Why do states discriminate between refugee groups? Understanding how Syrian and Ukrainian refugees were framed in Germany and Poland

Abstract

Previous studies hypothesize that countries discriminate between refugee groups of different backgrounds depending on cultural similarity to the host population and whether they flee from a rivaling regime. We argue that these explanations miss how political actors frame the collective identity of the host nation and the refugees in political discourse, and the nation state-specific cultural repertoires they draw on. The different responses of the German and Polish governments to Syrian and Ukrainian refugees are a case in point. While Poland welcomed Ukrainian and rejected Syrian refugees, Germany differentiated relatively little between Syrian and Ukrainian refugees in terms of its admission policy. Based on a qualitative analysis of parliamentary debates in Germany and Poland, we show that the German government employed mostly “cosmopolitan” frames by highlighting Germany’s humanitarian orientation, the commitment to international law, and the principles of liberal democracies. In contrast, the Polish government employed mostly “communitarian” frames by highlighting Poland’s national sovereignty and drawing strong cultural boundaries.