Introduction: Being a Minority in Times of Crisis

The war in Ukraine serves as one of several contemporary examples in which state actors across Central and Eastern Europe have sought to mobilise minorities and exploit existing grievances to further broader geopolitical goals. In this context, the authors ask how relevant one's minority status, language, religion or loyalty to state institutions actually are amidst the chaos of full-scale conflict. More broadly, does someone's sense of group belonging actually matter in times of epidemic, natural disaster, war or other forms of manmade catastrophe? Although such occurrences do not discriminate between those affected, government, public and international responses are often defined by unspoken hierarchies, pejorative cultural stereotypes and entrenched structural biases. This introduction syntheses the key findings from the articles included in this special issue to explore historical parallels in which minorities were similarly affected by different types of crises, as well as responses to these instances of historical crisis, such as the provision of relief and medical aid or maintaining law and order. Other issues included government reactions, how periods of crisis influenced or reshaped state -minority relations, the longer -term consequences of specific crises and the role of international and diaspora responses.