The fragility of Europe's Willkommenskultur

In this guest editorial Chris Hann considers the refugee route via the Balkans to Germany that opened up in a big way in the summer of 2015. The influx of ‘economic migrants’, as most newcomers are widely perceived, is polarizing opinion throughout the member states of the European Union. Hann also detects a renewal of the old east‐west moral geographies, due in part to legacies of the socialist era in eastern Europe and the semi‐peripheral condition of the region today for European capitalism. Whereas most anthropologists tend to favor unconstrained mobility and hence call for the abolition of frontiers, Hann suggests that the solution cannot be so simple. Focusing on the interplay of economic and ethical factors, he urges empathy not only with all categories of refugees/migrants but also with the dispossessed in the societies that offer them a ‘welcome’.