Rapid Evolution of Refugee Policy in Poland: Russian Invasion of Ukraine as a Focusing Event

Abstract

The article uses the concept of a focusing event to shed light on the specificity of the political transformation process in response to an unexpected event. The analysis shows that as a result of the focusing event: Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a series of non-paradigmatic political changes took place in Polish refugee policy. These changes were rapid, but they were of an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary nature. This is due to a number of factors. The influx of refugees led to the creation of new legal regulations, but these did not deal with the rights of refugees in general, but only with the group of migrants from Ukraine, for whom a separate legal category was created. Refugees from Ukraine are primarily women, which strengthened the social legitimacy of the relief efforts and did not initiate a securitization discourse as with other refugee groups. Moreover, migrants from Ukraine had for years been the largest group of foreigners (mainly labor migrants) in the receiving country, which facilitated the formulation of adequate systemic solutions and improved grassroots refugee assistance activities. Political change has not challenged policy paradigms, such as the desire to admit migrants mainly from countries which are culturally similar. As the analysis of political discourses shows, supporting them is perceived as a proxy for military engagement in helping Ukraine. The study covers 100+ documents of discursive and normative policy (public statements by political stakeholders, legal acts).