“People From the Forest”: Discourse About Migrants in the Narratives of NGO Workers and Activists Involved in the Humanitarian Crisis at the Polish-Belarusian Border

Abstract

This article presents the results of a socially engaged research project based on 30 in-depth interviews with NGO workers and activists who became involved in the humanitarian crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border and engaged in subversive humanitarianism. The aim is to analyze the discourse about migrants constructed by people who provided different types of support during the crisis. The theoretical part presents a brief overview of the crisis and describes hybridized humanitarian actions that were taken. It also offers a discussion of two opposite discourses about migration in Poland. One is based on securitization and is created by the state, and the other relates to compassionate solidarity with migrants and is constructed by civil society. The results of the study indicate that the representation of migrants created by NGO workers and activists engaged in subversive humanitarianism to some extent reproduces the pro-immigrant narrative of compassion to date. What is more, the study shows that activists’ discourse is more individualized and emotional, while the narratives of NGO workers are more professionalized and institutional in nature.