Migration and Security in Central Europe. How the Visegrad Group responded to the 2015 and 2022 Refugee Crisis. Part I

Abstract

Over the past decade, the security environment in Europe has changed radically. The problem of illegal migration has become one of the most serious for the EU member states. In that context, the four Central European countries – Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia – maintain a position that differs from that of Brussels. They categorically reject the quota principle for distributing migrants and are even willing to incur sanctions for this stance. Their attitude towards refugees from Ukraine, after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, is completely different, this contrast is the focus of this article. It attempts a comparative analysis of the policies of the Visegrad Group (V4) countries towards migrants from the Middle East and North Africa, on the one hand, and towards refugees from the Russian-Ukrainian full-scale war, on the other. Using official documents of the Visegrad Group, statistical data, press materials, as well as scientific research, it highlights the distinctive features of these policies in both cases and explores the reasons for the differences. The conclusion is that the V4 countries’ stances towards migrants from the Middle East and Africa versus Ukrainian refugees are shaped by the perceived impact on their national security in particular and on European security in general.