A chara, – While Fintan O’Toole is right to raise concerns about other conflicts and refugees (“Would Ukrainians still feel welcome if they were not white and Christian?”, Opinion & Analysis, June 18th), the particularly strong reaction Europe and Ireland have had to the conflict in Ukraine is understandable considering the nature of the EU and the history of its member states.
Ireland, as Fintan O’Toole points out, is not very close to Ukraine geographically, but the EU borders it, meaning that as far as migrancy is concerned (islandhood aside) we effectively border it too. When it comes to Brexit, we ask that other EU countries care about what happens at our border as if it were their own. It is therefore fair that we care about what happens at their borders as if they were our own. Many countries in the EU not only border Ukraine, but have themselves experienced Russian imperialism in the last century. It is natural that countries like Poland, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic feel particularly strongly about Ukraine. EU policy should take their outlook into account, and Irish policy must take the EU into account.
The EU itself was formed to help European countries avoid and recover from the horrors of war and dictatorship that had plagued them in the 20th century, based on cooperation and mutual recognition of the wounds of the past. Considering Ukraine has suffered more than most from these same wars and totalitarian regimes, the EU cannot be indifferent to it without undermining its own raison d’être.
Central here is the question of whether “Europe” is just an economically advantageous free trade club? Or is it about being “white and culturally Christian”?
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I say neither, and not only because of the countless connections across Europe in areas such as music, literature, and philosophy. Seeing Ukrainian refugees in German train stations, or Ukrainian flags all over Prague during my Erasmus year, I thought of other refugees crossing Europe in previous centuries in pursuit of peace and freedom; of how the struggle against aggression and totalitarianism has been a long and continental one; and of the attempt to build a peaceful, free and humane continent on the site of a bloody history. That is the European project. It has included millions of Europeans of diverse religions and ethnicities. The people of Ukraine have made it very clear that they are part of that project.
As an island on the Atlantic, it is easier for Ireland to detach itself from the troubles of European history than it is for places like Prague, Lodz, Lviv, or Mariupol. The reasons for the current wave of Irish sympathy for Ukraine probably vary from person to person, but overall I am glad that we have not opted for detachment this time, and that people have rallied to the cause of Ukrainian refugees, something which was not a given considering that (despite an American-centric worldview that simplifies racism to a matter of skin colour) racism against Eastern Europeans from Western Europeans has long been a serious problem.
This is not to say that other conflicts are not tragic, and the treatment of other refugees in Ireland is not worrying.
But this support for Ukraine is a step in the right direction, which might hopefully encourage Ireland to finally be more ambitious in giving refugees from all continents a safe and welcoming place to stay. – Is mise,
AOIBH NÍ CHROIMÍN,
Hamburg,
Germany.