Securitization and desecuritization processes of migration in Poland in the context of migration from Ukraine aft er the outbreak of the Russian- Ukrainian war (2022)

Abstract

The subject of the article are the processes of securitization and desecuritization of migration in Poland in the context of migration from Ukraine after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war (2022). The article, using the securitization theory of the Copenhagen school, first analyzes the process initiated in 2015 in connection with the eu migration crisis. As a result, the media and political discourse in Poland became more severe and migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa were presented as a threat to the state and society. A similar trend was observed in connection with the crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border, when “extraordinary measures” were introduced using fear-inducing images to prevent migrants (referred to as “Lukashenko’s weapons”) from entering Poland. On the other hand, the much more massive migration that took place after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine did not meet such a tendency, and the accompanying actions and policy taken towards migration can be assessed as completely diff erent. Therefore, the aim of the analysis was to answer the quest ion: what factors infl uenced the desecuritization of migration that took place after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?