Watch the video recording of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence Webinar, “The Belarus-Poland-Lithuania Migrant Crisis: Context and Concerns”!
Also available at the CES YouTube Channel. The webinar was originally presented on 24 November, 2021.
Discussion of the geopolitical deadlock and humanitarian crisis between Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus with some discussion of Russia. Speakers covered a range of topics about the migrant crisis, including:
- The motives of President Lukashenko’s use of the crisis as an attempt to force EU countries to end sanctions and engage with Belarus.
- The narratives coming from the countries involved as well as Russia, and the Polish narrative as the last defence of Europe against the migrants.
- The historical factors around Soviet Border control and the legacy of this system in the current situationl.
- Russia’s public diplomacy in relation to crisis, and the way it has made use of the crisis.
- The EU’s eastern policy and the impact of the crisis on this policy, and whether the eastern policy has been at all successful.
- The EU narrative of the crisis and the framing of the crisis as not a migrant crisis, but rather an authoritarian attempt to destabilise democratic neighbours.
Timestamps for speakers are available on YouTube.
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This is an activity of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at the Centre for European Studies with the support of the Erasmus + Programme of the European Union and Carleton University.
