In the Western public imagination, there is a certain image of a refugee deserving of our help: poor rather than rich, a woman rather than a man, frail rather than healthy. At the same time, the “ideal refugee” is supposed to be very similar to us, which would make it easier for us to empathise with them. Lidia Zessin-Jurek (Unlikely Refuge?), alongside Marta Kindler, Kamila Fiałkowska, and Olena Babakova, discuss the expectations of who “true refugees” are, as revealed in Poland with the reception of Ukrainians fleeing war, for “Spotlight” (6/41, 2022), published by the Center of Migration Research of the University of Warsaw.
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