Postawy Polaków wobec uchodźców wojennych z Ukrainy

Abstract

The war in Ukraine started in 2022 by Russia preoccupies not only researchers from all over the world, but also ordinary citizens observing the hostilities. Particularly when living in a NATO-member state, whose citizens have so far treated war rather as a memory of times that “had justly passed” or as an event in an almost exotic space. Therefore, for Poles, the war waged on the territory of their eastern neighbor had very interesting repercussions. From the beginning of the war, Polish society transformed itself into an almost “humanitarian superpower”, which then evolved into a kind of “another home” or “haven” for war refugees fleeing Ukraine. And while the very perception of war, Poles’ attitudes towards refugees and involvement in various kinds of help evolved and took different shapes during the initial year of the war, Poland is still an important point of refuge for those who are seeking or are supposed to seek refuge from war there. The chapter is an analysis of several examples showing the attitudes of Poles towards refugees, the selection of which was mainly based on the author’s empirical experi- ence and field research during the largest wave of the refugee crisis.