INTERACT conversations #13: (Not) everyone welcome? Selective solidarity with refugees: insights from social psychology

22 January 2026, 12:00 – 14:00

Lecture by Dr. Tijana Karić 

Empirical research consistently demonstrates the existence of double standards in the treatment of refugees in Europe. Across media and migration studies, political science and international relations, research shows how European refugee policies systematically differentiate between "deserving" and "undeserving" refugees, privileging some groups while excluding and marginalising others. These policy practices are reinforced by carefully tailored media narratives that shape and influence public opinion. The securitization of refugees has become a dominant policy framework at both EU and national levels and is frequently used to legitimize restrictive measures and border violence. Refugees are racialised and gendered not only through policy frameworks but also in public attitudes and everyday citizen practices. Research further indicates significant disparities in solidarity with and helping refugees based on their perceived origin and gender. In this lecture, I draw on social psychological perspectives to help explain the mechanisms underlying selective solidarity with refugees, focusing on the roles of ideology, national and European identification, perceived threat, and social representations. These insights are integrated with findings from gender studies, security studies, and critical European studies.

Dr Tijana Karić is a research fellow at Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany. Her research broadly focuses on intergroup reconciliation, political attitudes, and intergroup relations. She specifically investigates how social identities, social representations, victim beliefs, and perceived threats shape reconciliation efforts and broader intergroup dynamics. Her work on political attitudes examines how social identity, marginalization, political inclusion, and threat perceptions influence geopolitical views, political solidarity, and societal belonging. Recently, she has engaged in studying social movements and prefigurative politics in repressive contexts. She's currently PI on two projects: Transformative effects of prefigurative politics in the context of the anti-corruption protests in Serbia and Social-psychological underpinnings of support for secession in contexts previously affected by secession conflict.

Event location:

Freie Universität Berlin, Garystrasse 55, Hörsaal A

Organization: Dr. Jannis Julien Grimm