Refugees as a challenge for intercultural education

The article presents the author’s concept of the continuum of intercultural relations referred to the cultural differences concerning refugees. This concept is based on the distinguishing of four stages of relationships: narrowly understood tolerance, cognitive interest, intercultural dialogue and cultural symbiosis. The ordering criteria used to distinguish the stages were: the sign of emotions related to the culturally Other, the sociocultural identity of the interacting individuals (especially people from the society that receives refugees), and the presence or absence of direct interaction between an individual representing the receiving society and the refugee. The concept of the continuum is presented against the background of the ideas underlying the emergence and development of the idea of intercultural education in Poland.