Refugee as a Guest. Private Hosting of Ukrainian War Refugees in Poland

Abstract (English)

In the wake of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Poland received the greatest number of refugees. While many found shelter in the collective accommodation centres, hundreds of thousands were spontaneously hosted in private homes. This is an unprecedented phenomenon, given the rather unwelcoming attitude of the Polish society towards refugees, which was the result of anti-refugee discourse developed since 2015. Such a hosting, which often lasted for months, included not only providing refugees with shelter and food, but also extensive instrumental and emotional support. It can thus be interpreted as a bottom-up and improvised form of refugee sponsorship, a model developed in the late 1970s in Canada as an alternative to collective housing that has long been criticised for isolating refugees and bringing counter-integration results. 
The main advantage of private hosting is that it directly involves the members of the receiving societies and initiates the integration process from the very beginning through establishing interpersonal relationships between hosts and refugees. It gives refugees a sense of belonging to the host society, but also helps to build more open and welcoming communities, stimulating positive attitudes toward refugees as future members of the host societies. Last but not least, private hosting can foster reciprocity – refugees who have been offered direct support from the receiving society will be willing to return to this society.
In the paper, I scrutinise the dynamics of the private hosting of Ukrainian war refugees in Poland through the categories of deservingness, reciprocity, and emotional labour involved in the roles of hosts and guests. Above all, I pose the question about the potential of this form of refugee reception to abolish the ‘we’–‘they’ divide, and forge solidarities against mobility regimes. The paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Western Poland among the hosts and hosted refugees.