Race and Gender in European Polycrisis

How is the European Polycrisis gendered and racialised? This is a simple question that opens up important lines of analysis, and is also essential to the development of a complete understanding of current dynamics of European integration, politics, and economics. This paper sets out some initial, and non-exhaustive, avenues for answering this question, highlighting three ways that race and gender are shaping the contemporary EU. Firstly, by looking at how the EU’s own self-conception is shaped through a particular historical narrative, one that elides the EU’s position as a postcolonial entity. Secondly, by exploring how the very crises that now define EU policy making are inherently gendered crises, stemming from the challenges of social reproduction that are obfuscated by policy making. And finally, thirdly, by showing how a racist natalist ideology is underpinning right-wing movements – while also shaping equality policies within the EU and across the member states. This paper therefore argues for the interconnected nature of the various crises, and for an understanding that sees race and gender as forming those very connections.