Reflections from the borderlands. On hegemonic whiteness and the construction of Polish hostile environment
Routledge | pages: 15
Abstract
Poland’s migration regime has been engaging in hostile border practices for some time, but more recently it became increasingly difficult, dangerous and deadly, following in the footsteps of its European neighbours. In August 2021, the media reported on a group of 32 Afghans who were trapped on the Polish-Belarusian border. They were protesting against being pushed back into Belarusian territory, despite their repeated requests for asylum. In this chapter, we want to reflect on how hegemonic whiteness is part of the construction of the hostile environment in the EU’s eastern borderlands and how it shapes the ways in which activists, researchers and people on the move are able to operate. We are members of a group called Researchers on the Border, established in response to the crisis, and this chapter reflects our first-hand experiences of providing humanitarian assistance as well as long-term observation and ethnographic research conducted in the area.