European Solidarity / European Values?

Eastern European Views on the Refugee Crisis

Convened by Nataliya Gumenyuk (Hromadske.TV / Visiting Fellow of the Berlin-Brandenburg Ukraine Initiative 2015/2016)

With: Nataliya GUMENYUK (Kiyv), Andrii PORTNOV (Berlin), Andreas UMLAND (Kiyv), Marta OROSZ (Berlin), Zuzana STEVULOVA (Bratislava), and Jakub DEMYK (Warsaw)

The results of Slovakia’s recent parliamentary elections were surprising to both Slovaks and the international community. After running a seemingly strong anti-immigration campaign, far-right parties got a sizeable number of seats. Though some of the Eastern European countries are not the main destination for the refugees, anti-immigration rhetoric has become an issue for Poland, Slovakia, the Baltic States, Ukraine and Russia, where, according to its mass media, the refugee crisis is equaled with ‘the end of Europe’. Eastern European countries, one could argue, which have claimed and received solidarity from Western European countries for a long time, are now breaking with that same principle of solidarity. At this workshop we will explore (1) how the Eastern European far-right and nationalists use globalization and migration in their political campaigns, (2) how mainstream politicians incorporate anti-immigration mood into their political campaigning in order to compete with the far-right, and (3) how the general public is perceiving the impact of the refugee crisis. We will also discuss the role of the Soviet legacy on perceiving the “others” in Eastern European societies.

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The workshop will be held in the framework of the Berlin-Brandenburg Ukraine Initiative (BBUI) at the Forum Transregionale Studien in cooperation with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Osteuropakunde e. V. (DGO).