Racialising Refugees: The Global Colour Line in US Resettlement

Abstract Following the 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, there were notable differences in access to resettlement and other pathways of humanitarian migration. Drawing on an analysis of statements by US policymakers, this article considers the global context and implications of the disparate language and approaches used in responses to Afghan and Ukrainian displacement. It shows how racialised and gendered narratives contributed to and were constituted within a broader international hierarchy and global colour line. The positioning of Ukrainians as possessing higher civilisational attributes deserving of solidarity and support, and their portrayal through prisms of strong agency, sovereignty, and kindred Western values, echoed across transnational constructions of collective white identity. In contrast, Afghan resettlement was rendered conditional on extensive security vetting and proof of loyal service to US and NATO missions in Afghanistan. Portrayals of Afghans as less assimilable, as potential terrorist infiltrators, as incapable of self-governance and unable to generate their own progress perpetuated features of the global colour line. Attending to the different logics used to construct refugee and parolee groups and policies broadens our understanding on how multilayered processes of Orientalism and racialisation shape resettlement and disparities in access to protection.