Abstract
New forms of solidarity are being shaped as a response to the European “refugee crisis.” The states have not been able to implement any viable or sustainable solution to the crisis, but the solidarity movement has been very visible and active in many European countries and rejected in others. This paper focuses on Poland, a country that gave birth to the Solidarnośc labor movement in 1980, but was recently reprimanded by the European Union for its lack of solidarity with other countries that accepted refugees. In this paper, we trace the rapture of the Solidarity movement and the emergence of solidarities with migrants and refugees in local Polish communities and abroad. We juxtapose the Polish government’s call for “flexible solidarity’ mechanisms within the EU, coupled with the emphasis on solidarity in the context of border securitization, with grass-root efforts in several Polish cities to welcome migrants and refugees and facilitate their integration. We also look at the emerging initiatives to raise resources to help refugees lingering in refugee camps and transit countries. And finally, we ask the question whether fragmented, organically evolving, grass-root solidarities are sustainable without the support of the national government.
Highlights
In April 2016, commenting on the arrival of asylum seekers in Europe, Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General at the time, said: “We are facing the biggest refugee and displacement crisis of our time
In the recent attempt to curtail arrival of refugees in Greece, the Contesting Flexible Solidarity country plans to build floating fences in the Aegean Sea in order to prevent refugees and migrants to arrive from Turkey
In the analytical part of the article we focus on different types of solidarians operating in Poland, both those who directly continue the ideal of solidarity introduced by the Solidarnosclabor movement and those who have departed from that ideal but exhibit a range of solidarities
Summary
In April 2016, commenting on the arrival of asylum seekers in Europe, Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General at the time, said: “We are facing the biggest refugee and displacement crisis of our time. Despite the small number of refugees, Poland does not want to accept any additional asylum seekers When it comes to solidarity with migrants, the government focuses mainly on solidarity with the Polish diaspora in the successor states of the former Soviet Union and supports programs to “bring them home.”. Some work in long-established non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that have been supporting integration of immigrants and refugees for a decade or longer, others belong to ad hoc informal groups formed in the midst of the current “refugee crisis,” many are volunteers, but some are compensated for their work Their actions are rooted in different ideologies. Despite the diversity of activities, they main focus is solidarity with refugees and migrants and contestation of government anti-immigration discourses They build alliances with diverse social actors, collaborate with several different groups, and use social media to stay in touch with each other and with the general public. One of the events was a demonstration “Warsaw against racism and violence” which called people to come and express their opposition to the increasing national, racial and religious violence in Poland; to protest against the authorities disregarding this phenomenon and fueling xenophobic sentiments in the media; and to show our solidarity and support to those who felt threatened in Poland (Facebook post)
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