Migration Policy Institute

AUTHORS
Alberto-Horst Neidhardt is a Policy Analyst for the European Policy Centre's European Diversity and Migration program and a lecturer at the University of Antwerp.
Paul Butcher is a former Policy Analyst for the European Policy Centre's European Politics and Institutions program.

EXCERPT
Soon after the start of the massive human displacement to the European Union caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, rumors and hoaxes about Ukrainian refugees began to spread online. In Czechia and Romania, social media and suspicious websites, some purporting to be genuine news outlets, were flooded with messages claiming that arriving Ukrainians were wealthy yet receiving significant social and financial support, while needy locals were left without help. In Poland, Ukrainians were falsely accused of committing violent crimes against residents. Resulting comments were resentful against refugees, aid groups, and governments alike.

This is just the latest instance of how disinformation about refugees, other migrants, and minority groups adapts to the shifting news cycle—while also appealing to people’s pre-existing convictions and tapping into current worries, in this case about generalized violence and household incomes struggling to keep up with rising prices. Salient events such as the war in Ukraine act as catalysts, enabling coordinated disinformation-producing activist groups and extremists to grab people’s attention and stoke fears, in some cases even setting the tone of the political discourse surrounding the management of migratory phenomena and the policies governing them. MORE