Welcome to your Death by Robert Friedrich

The intensification of xenophobic discourse in the country is being linked to the mainstreaming of ideas about the ‘Islamisation’ of Europe and, consequently, of Poland (Pędziwiatr 2017). Hostility towards immigrants, particularly Muslims, was at the forefront of the 2015 political campaign in Poland. The incoming Eurosceptic right-wing government promoting Catholic patriotic values became the latest addition to the populist current in the region, ideologically following in the footsteps of Orban’s Hungary (Buckley and Foy 2016). The election of the right-wing political party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość at the height of the refugee crisis sent a strong message about the political direction in which the country was heading. I do not see the possibility for migrants to come to Poland at this time.’ (Beata Szydło, Prime Minister, 2016)Ģ015 was a significant year in Poland. Mobilised within this are new and old manifestations of racism, suggesting that Poland’s long history of racial Othering and exclusion has not been sufficiently accounted for. The paper argues that the Polish response to the so-called refugee crisis should be analysed as subtext to a broader political change in the country towards nationalism that has as its goal to push out all foreign ‘invasion’. It focuses on how three key players in the Polish public sphere-the Catholic Church, the State and civil society actors-responded to the looming perspective of welcoming refugees to Poland. This article maps responses to refugees from key public actors. In this sense, Poland can be seen to be drawing particular inspiration from the Eurosceptic politics of Orbán’s Hungary while also reflecting a broader European trend towards Islamophobia in countries such as France, Germany, Sweden or the UK. The figure of the Muslim terrorist posing as a refugee has become a key trope through which xenophobic nationalist politics have been employed. The government’s response was that it does indeed welcome refugees as long as they are not Muslims, since letting Muslim refugees in would be a security risk.

Poland has been reprimanded by the EU for its lack of solidarity with other countries that accepted refugees. The Polish response to the crisis that escalated across Europe in 2015, banning refugees from crossing its borders, has been one of the least welcoming in Europe.

Welcome to your Death by Robert Friedrich