European Refugee Crisis Research Articles

Nurses' strategies for coping with stress in the face of the influx of war refugees from Ukraine to Poland.

Russian military's incursion into Ukraine sparked the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. As Ukraine's neighboring country, Poland became the primary destination for these refugees. Ukrainians staying in Poland under the EU's Temporary Protection Directive receive humanitarian support similarly to asylum seekers, but the legal pathways, length of stay and integration processes differ significantly as the Directive provides for more immediate, collective protection without the complexity of individual asylum applications. The influx of war refugees generates extremely complex situations that health personnel, especially nurses, must face on a daily basis. Identify whether and to what extent the emergence of a large number of patients with war-related experiences constituted a source of stress for nurses, and how Polish nurses coped with this issue. A cross-sectional study was conducted in December 2022 in Białystok, Poland. It included 473 certified nurses working in hospitals affiliated with the District Chamber of Nurses in Białystok. Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) questionnaire and Mini-COPE inventory (Polish version of Carver'a BriefCOPE inventory were used in the study. The average stress level among nurses was moderate, with nearly equal proportions of nurses experiencing low, medium, and high stress levels. Nurses who had contact with refugees in the last six months and/or helped them, did not present an increased level of stress - on the contrary, this level was lower. Nurses who helped refugees at work more often used a planning strategy in stressful situations, and less frequently reacted to stress using humour, religion, denial or venting. The greater workload and more frequent contacts between Polish nurses and Ukrainian war refugees were a factor increasing work fatigue, but, paradoxically, at the same time reducing the level of stress in a situation giving the feeling of a duty well fulfilled. Empowering nurses through greater autonomy and fostering supportive work environments, especially in crisis situations like the care of war refugees has a positive impact on coping with stress.

Migrants serving migrants? Representative bureaucracy at the front lines of migration management

Abstract The ways in which minority street-level bureaucrats construe their identities as state representatives and as representatives of minority clients are known to inform their discretionary behavior toward clients, thereby shaping policy outcomes. While existing studies have examined race and ethnicity as shared identities between minority bureaucrats and clients, the role of “migrant” identity has been overlooked. Focusing on the so-called European migration crisis of 2015–2017, this study addresses this gap. Drawing on qualitative interviews with migrant bureaucrats, it examines how being simultaneously a migrant and a migration policy implementer shapes bureaucratic discretion. This article introduces the notion of “migrant representative” and identifies four profiles of migrant bureaucrats, each corresponding to different degrees of identification with the local migration management system and the migrant clients. In doing so, it contributes to the literature on representative bureaucracy and the debate on the linkage between passive and active representation.

Tuberculosis-Induced Immune-Mediated Necrotizing Myopathy: A Challenging Case Scenario in a Non-Endemic Country

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) poses a significant global health challenge; although low–middle income countries carry the heaviest burden, its diagnosis and treatment can be challenging in any country. The clinical picture can be complex and vary from person to person, with autoimmune complications that can hinder TB diagnosis and treatment. Case Presentation: We report the case of a 38-year-old man from Bangladesh who had recently arrived in Italy through the Balkan route. He presented with TB in the cervical lymph nodes and long-standing chronic myalgias. While a wide range of TB-triggered autoimmune entities can be found in the literature, this case is the first to describe immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy (IMNM) triggered by active TB. Conclusions: IMNM has been previously associated only with other infections like SARS-CoV-2 and Dengue. The successful diagnosis and management of TB-induced IMNM was achieved through a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach involving rheumatologists, immunologists, and infectious diseases specialists, showcasing an innovative treatment strategy and adding new insights into the complexities of TB and IMNM.

The political ecology of wildfire: Media and the politics of blame in the Evros wildfires in Greece

Wildfires are not only natural disasters but also political events. Media plays an important role in the power-laden process of meaning-making and responsibility-assigning that can significantly shape how societies understand and response to wildfires. To shed light on the role of media in the political ecology of wildfire, we conducted a framing analysis of 241 news articles on the Evros wildfires in Greece. We discovered five narratives of blame: migrant activities, government mismanagement, climate change, arson, and war. We argued that the politics of blame in the Greek context is deeply intertwined with the rise of national populism and xenophobic attitudes as a response to the European refugee crisis. This is evidenced by a dominant narrative that blamed transnational migrants as culprits. The blame politics of wildfires in Greece is also shaped by the political economy of the media that enhances state control over media narratives.

Race in place: scales of difference along the Balkan Route of migration

ABSTRACT This paper is an ethnographic examination of race, racialization, and racism among members of a Muslim post-Yugoslav population who have not emigrated – who stayed “in place” – but whose location just outside EU borders has brought people from outside Europe to their community as illegalized migrants along the Balkan Route to the EU. Residents of Bihać and the northwest region of Bosnia–Herzegovina make sense of how racial hierarchies position both them and the migrants, and in turn how racism functions in their society, through overlapping and simultaneously imagined global, regional, and local scales. Distancing from racism based on Bosnia’s specific positioning was common, while local racializing hierarchies such as those that inferiorize the Roma were often understood through frameworks of ethnicity. This made possible a simultaneous identification with “Europe” and whiteness and a distancing from racial thinking and racism as a problem of the “west” even through divergent stances towards migrants.

Variations in the intensity of the securitization narratives at the EU level: securitizing the European refugee crisis

This paper examines the narratives of the European Council, European Commission, and European Parliament regarding the European refugee crisis. Although the relevant scholarly research suggests that the EU Institutions held different perspectives about the refugee crisis, this paper argues that there was no such a clash of perspectives. This paper builds on the Copenhagen School’s securitization framework as complemented with subsequent methodological tools to support the author’s arguments. The findings suggest that despite the similarity in the views held by the main EU Institutions considering the refugees’ influx, there was a variation in the intensity of their securitizing narratives. Theoretically, this study develops an understanding of the importance of the securitization narratives’ intensity. Methodologically, this study introduces the Securitization Narratives Continuum, a research tool that facilitates the assessment of securitization. Empirically, this is the first study to interview and take into account the opinions of the securitizing actors.

The EU’s Normative Dissensus on Migration: How National Identities Shaped Responses to the European Refugee Crisis

ABSTRACT During the so-called European refugee crisis of 2015–16, a ‘normative dissensus’ emerged between the EU member states located at the end of the Balkan route, Germany, Hungary, and Austria. This paper explores the roots of this normative dissensus by operationalizing post-functionalist propositions. It posits that national identity, and its domestic politicization during the late summer of 2015 generated the ‘constraining normative dissensus’ during the refugee crisis. To operationalize the link between identity, domestic politicization, and European dissensus, we employ moral-philosopher Christine Korsgaard’s concepts of ‘self-constitution’ and ‘practical identity’. We then apply this normative-constructivist approach to empirically demonstrate how the diversely constituted national identities of Germany, Austria, and Hungary led to different foundations for moral argumentation during the refugee crisis. As for the European integration process more generally, our findings highlight the importance of a shared European identity to achieve a normative consensus in areas that touch upon migration and citizenship.

Humanitarianism, victimisation, and bordering processes: debating the refugee experience in the classroom

Abstract Set in the peak of the so-called “European Migrant Crisis” and situated in the conflict-affected Cypriot context, this article examines Greek-Cypriot High School students’ representations of Syrian refugees as they were debated in classroom discussion. Drawing on ethnographic research that took place in 2016 in a Lower Secondary School in Cyprus, we analyse the interactional dynamics through which ‘bordering’ processes took place, showing how different types of borders were (re)-negotiated and re-instated in the classroom. Considering the sociohistorical context of Cyprus, we also investigate how teachers’ and students’ understandings of borders and ethnic identity-making were reshaped by local discourses. Our analysis shows that teachers, despite prompting students to take an active stance towards Syrian refugees as part of a peacebuilding stance, mobilised ethnocentric discourses that victimised refugees, portraying them as someone whose agency is taken away from, and for whom we can speak and act. Approaching borders as social constructs, we show how the national border separating “us” and “them” was construed and reaffirmed in such discussions, and how the representation of refugees as ‘the victim’ functioned as a way of narrating the ‘cultural fantasies’ of the national self.

Black Marxism, Racial Capitalism, and Greek and Balkan Coloniality Studies: Toward an Abolitionist Perspective

The end of the Cold War marked the beginning of the Balkan and Greek postcolonial and de-colonial studies. The Yugoslav ethnic wars, the Greek “financial crisis,” and the European migration crisis generated a body of critical studies on regional nationalism, coloniality, and racialism and the Balkans and Greece's ambiguous relation to Europe. Cedric J. Robinson's Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition was missing from the large spectrum of postcolonial literature. This absence is surprising given that the book historicizes the simultaneous occurrence of colonialism, capitalism, racism, and modernity in the Balkan and the East Mediterranean during the late feudalism. The absence of this history from the Balkan's post and de-colonial studies deprives these studies of an abolitionist perspective; rather than opting for “provincializing Europe” empowered by this history of the native enslavements and colonization, these studies, much as Black radicalism should mobilize the region for the political culture for the abolition of “Europe.”

Self-generated asylum evidence: Scripting, staging and desperation in the assessment process

Abstract The demonstrable rise in self-generated asylum evidence—most typically via social media—is in need of explication. Drawing on cases from ethnographic research in Sweden this article sets out to understand why asylum seekers turn to extreme forms of activity such as filming themselves burning the Quran. It appears that such ‘staged’ evidence is most often born out of a sense of emotional desperation in the face of a stone-wall assessment system which leans heavily towards rejection. To reach this conclusion, however, the article first engages with more traditional asylum ‘scripts’ and roadmaps endorsed and shaped by NGO’s and legal practitioners. The 2015 Migration Crisis in Europe has fundamentally altered the assessment process, not only in its ‘bar-raising’ aspects for positive decisions, but also by reconfiguring the very form and structure of evidence presented.

Avoiding or Accepting the Unknown: Asylum in the European Union

Many scholars have already dedicated their attention to the perceived migration crisis in Europe and related phenomena. The objective of the present paper is to examine tendencies of selected European national cultures to accept diversity and people with a migration background. The research hypothesis posits that countries with low Uncertainty Avoidance Index are more likely to accept migrants and refugees in their territory; while, on the contrary, countries that have relatively higher Uncertainty Avoidance Index tend to be more sceptical in regard to accepting migrants and refugees. In the study a variety of qualitative and mixed research methods (such as qualitative desk research, comparative analysis, and cluster analysis) are used. Firstly, applying the Uncertainty Avoidance Dimension by Hofstede, the European Union Member States are separated into four clusters according to their ranking within the Uncertainty Avoidance Index. Next, utilising data collected within the project MAGYC, the EU Member States are ranked according to the number of asylum centres, detention centres or similar facilities per capita. Finally, the countries with the highest Uncertainty Avoidance Index and the lowest number of asylum centres per capita are compared providing a comparison of the countries with the lowest Index and the highest number of asylum facilities per capita. The constructed simplified model allows for answering the question whether certain relation between inclination to avoid the unknown and the willingness of national cultures to accept migrants and refugees exists, concluding that the hypothesis is valid only in the case of several countries.

The Politics of Injury: Debilitation and the Right to Maim at the EU Border

ABSTRACT Borders are sites of mass injury. This article questions the necro-consensus that has emerged within migration studies, and explores the political role that less-than-deadly violence plays at contemporary borders. By withholding from outright killing, and thus avoiding the optics of public scrutiny, EU states are deploying a carefully calibrated politics of injury designed to control racialised groups through debilitation. The injuries produced through this border regime—typified by illegal ‘pushbacks’ and deplorable camp conditions—exist beneath a threshold of liberal acceptability. In short, EU states routinely deny the right to asylum by imposing the ‘right to maim’ (Puar 2017). This article draws upon long-term research along the ‘Balkan Route’ in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, including interviews with medics, activists, EU officials, and people on the move, as well as analysis of a large border violence database. We argue that mass injury has become a politically tolerated form of violence that perversely provides the EU with the illusory conceit of humanitarian “care”. In dialogue with postcolonial scholarship that has questioned the centrality of death within biopolitics, we assert the importance of interrogating not only the necropolitical logics of migration policy (i.e death), but also the politics of non-lethal violence: the strategic and attenuated delivery of injury, maiming, and incapacitation that shapes contemporary borders. Contributing to geographies of violence and critical border studies, we suggest that greater attention is needed towards less-than-deadly harms that underpin contemporary political geographies.

Angela Merkel's Leadership in Germany's Open Door Policy Regarding the Handling of the Refugee Crisis in Europe

This research will examine Angela Merkel's leadership in the Open Door Policy to address the refugee crisis that occurred in Europe in 2015. The conflict in Syria led people there to seek refuge in other countries, culminating in a significant increase in refugee waves worldwide. Europe, due to its geographical proximity to the Middle East, became the most affected region in receiving these refugees. In response, Germany, under Chancellor Angela Merkel, decided to open its borders to refugees from Syria. Unlike other European Union countries that chose not to accept refugees, Germany took a different approach. However, this policy faced opposition domestically from the AFD opposition party and the anti-Islam PEGIDA movement. Using the concept of leadership, this paper seeks to answer the question: How did Angela Merkel's leadership in Germany's Open Door Policy contribute to addressing the refugee crisis in Europe? This research utilizes secondary data collection methods, including books, journals, and documentation.

Where have Ukrainian refugees gone? Identifying potential settlement areas across European regions integrating digital and traditional geographic data

AbstractThe escalation of conflict in Ukraine has triggered the largest refugee crisis in Europe since WWII. As of early April 2024, over 5.9 million people have fled Ukraine. Large‐scale efforts have been made to identify the major receiving countries. However, less is known about the subnational areas within host countries where refugees have migrated. Identifying these areas is key for the appropriate allocation of humanitarian aid. By combining digital Facebook API data and traditional data from Eurostat, this paper aims to identify and characterise potential settlement areas of Ukrainians across the main destination countries in Europe. We identify high concentrations of Ukrainians in urban areas with a preexisting diaspora and tight labour market conditions across southern, northern‐west and central Poland and the city of Prague in the Czech Republic. We also find potential settlements in key urban agglomerations with a moderate diaspora and high levels of unemployment in Spain. Only in Romania, refugees seem to have settled in rural areas which show a moderate diaspora but low levels of unemployment. Potential settlement areas in Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom are spread across the country. Surprisingly, we do not identify potential settlement areas in bordering regions with Ukraine within neighbouring countries, suggesting that refugees may have used them as transit points. Our findings point out that different packages of humanitarian assistance may be needed according to the number of refugees and the characteristics of settlement areas.

Дослідження адміністративної системи Федеративної Республіки Німеччини

The relevance of the experience of governance of the European Union (EU), in particular in Germany, is due to several factors. The first factor relates to the security and migration crisis in Europe. This crisis has led to the need to reform the administrative mechanisms of migration control, which should be both common and individual for the EU Member States. The second factor concerns the impact of climate and environmental challenges. In this context, a study of the administrative system in Germany could be useful for developing effective policies to combat climate change and protect the environment. The third factor relates to innovation and economic integration. Germany's public administration is one of the leading actors in the European community, so studying it can help develop effective policies in these areas. Finally, studying Germany's legitimacy and democratic nature of EU administrative procedures is an important part of understanding and improving EU governance.

A Comprehensive Analysis of National and Supranational Approaches to Refugee Migration within the Framework of European Integration

This essay examines the European Union’s (EU) response to refugee migration, focusing on policy contributions, national approaches, and prospects for collaboration. By analyzing the 2015 European migrant crisis and the ongoing Ukrainian refugee crisis, it elucidates the complexities surrounding refugee migration in the EU. The study explores EU legislative developments, including the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, and evaluates divergent national perspectives, ideological barriers, and challenges to collaboration within the organization. It underscores the importance of solidarity and equitable burden-sharing in addressing refugee migration. Using theoretical analysis and empirical evidence, this paper offers insights into the EU’s efforts to manage refugee migration and the implications for future policymaking and collaboration.

War in Ukraine, the refugee crisis, and the polish housing market

The ongoing war in Ukraine has become a global issue and caused a major refugee crisis in Europe. The displacement of millions of people from Ukraine, who entered neighbouring countries, attributed to a housing demand shock in host cities and subsequent increases in rents and prices. The article investigates the housing market reaction in Poland’s five largest cities caused by the arrival of refugees from Ukraine following the Russian invasion in February 2022. We use a difference-in-difference quasi-experimental scenario to test whether exposure to mass refugee inflow translates to housing market dynamics. According to our findings, an increase in a city population of 1 pp caused by the inflow of refugees led to a 0.72–0.74% increase in housing rents. Additionally, we found some evidence that the arrival of migrants may have slightly increased apartment prices; however, the impact is smaller than in the case of rents and statistically significant only in selected specifications. The paper contributes to the literature on the impact of immigration or refugee inflow on housing market dynamics. The rent increases reported in this study may have serious housing policy implications, both in the short and mid-run.

Political communication in the real world: evidence from a natural experiment in Germany

Abstract Various robust communication effects have been identified, but evidence is overwhelmingly based on artificial survey treatments with limited real-world insight. I conducted a natural experiment on the impact of the European–Turkey statement closing the Balkan route during the 2015/16 European refugee crisis in Germany. This design tests the lasting effect of the statement's framing on public sentiment. I identify treatment and control groups based on timing to demonstrate its effect on perceptions of the crisis, asylum attitudes, and policy preferences. Effects are largest immediately following the announcement but decline rapidly. This shows political communication can significantly change opinion within a limited time frame. This study enhances our understanding of real-world communication effects and offers a broadly applicable methodology.

Politics metaphor in British and Bosnian-Herzegovinian migration discourse

As the geopolitical situation changes, it is necessary to discuss how politics is structured by metaphor in the context of recent social phenomena, such as the European migrant crisis. This paper analyses the conceptual metaphors politics as war, politics as a game, politics as a trade, and politics as a theater in British and Bosnian-Herzegovinian newspapers. The goal of this study is to establish to what extent and in which situations journalists resort to figurative language to persuade the recipients to view politics in a desired way. The paper aims to reflect on the use of deliberate metaphor as a perspective-changing device by journalists striving to achieve their rhetorical goals and influence recipients’ perception of the political situation. The corpus comprises 174 British and 307 Bosnian-Herzegovinian articles collected from August 2015 to March 2016 (247,912 words). Relying on Steen et al.’s (2010) model of metaphor analysis, the paper investigates the types of metaphor in the corpus, the deliberate use of politics metaphors and their communicative function in migration discourse - discussing both the rhetorical goals of journalists and the rhetorical effects on recipients. It has been established that the analyzed set of metaphors has a divertive and persuasive function in migration discourse. Similar studies are encouraged to shed light on how deliberate metaphors related to politics may have diverging communicative functions in other types of discourse.

IRREGULAR MIGRANTS ON THE ROADS OF SERBIA

With the onset of the migrant crisis in Europe, irregular migration is becoming a significant security problem for European leaders and citizens. As a result, there has also been a change in the public opinion of European countries, because many citizens associate irregular migration with terrorism and other security problems. In line with the growing importance of irregular migration as a security problem, the research aimed to determine changes in migration trends in Serbia, that is, on the ‘Balkan route’ of migration since 2015, when the migrant crisis in Europe began. Results that can roughly indicate the profile of an irregular migrant found on the territory of the Republic of Serbia were obtained in this research, conducted between June and August 2020 on a sample of 50 irregular migrants. An irregular migrant is a person from Afghanistan, of Islamic religion, uneducated, and of a poor financial status. They want to go to Germany for money, and they cross the borders of the countries located on the ‘Balkan route’ on foot, occasionally using the services of smugglers. Additionally, they have no problems with the border police of Serbia. The conducted research can contribute to gaining new knowledge about the problem of irregular migration, primarily about the trends that are different than they were at the time of the migrant crisis in 2015. Unlike previous research, this research is unique in that it also refers to the work of the border police and the attitude of border police officers toward irregular migrants.