Ukrainian Refugees and Racism

This week both NPR and the Daily Show reported on racial bias in reporting of Ukrainian refugees fleeing to neighboring countries during the invasion of their country by Russia. 

On Monday, Trevor Noah criticized the media for revealing racist stereotypes while reporting about the welcome one million Ukrainian refugees have received from other countries in Europe. The warmth of the welcome contrasts sharply with Europe’s attitudes toward non-white refugees from Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. 

“That’s really strange,” said Noah, contrasting a montage of recent news clips about the treatment of Ukraine’s refugees with a montage ones discussing refugees from Africa and the Middle East. “When it’s Syrians who are fleeing a war, it’s all, ‘We do not have space, do not come.’ But now there’s space and people must come? What changed?”

Today NPR reported similarly on the disparity. Their story notes that there is a shared history and cultural affinity between Poland and Ukraine. Also, many of the people fleeing Ukraine are women and children because the Ukranian President has ordered that men between the ages of 18 to 60 stay and fight.

But the story also notes that terrorism fears have shaped the reception of migrants from countries perceived as security threats. The terrorism frame filters between different kinds of refugees based on their racialization (see Sahar Aziz, The Racial Muslim). In other words, Ukrainians are more readily viewed as European because of their whiteness. As proof, Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov drew a distinction between those fleeing Ukraine and others:

“These people are Europeans. These people are intelligent, they are educated people. … This is not the refugee wave we have been used to, people we were not sure about their identity, people with unclear pasts, who could have been even terrorists …”

The racial filter is also made visible by the poor treatment of students from Africa and South Asia living in Ukraine and encountering racism at the border as they try to flee.

Scholars such as Marta Bivan Erdal affirmed that “racism was experienced by people of color fleeing Ukraine over the weekend is beyond any doubt.” Erdal went on to say “that’s of course completely condemnable. There are so many Polish activists working for migrants’ rights who are so ashamed … that this is what is now being told about Poland. And it’s part of the truth that needs to be told.”

MHC