From Refugee Crisis to a Crisis of Solidarity?

Abstract

This chapter describes the background of the refugee crisis and the responses by the international community in terms of refugee management. It looks at the national attempts to manage refugee flows and the inclusion of refugees into the European nation-states. It outlines the general discursive presentation of the refugee issue and uses this as a departure point to initially describe the responses from civil society actors to deal with the crisis and provide alternative models for engaging with the refugee issue. Our argument is that although these responses are diverse and have different aims, they also share some common features as they may be regarded as emerging solidarities based on diverse alliances. We reflect on the role and potential of such alliances and solidarities for developing alternatives to the current management of the refugee crisis on local, national, and transnational levels.