Why Are Europeans Supporting Ukrainian Refugees With a Passion Never Seen Before?
Don’t get me wrong: this wave of solidarity toward the Ukrainians is invaluable and much needed. But it is as honorable as it is unusual. I don’t remember such generosity with other refugees.
Take those from Syria, for example.
Syrians had to flee their country due to war as well. But they did not find welcoming arms in Europe. Instead, they found the borders closed. The EU excluded them by arranging an agreement with Turkey to deal with the asylum seekers.
Ukrainians are not facing such difficulties.
Europe found a way to welcome Ukrainian refugees. Even countries that denied asylum before, like Denmark or Hungary, are making exceptions now.
But what’s more memorable is the dimension of people’s involvement. Since the very beginning of the war, we’ve seen humanitarian movements and initiatives gaining form — carried out as much by groups of ordinary people as by official organizations. Lots of volunteers fled to the border countries to offer their help. Others sent money or essential goods; offered transportation or even their own houses.
Why are Europeans so committed to helping Ukrainians?
I propose 3 main reasons.
1 — The war is right next door
The conflict in Syria was far away, in another continent. It did not affect our daily lives.
But a war in Europe? Oh, boy! — As the past World Wars prove, a war in Europe tends to reach world dimensions.
And now, we have an extra concern: nuclear weapons. No wonder the first thing Putin did was take NATO out of the equation by threatening with a nuclear war.
He is counting on such concern to achieve his goal of controlling Ukraine, and maybe of rebuilding an Empire. Countries like Estonia, Latvia, and Moldova fear they can be next.
Standing against a much larger country with a much larger army, and undermined by pro-Russian separatists, Ukraine had no chance. Putin would have his Blitzkrieg.
Or, at least, it was what everyone thought. No one was expecting the bravery and resistance of the Ukrainians.
Zelensky refused to surrender or to flee the country himself. He stood his ground, filling his people with pride… and inspiring the rest of the world.
It was him — together with the public opinion of many European citizens — who compelled the European leaders to finally take action. And the EU imposed sanctions on Russia and took legal measures to support the refugees.
And this takes us to the next reason…
2 — It’s the story of the moment
And we sure love stories.
The media knows it well, and they feed our hunger with stories about the refugees, the volunteers, the soldiers… you name it.
It is virtually impossible to miss what is going on in Ukraine (unless you, or your government, are trying hard to avoid it). We even forgot about the virus… what was its name, again?
Journalists from all over the world went to Ukraine before the invasion. They showed us the Ukrainian soldiers setting in the frontline when Russian troops were still doing “exercises” near the border. How ordinary citizens started getting military training to defend their homes.
They showed us countless stories: the 11-year-old boy who arrived in Slovakia alone; the pregnant woman rescued from a bombed maternity who ended up dying, along with her baby; the father grieving for the son he lost during a bombardment… the families that got separated, the volunteers who left everything to help, or even fight for Ukraine.
Stories feed our brains and our emotions. And personal stories are the most engaging. Particularly when we identify with them.
3 — We feel more empathy for Ukrainians
Empathy is the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, to try to feel what we think they are experiencing.
And it is easier for us to feel empathy for people who are like us. Physically, culturally, geographically…
It’s not me saying — a group of psychologists showed that racial bias affects our emotional reaction to someone else’s pain:
In an experiment, they presented a series of videos to Caucasian University students. The videos featured Caucasian, African, and Asian men and women (actors) being stung with a needle. The students’ emotional reaction was measured by physiological changes in their skin.
The students’ reaction was stronger for Caucasians, especially compared to Africans. It is an involuntary, physiological reaction. As the experimenters said, this is an “implicit and uncontrolled cognitive mechanism.” It reduces our empathy for people who we see as different.
We can’t help it. We don’t even notice!
Empathy is essential for building social relationships and bringing people closer. But empathy can have a dark side.
When we distinguish people — we vs. them, in-group vs. out-group — our empathy towards one person or group might make us unfair towards the other.
It is happening now. For example, Indian and African students, who were attending Ukrainian Universities, accused Ukrainian authorities of treating them with cruelty when they were trying to leave the country. Another example is the clinic in Germany that refused to treat Russian and Belarusian citizens, though they’ve already reconsidered.
Double Standards and what to do about them
The European Union denies it, but its treatment of refugees was not the same. Both experts and other refugees, like the Syrians, have noticed it.
And we, ordinary people, are more willing to help when the victims are familiar to us, and we feel connected to them. Or when we see them as more vulnerable. The Ukrainian refugees are mostly women and children.
The previous refugee waves brought many men from religious and cultural backgrounds that differ from ours. And after 9/11, the Madrid bombings, and the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan, it is easier for the common European to fall into stereotyping and accept lies about people from the Middle East.
How can we avoid our biases?
The first step is to acknowledge them.
Humans have an intrinsic tendency for categorizing — that’s how we make sense of the world. Stereotypes are simplified versions of the world that make our lives easier. But can also lead to prejudice.
So we all have the potential to discriminate, even if we don’t mean to hurt.
Saying that racism does not exist is denial. Only when we admit it is there, we can find a solution. And the solution is not using the intrinsic nature of racism to justify mistreating others.
For the empathy bias, psychologist Paul Bloom offered a suggestion:
Instead of trying to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, we should exercise compassion. Try to have warm and positive feelings for someone or a group, without having to share their emotions. As he puts it:
“(…) an adult might comfort a child who is terrified of a small, yipping dog even if the adult does not experience the child’s fear in the slightest”
We can be kind to other people even when we don’t feel any connection.
To avoid being unfair, we should use reason to manage our emotions.
The African, Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern refugees — is their suffering less heartbreaking, their hopes less relevant, or their rights less valid just because they are different from us?
Would we be so willing to take these Ukrainian women and children if they were from another continent, ethnicity, or religion? Would we help them if most refugees were adult men? Or if they were fleeing from a civil war that would go on for ages? Or if they weren’t so eager to return to their country as soon as possible?
What do you think?
