Discourses of “Europeanness” in Asylum Practices in the Postcolonial Context (original) (raw)

This article examines the impact of ethno-racial factors on perceptions of refugees and asylum practices in the European postcolonial context. Using Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) the authors analyse “Europe for Europeans” public discourse against the backdrop of the 2015-2016 migration crisis, the humanitarian disaster on the Polish-Belarusian border in 2021 and asylum seekers’ influx in spring 2022. The study shows that attitudes to refugees and their “right” to asylum in a European country are impacted by ethno-racial markers of applicants. Such discursive practices call into question one of the understandings of Europeanness, namely Europe as the embodiment of advanced political ethics, since European political discourse has recently positioned a refugee from the Middle East and North Africa as an “alien” “non-European,” thus normalizing threats to human life in allegedly “uncivilized” parts of the world. This normalization is consequently affecting the decision making in a...