Ambiguities of solidarity in Central and Eastern Europe : Proximity, politics of inclusion and exclusion in forced migration contexts

Abstract

The mass displacement of Ukrainian citizens triggered the activation of the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive. The warm welcome of Ukrainian forced migrants has also drawn criticism because it contrasted sharply with the treatment of non-European refugees. Earlier studies not only examined the fallacies of ’geographical proximity’ cited as a justification but also labelled the EU’s selective inclusion as hypocritical. The aim of this paper is to provide a more nuanced understanding of this selective solidarity, by laying the groundwork on the history of the borderlands of Poland and Hungary with Ukraine, arguing that reflections on the temporal dimensions of (missing) solidarity are at least as important as spatial factors determining it.