OpinionWhy has New Zealand welcomed people fleeing Ukraine, but not those from Afghanistan, Myanmar, elsewhere?
- The government’s quick response towards Ukrainian refugees prompts tough questions of who is deserving of protection and who is less so
- Its move is disproportionate to recent conflicts in other parts of the world, highlighting how racism often operates in implicit and, at times, explicit ways
Of course, Ukrainians need to get somewhere safe, and there needs to be an international response to ensure neighbouring countries keep their borders open. Let’s face it, they’re not countries that usually welcome refugees and asylum seekers.
But there’s something very Eurocentric in this response, starting within the borders of Ukraine itself. In the early stages of the Russian invasion, there were numerous reports of people from African, Asian, Middle Eastern and Caribbean nations being refused passage through the checkpoints leading up to the border to Poland and then being refused admission when they finally reached the crossings.
We can see similar dynamics playing out across Europe and other Western nations. The outpouring of support and even opening of people’s homes is being witnessed at a scope and scale not seen during the height of the so called “European refugee crisis” in 2015, as hundreds of thousands of equally desperate people made their way across land borders and the Mediterranean to escape persecution following the Syrian civil war.