‘Us’ and ‘Them’. Europe’s Ambiguous Relationship with Refugeehood

In 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, the European Union (EU) triggered the Temporary Protection Directive (TPD) for the first time. This policy tool, aimed at providing immediate protection in case of a mass influx of displaced persons from non-EU countries, reduces the bureaucratic hurdles often associated with migration and thereby paved the way for timely and effective assistance to Ukrainians inside the EU. This paper explores the question of why the TPD was not also triggered in 2015 when people fled from countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, or Iraq. Considering the legal framework for asylum, the ramifications of political identity, as well as underlying geopolitical factors, it attempts to understand the EU's seemingly inconsistent stance on migration over the past years. Following the normative demands of providing protection for the displaced, it gives a descriptive analysis of why the international community has yet to arrive at a functional framework guiding its actions and provides a brief sketch of a potential alternative.

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