Politicized,moral and personal motivations of refugee helpers in the context of the war in Ukraine / Motivaciones politizadas,morales y personales de quienes prestan ayuda a los refugiados en el contexto de la guerra en Ucrania

Abstract

We tested motivations and conditions of helping intention towards refugees from Ukraine in three Central European countries. Our aim was twofold: to test how personal, moral and politicized motivation predicted sustainability of helping, and how these motivations were connected to conditionality of helping, specifically to stereotypical expectations of refugees to fit the image of the helpless but grateful help recipients. We anticipated that helpers with politicized motivation have lower stereotypical expectations of refugees than those with personal motivation, while lower personal motivation predicts higher long-term engagement, mediated by fewer stereotypical expectations. Our online survey in Hungary (n = 2,261), Slovakia (n = 712) and Poland (n = 402) targeted people who were active in helping Ukrainian refugees. Politicized motivation predicted lower stereotypical expectations in Hungary but not in the Slovakia and Poland. Personal motivation predicted higher stereotypical expectations, which in turn predicted lower long-term prosocial action in all contexts. We argue that helpers who apply a double standard in helping to a lesser extent (by lower stereotypical expectations of refugees) would sustain their engagement more.