The world is currently experiencing the largest refugee crisis since World War II. Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov recently drew a distinct line between the two groups, justifying differential treatment and fostering a sense of Ukrainian exceptionalism: Underscoring this justification is Islamophobia; Ukrainian refugees are primarily Christian, while refugees from Syria and North Africa are mostly Muslim. As political scientist Lamis Abdelaaty describes, Europeans see Ukrainians as White and Christian, similar to the way that many in European countries see themselves. Eastern Europeans are especially welcoming of Ukrainians, with whom they share a sense of fraternity; many people move around within Eastern Europe, so nationalities expand beyond each nations borders. subscribe to Stanford Report. Copyright 2022 NPR. Esses, V. M., Hamilton, L. K., & Gaucher, D. (2017). A myriad of factors overlap and contribute to the exceptionalism of Ukrainian refugees in the EUIslamophobia; Europeans perceived similarities and fraternity with Ukrainians; racism, which also perpetuates inequality among refugees leaving Ukraine; media coverage; and geopolitics, especially the post-Cold War fear of Russian aggression and the EUs concern for its international reputation. Help fund the NPR Illinois mission to inform the community by securing business sponsorships. At least 2.5 million people need humanitarian assistance. Compared to college students in previous samples, these participants reported perceiving even stronger threats and experiencing more hostility toward refugees. The Supreme Court hears arguments today on President Bidens student loan forgiveness plan; John F. Cogan and Michael McConnell discuss their amicus brief opposing it. The U.S. government has committed to resettle tens of thousands of Afghan and Ukrainian refugees. Khoury, the researcher, says race plays a part in all of this but also proximity and geopolitics, too. Both direct and indirect threats were related to unfavorable attitudes toward refugees, so there may be a bidirectional relationship between peoples attitudes and their perception of threat: The perception of threat gives rise to negative attitudes toward outsiders, and negative attitudes also cause greater threat perception. Similarly, as many EU members have already acknowledged, it is neither fair nor sustainable to let Mediterranean frontier states such as Greece and Italy, already crumpling under financial debt, host the bulk of the incoming asylum seekers. Chief among these is the so-called " jewelry law " - a measure which allows the government to seize asylum seekers' assets, including their jewelry, to fund their stay in the country. But at the same time, the Biden administration has been quietly engaged in another series of evacuation flights, this time at our southern border. She previously worked as a Middle East Fellow at the Independent Diplomat Advisory Group and as an adviser at the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the UN. The decision that wealthy northern European countries such as Denmark and the UK made last fall, when they dismissed the EUs call for sharing the responsibility by refusing to receive any of the 120,000 asylum seekers relocated from the south, revealed their humanitarian priorities. Unlike Ukraine, the Assad regime in Syria was authoritarian, corrupt, and violent. Not everyone is eligible to seek asylum. He's also covered the near collapse of the live music industry during the coronavirus pandemic. The reality, however, is that "both people and states do treat different groups of refugees in different ways, according to where they come from; according to their own perceptions of those people . According to DR's calculations, the distance from Denmark's border with Germany to the Ukraine-Poland border is 1,270 kilometres, and to the Syria-Turkey border 3,760 . That's less likely to be true for people who decide to leave in the coming weeks, said Steve. As they work out where to go next, it's not clear they'll find refuge in Europe. Businesses and civil society groups are busy developing training programs and job centers for asylum seekers to integrate into the system. Broadly, what does your research reveal about the publics attitude toward refugees? During the 2015 refugee "crisis," the EU called for detaining arriving refugees for up to 18 months. In the past year, a record-high 65 million people have been displaced worldwide, including more than one million people who crossed borders into the European Union while thousands more died on the way. Yet, as Khalid notes, we do not have a stereotype of white people being inherently violent and prone to domestic terrorism." Branding Muslims as terrorists and using such accusations to reject Muslim asylum seekers are thinly veiled attempts for religious, racial, and ethnic prejudice to masquerade as national security concerns. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Second, under the EUs temporary protection directive, any Ukrainian national who flees as a result of the invasion, plus his or her partners and children of any nationality, may receive permission to stay in any EU country for one year; previously, a Ukrainian passport permitted visa-free entry into the EU for only up to 90 days. In addition, they found that every threat typeeven altruistic threat (concerns about the host countrys ability to care for refugees)was linked with negative views of immigration and refugees. In contrast, a refugee arriving in America, after receiving a grant of $900 from the government, often has to rely on private aid organizations. If you are an immigrant, particularly a recent refugee or asylum seeker, you may have already asked this question many times after having experienced prejudice, racism, and discrimination. In The Telegraph, Daniel Hannan wrote an article about Ukraine that led, they seem so like us. Its a continuation of the policy begun under the Trump administration known as Title 42, which essentially bans anyone from seeking asylum at the U.S. southern border under the pretext that concerns about the spread of Covid-19 mean they must immediately be deported. First, the rules of the EUs Dublin Convention will not pose the same burdens. Notwithstanding, numerous other treaties - dealing with human rights, refugees, stateless people and the protection of political, civil and economic rights -indirectly afford protection for migrants; unfortunately, all too often, receiving countries flout these obligations. She says that's a pretty good sign of civilization. But, as Katy Long argued in a policy brief for The Century Foundation, in the case of the United States, which accepted 69,900 refugees including a mere 2,192 Syrians last year, Western countries may be shooting themselves in the foot by outsourcing their migrant problem. Here are some suggestions: To understand the real effects of migration on us and our country, we must rely on data (e.g., economic indicators and crime rates), not ideology. Furthermore, according to Hanne Beirens, Migration Policy Institute think tank director, the prioritization of Ukrainian refugees restricts the resources available to other refugees, such as housing and language courses; this inequality creates a two-tiered system of refugee integration. LIMBONG: Mahdis Keshavarz is a board member with the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association, which put out a statement criticizing this framing, which Keshavarz says relies on old tropes. Refugee The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) defines refugees as those who have fled from conflict and persecution to seek protection in another country. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stipulates that while refugees are humanitarian subjects primarily seeking protection, migrants are economic subjects, seeking better lives. What explains the difference? infect themselves with deadly diseases to gain protection as HIV-positive patients. About 18,000 refugees from Ukraine have arrived in Switzerland so far, with tens of thousands more expected by summer. KESHAVARZ: So as journalists, I think it's really critical that we look at that duality, and we question why that is. And the results again showed support for the six threat types. While a federal judge on Thursday blocked the Biden administration from enforcing Title 42 for migrant families, the administration still has 14 days to implement the court ruling, and in any case is appealing the decision. As anthropologist Miriam Ticktin has documented, some even infect themselves with deadly diseases to gain protection as HIV-positive patients and thereby gain residence. But we could see White people going through. A Nigerian student added, Theyre pushing us back just because were Black!Were all humanThey should not discriminate against us because of the colour of our skin. Racism against POC fleeing Ukraine exposes differential treatment even among refugees fleeing the same conflict, suggesting that European solidarity is skin-deep. Not so today in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Detail asks why they are treated differently to refugees coming in through the quota system? Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing her biggest political crisis to date over this issue, with over 40 percent of Germans calling for her resignation this year in response to her open-border policy. Currently, Ukrainians benefit from the unprecedented implementation of the Temporary Protection Directive, which allows Ukrainian refugees to reside, seek employment, and attend school in the EU for three years, no official asylum approval necessary. Many Syrians I spoke to last year in Lebanon and Jordan, where millions of Syrians have relocated, rejected registering as refugees in favor of living as migrants, stressing that they wanted to work and be self-sufficient rather than depend on aid. While the two categories are treated differently by law, in practice they are both asylum seekers. This treatment also extended to racialized permanent . RANA KHOURY: We certainly do see it play out in terms of the politics of refugee reception in the idea of whose burden should it be to take refugees who are from the global South, the Middle East, Africa, versus, you know, who is welcome and who can be brought in here. Editor's note: Last year, thousands of asylum seekers and migrants from the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia found themselves used as pawns in a political showdown between Belarus and the EU: stuck in a dense forest along the Polish-Belarusian border and pushed back and forth by security services as temperatures plummeted below zero. The U.S. has an opportunity to build off of its strong response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis. She is interested in comparative politics, immigration law, and German. They have received medical screenings and access to vaccinations upon their arrival. Snohomish County couple providing relief to Ukraine amid Russia conflict. Similarly, right-wing European officials used the recent sexual harassment scandal in Cologne to fuel cultural bias and collective punishment against all asylum seekers. At least 660,000 people have fled Ukraine in the five days following the start of Russia's invasion, the United Nations refugee agency U.N.H.C.R. Tens of thousands of people have already crossed into. Job insecurity, poverty, and hunger can leave people with no other choice but to risk everything on a boat across the Mediterranean. U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that. Shooting, detaining, torturing, and executing protestors, Assad forcefully crushed pro-democracy protests during the Arab Spring. Why are some refugees treated differently than others? In addition, we should remember foreigners culture will change, particularly with intergroup contactjust as cultures of European immigrants to America have changed, as history shows. A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her home because of war, violence or persecution, often without warning. They also found that eligible voters favored refugees with higher employability. Furthermore, immigrants pose an identity threat, especially if they have a different cultural identity, religious identity, and value system than members of the host community. Perceptions of threat, according to previous research, are one of the most important predictors of attitudes and prejudice toward immigrants and other outgroups(p. 82).2. (Capacity would be determined by population, GDP, unemployment rate and other factors.) Arash Emamzadeh attended the University of British Columbia in Canada, where he studied genetics and psychology. Those seeking security at our southern border should not be treated any differently. In fact, research from the European Parliament shows that the latest migration inflow has not increased unemployment, but rather led to a growth in higher-wage jobs for native workers, as refugees and migrants primarily take over low-wage jobs. Psychology Today 2023 Sussex Publishers, LLC. The Ukraine refugee crisis revealed deep-seated racism as racialized and Black refugees from Ukraine were treated differently. . Refugee Health: From the Public Health Perspective. For example, the EUs asylum policy prioritizes Syrians over other nationalities, including Iraqis and Afghanis, even though they all face similar levels of violence in their home countries. CHARLIE D'AGATA: You know, this is a relatively civilized, relatively European - I have to choose those words carefully, too - city where you wouldn't expect that LIMBONG: The phrasing rankled enough people that he issued a clarifying apology a day later. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkelwidely hailed as a champion of refugee rightsfunded Turkeys refugee camps so that President Erdoan would hinder the passage of refugees into Greece, an EU member. To counter this trend, employers and NGOs in Sweden and Germany offer asylum seekers apprenticeships, training courses and special-track employment to help them adapt to the national labor requirements and enter the labor market faster. And if you zoom way, way out when talking about refugees and displacement, countries in the Middle East, Africa and the global South have taken in more than their fair share of refugees. The participants were initially asked how many refugees Germany could host per year and then asked what would happen if this number was exceeded. Islamophobia also underlies the assumption that Middle Eastern refugees are violent terroristsa sentiment echoed in Petkovs speech and Orbns comments that Muslim asylum seekers are Muslim invaders, accepting Middle Eastern migrants is importing terrorism, and all the terrorists are basically migrants. This assumption is a blatant fallacy of composition not applied to whites. Watch on. Identifying different types of threat and their association with emotional responses and attitudes towards refugee migration. But research suggests some approaches can help communities successfully absorb all kinds of refugees Analysis by Claire. The other hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of girls and young women who survived the journey are still in Kakuma Refugee Camp. Stanford, California 94305. Attitudes also are affected by humanitarian concerns: When a refugee is perceived to have a valid claim or specific vulnerability for example, if he or she was a victim of torture support is generally higher. Only a very small number of asylum seekers arrive in New Zealand each year - and fewer than half of them are successful in their claims for refugee status. She said she told U.S. officers that she was a victim of violence in her home country and requested asylum at the U.S. border. Why are asylum seekers treated differently to other refugees? Anna is working with Michael Hanna and the rest of the foreign policy team as a member of the 2016 internship class on issues such as U.S. policy toward the Middle East and East Asia. They concluded that the six threat types explained the data better than one general threat factor or two factors (i.e. She says that's a pretty good sign of civilization. This has meant that asylum-seekers have been expelled in violation of the United Nations 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, which prevents countries from returning people to places where they face threats to their lives or freedom without providing them the opportunity to apply for asylum. The Century Foundation. The way we talk about conflicts can impact those who are already most directly affected by war, refugees. A further 133,000 have gone to Hungary, 72,000 to Slovakia, 51,260 to Romania, and nearly 98,000 . 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