The future imaginaries and counter-politics of solidarity work: non-formal education for displaced Ukrainians in Hungary

While the Hungarian education authorities enforced a strict and compulsory school enrolment policy for students fleeing Russia’s war on Ukraine, it did not provide sufficient professional support and guidance to the schools about the inclusion of displaced students. This rigid and unstable integration policy led to moral and political dilemmas for civil and grassroots solidarity mobilizations operating non-formal education spaces concerning the purpose and systemic effects of the educational activities. We explore how solidarity mobilizations navigate illiberal political contexts, interrogate the goals and meanings of refugees’ educational integration as experienced on the ground, and enact alternative visions of societal futures. Based on interviews with civil and grassroots actors, we identify four institutional visions: (1) rejecting state policy, (2) supplementing state provision by offering mental, emotional, and learning support, (3) creating non-formal learning spaces with transformative potential, and (4) developing new advocacy tactics using the infrastructures of transnational humanitarian organizations.