Unequal refugeeness : Race, gender, and co-belligerence from Poles in colonial Africa to Ukrainians in Poland
Abstract
- Abstract
- en Refugee-receiving states do not live up to the universalist ideals of international refugee legislation but are selective and discriminatory. The case of Poland’s acceptance of Ukrainians while simultaneously building a border wall to keep out non-Ukrainians is an obvious case. Based on historical research on the British Empire’s policies towards European refugees, this article looks into a comparable moment when governments made an exception to their established anti-refugee policy and accepted certain groups of refugees. The British colonial administration in East Africa rejected Jewish refugees but accepted a specific group of Poles during the Second World War. This exception under war conditions was legitimized with an emphasis on the group’s gender, race, and connection to the co-belligerent Polish army. They were the white women and children of the Polish male soldiers fighting with the British against the Axis. The recent welcome for Ukrainian refugees in Poland followed similar lines of argumentation.
Subjects
People & roles
- Author(s)
- Lingelbach, Jochen
Origins & context
- Title
- Unequal refugeeness : Race, gender, and co-belligerence from Poles in colonial Africa to Ukrainians in Poland
- Publication type
- Article
- Language
- English
- Journal
- Journal of Refugee Studies
- Year
- December 2025
- volume
- 38
- issue
- 3
- Page start
- 674
- Page end
- 689
- Status
- Peer reviewed
- Relation
- Open Access Publizieren
Identifiers & sources
- ISSN
- 1471-6925
Full text
- Full text
- Unequal refugeeness. Race, gender, and co-belligerence from Poles in colonial Africa to Ukrainians in Poland Jochen Lingelbach 1, 1Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (African History), University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany Corresponding author. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (African History), University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany. E-mail: jochen.lingelbach@uni-bayreuth.de Abstract Refugee-receiving states do not live up to the universalist ideals of international refugee legis lation but are selective and discriminatory. The case of Poland’s acceptance of Ukrainians while simultaneously building a border wall to keep out non-Ukrainians is an obvious case. Based on historical research on the British Empire’s policies towards European refugees, this article looks into a comparable moment when governments made an exception to their estab lished anti-refugee policy and accepted certain groups of refugees. The British colonial admin istration in East Africa rejected Jewish refugees but accepted a specific group of Poles during the Second World War. This exception under war conditions was legitimized with an emphasis on the group’s gender, race, and connection to the co-belligerent Polish army. They were the white women and children of the Polish male soldiers fighting with the British against the Axis. The recent welcome for Ukrainian refugees in Poland followed similar lines of ar gumentation. Keywords: race; Poland; colonialism; Ukraine; war; history; refugees … [the Polish refugees] are the wives and families of some of those gallant, indomitable Polish soldiers who are fighting with the Allied forces in the Middle East. To them we owe a duty. To look after their wives and families will be a pleasure.1 This is why we are proposing to activate the temporary protection mechanism to provide them [Ukrainian refugees] with a secure status and access to schools, medical care and work. They deserve it. We need to do that now.2 1 East… Read the full text about 10,529 words
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