Selective Solidarity and EU Migration Governance: Visegrad Responses Amid the Russia-Ukraine War

Abstract

The 2022 Russia-Ukraine war triggered one of the largest displacement crises in Europe since World War II, prompting varied migration responses across the continent. Notably, Visegrad countries: Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Slovakia; exhibited selective migration policies, embracing Ukrainian refugees while maintaining restrictive stances toward asylum seekers from the Global South. This paper employs Anssi Paasi’s border framing theory and Matt McDonald’s securitization of migration framework to examine how peace and security are discursively constructed and operationalized through racialized and geopolitical lenses. Through discourse analysis of political speeches, policy documents, and media narratives from 2022 to 2024, the research reveals how the Visegrad states mobilize narratives of proximity, cultural affinity, and perceived threat to legitimize differentiated humanitarianism. The result is a “solidarity paradox” in which inclusion is framed not through universal human rights but through sele ctive identity-based securitization. This paradox not only undermines EU commitments to equitable asylum governance but also illustrates how borders are reimagined both symbolically and institutionally in times of crisis.