitarian borders of Europe.