Ukrainian Refugees: (Un)Deservingness and the Politics of Exclusion

In the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens have been displaced and made homeless. This has led to Ukrainians having to flee their homes to find refuge in neighbouring countries. Individuals escaping war or persecution are very rarely constructed positively. However, unusually, this was a phenomenon evident during the Ukrainian crisis, when ‘white’ people fleeing the war in Ukraine were represented by the Western media, politicians and journalists as more deserving of the world’s compassion and care than other non-white refugees of warfare. At the same time, it also revealed the resurgence of hidden white supremacy in the face of a global humanitarian crisis,