The Refugee Crisis, Solidarity Mobilization and the Crisis of European Humanity

This article critically addresses the analysis put forward by Ludger Pries in his book Refugees, Civil Society and the State. European Experiences and Global Challenges (2018) which contains a documented, although probably too optimistic, account on the refugees’ movement arrived to Europe during the long summer of 2015 and the expressions of solidarity emerged at that time in various European countries (most notably in Germany). After a presentation of the book’s three main lines of discussion – i.e. the causes and factors behind the movement of refugees which triggered the so-called refugee crisis in Europe in 2015; the strategy adopted by European States to deal with the crisis itself and which resembled a sort of “organized non-responsibility”; and, finally, the characteristics of that “civic-social movement for the protection of refugees and asylum” that demanded fair asylum procedures and a more humane treatment – the analysis emphasizes some crucial aspects which still need a further reflection and challenge social scientists to adopt more comprehensive approaches. Hence, the review is an opportunity to discuss more thoroughly issues related to the need to overcome traditional schemes and definitions in this field (i.e. refugees vs. economic migrants), to reflect on the political implications of the adoption of policies of exclusion and containment at European level and to address the extremely worrying effects of a growing rise of anti-migrant rhetoric which has enhanced, inter alia, the emergence of a state of collective indifference on the dramatic and inhumane conditions in which migration to Europe still occurs.