Introduction: Race in CEE migrations

The region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is going through extraordinary changes in relation to migration. Millions of people are on the move to, from and within CEE, and these mobility patterns have never been more pronounced. The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine mobilised an unprecedented outward migration and, since 2022, forced millions of Ukrainians to seek safety in Central and Western Europe (IOM, 2024). But even before the invasion, the extent of migration from Ukraine, but also from outside Europe, was growing (Duszczyk and Kaczmarczyk, 2022; Styrnol et al.,2023a, 2023b; Magdziarz et al., 2023a, 2023b, 2023c). This included economic migrants seeking to fill labour shortages in CEE and people claiming refuge either in the region or using it as an entry point to reach Western Europe.
In the aftermath of the so-called migration crisis in the Mediterranean and beyond (2014–2016), and most recently at the EU’s eastern borders, violence has become normalised. The Hungarian–Serbian, Lithuanian–Belarussian and Polish–Belarussian borders have become increasingly militarised with
daily pushbacks and a growing number of migrants being injured and dying while stuck at or attempting to cross these borders (Judzińska and Sendyka, 2022; Narkowicz, 2021). Race, racialisation and whiteness are at the centre of these spectacles (Rexhepi, 2018; De Genova, 2013).

This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge/CRC Press in Migration and Race: Central and Eastern European Perspectives on January 17, 2025, available online: http://www.routledge.com/9781032518152
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