African Immigrants’ Experiences at the Ukraine Border Points During Russian Invasion: Meta-analysis of Racism during Global Crisis

Abstract

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has sparked the world order that has been socially constructed since World War II and brought racism's realities back to light in modern society. Coming right after the Covid-19 pandemic, the war has challenged western diplomacy as an avenue for resolving border disputes in the contemporary world. The sovereignty of nations has been tested by the war, with the EU security threatened. The war has led to the forced migration of Ukrainians and Ukraine residents. African immigrants who fled Ukraine at the start of the war faced inhumane challenges and violations of their human rights in their attempt to cross Ukraine's border points to safety, unlike their white counterparts. This paper analyses four Africans’ experiences in their attempt to cross the Ukraine border to safety using biographical method. Additionally, the paper reviews ten media footages of first-hand experiences by African immigrants at the Ukraine border points as people fled to safety between 24th February 2022 and 30th April 2022. The paper uses qualitative method to analyze the experiences and narratives of African immigrants from international media and deconstructs their experiences using the theory of race and ethnicity. The Africans' experiences are analyzed into typologies and deconstructed to illuminate the African immigrants’ experiences of historic, structural and systemic racism during global crisis. The objective of the interviews is to gather experiences and gather empirical evidence of racism experiences that took place at the Ukrainian border points. This paper highlights the conversation of human rights violations and social injustices against Africans in times of crisis and raises the questions of inequality and injustice treatment towards African immigrants during crisis in Europe.