Ukrainian refugees

[HelpfulAlex]

This probably should be an AIBU, but don’t want this sticking around forever. It’s one of the subjects that people may derail a thread for.

The situation in Ukraine is appalling and we are seeing the images daily. What I’m not seeing is the word refuge being used.

Families fleeing war torn countries are refugees. A term which is rightly assigned in the media to all other people who have left or currently leaving war torn countries.

I just feel that by not using it at all doesn’t allow people to see that refuges in Ukraine and those from Syria, Iraq, Somalia, as examples, are the same - they are people, irrespective of their colour of their skin.

When people think about refugees they may unconsciously think “brown people”, but refugees can be any colour and the support and tolerance needs to be consistent.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t be helping Ukrainian families, but it makes me sad that there wasn’t the same and isn’t the same type of support, outrage and tolerance on such a large scale, as to what we are seeing now.

Also to add I’ve just done a quick Google and there are stories referring to Ukrainian families as refugees. So my post is probably less justified.

I've heard them referred to as refugees because thats what they are. they are not migrants they are refugees seeking refuge from war.

There's already been a thread on this.

Ukraine is a lot closer though, and culturally has more overlap. It also massively helps that it's mostly women and children coming from the Ukraine. Children always invoke more sympathy (remember the drowned boy on the beach? He was brown and there was a world wide outcry). Plus that people don't feel threatened by an influx of women and children, an influx of young men from a different culture where they treat women differently feels/is much more threatening. So there are more significant reasons than skin colour why Ukranian refugees are accepted more easily.

In the EU the Temporary Protection Directive applies so they don't actually apply for refugee status. They are still being called refugees though.