Arguing the unarguable : the neo-raciste discursive fallouts of the war in Ukraine

Abstract

This article is devoted to the issue of accepting and rejecting others. It takes as its starting point,
the current socio-political context experienced by Europe since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This invasion
caused a massive displacement of Ukrainians to other European countries. The latter’s solidarity is
unanimous. Everyone agrees on the reception of the Ukrainian refugees, which was not the case with the
displacement of other non-European populations also threatened by war. This attitude of double standards
has not gone unnoticed in the media. Some - the humanist elites, are indignant and condemn this position.
Others - identitarians, accept and justify it. This last category is the focus of this stydy. It is a question here
of reconsidering the reasoning underlying the refoulement and the non-refoulement of refugees. This exercise
necessarily involves a semantic-rhetorical analysis. From a perspective of (critical) analysis of the
(argumentative) discourse, the objective is to show that the discourse of refusal of extra-Europeans is
structured mainly around the semantic field of cultural, identity, geographical, ethnic and religious
difference. and, thus, on a differentialist argument that appears legitimate but is largely neo-racist.