Solidarity with Ukrainian war refugees in Polanders’ epistolary narratives (based on the study of southern and eastern regions of Poland)

Abstract

Bordering Ukraine, Poland has become the main escape channel for refugees fleeing from the disastrous war since its inception on 24 February 2022. The results of the study prove that the future of societies can be determined by the importance currently assigned to solidarity. The scale of support and assistance provided spontaneously by individuals and social movements in Poland over the last year has exceeded expectations and confirmed the feasibility of a tremendous potential of solidarity being dormant in Polish society as well as a readiness for selfless and effective actions. This research objective is to gain an insight into Poles’ understanding of the hardships of the war, as well as the motives and emotional involvement driving their support for Ukrainian citizens. In parallel to that, the article examines the issue of bottom-up initiatives of solidarity from the perspective of the refugee influx. This research, which is qualitative in nature, is grounded on the technique of an epistolary narrative analysis of 43 letters written by Poles to unknown Ukrainians. Such qualitative methodology is characterized by typical limitations of this type of research (for example, little generalization is possible due to the size of the sample). However, the findings show that, through spontaneous solidarity and support, disapproval of the aggressor, admiration and gratitude to Ukrainian soldiers, the potential of the messages has boosted the rapprochement of the bonds between the two nations and alleviated the historical conflicts. The solidarity identified stands out and should be distinguished from any other crisis related to refugee phenomena as well as deserving further research from various perspectives.