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Ukrainian refugees in Romania: perception and social challenges
Abstract
Millions of people from Ukraine have been forced to flee their homes to seek safety, protection, and assistance owing to armed conflict. This study aims to draw a parallel between the meaning and importance of the initial impact of Russian military aggression in February 2022 and the recent plight of Ukrainian refugees on Romania's territory. It is based on the results of a dedicated thematic survey of Ukrainian refugees as part of fieldwork carried out by the authors between March and April 2022 and a survey launched by the United Nations Refugee Agency in Romania between October 2022 and August 2023. The study emphasises the importance of raising awareness and building solidarity and support to counterbalance the effects of the crisis with respect to: (i) refugees in their hometowns and losses incurred; (ii) refugees' needs, help provided, and expectations; (iii) the need to integrate refugees into different fields of daily life; and (iv) a return to Ukraine.
Human migration is a dynamic, multifaceted and complex phenomenon shaped by economic, political, social, climatic and environmental factors [1], [2], [3], [4]. Migration refers to the relocation of individuals from their habitual residence to a new location, while travel involves journeying between destinations for various purposes [5]. In recent years, migration trends have been shaped by globalisation, technological advancements, climate change, armed conflicts, social and economic disparities and political and religious persecution. Migration poses challenges for individual nations and represents a crucial humanitarian and global health issue requiring coordinated international efforts and long-term planning [6], [7], [8].
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 280 million people —approximately 3.6% of the world’s population— are international migrants (https://www.iom.int/fundamentals-migration
). This figure includes individuals who move voluntarily to seek better living opportunities and those forcibly displaced due to conflict, persecution, and environmental disasters. In addition, internal migration—people moving within their own countries—affects hundreds of millions more, particularly in large nations like China, India, and the United States of America (USA) [9], [10], [11].
Migration occurs for diverse reasons, primarily economic prospects, conflict, violence associated with political conflicts and political instability, climate change, and demographic factors. Many migrants leave their home countries searching for better employment and living conditions, particularly from developing nations to wealthier regions. Wars, repression, and human rights violations force millions to displace globally, with, most recently, the Syrian, Afghan, Venezuelan (Figure 1), and Ukrainian crises being among the most significant displacement events in recent history (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003292548-50/united-nations-high-commissioner-refugees%E2%80%94unhcr-ileana-citaristi
).
The issue of refugees pertains to the permanent elements of historical reflection on the mass movement of people or the phenomenon of migration. The military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine not only ignited a hot spot on the conflict map of Europe, but also triggered a cascade of events difficult to anticipate. A direct result of the conflict has been the mass exodus of Ukrainians and a promise of temporary protection by the European Union to those fleeing the conflict. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), on August 17, 2023, over 4.2 million Ukrainians crossed into Romania at the crossing points between Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova. The Ukrainian crisis offers the opportunity to take a closer look at the governments themselves. The Ukrainian citizens who remained in Romania received help both from the Romanian Government, and from the civil society (i.e., various NGOs, civilians, volunteers); from the first days of the invasion of Ukraine, Romanian society reacted swiftly. The study aims to emphasize the great importance of raising awareness and building solidarity and support in the receiving country in order to counterbalance, alleviate and eliminate the effects of the Ukrainian refugees’ crisis with respect to three main aspects: (1) the reloaded in situ effects, that is, the leading role of existing Romanian and, respectively, Ukrainian ethnic communities on both sides of the border in the prompt organization of humanitarian support for Ukrainian refugees; (2) the repetitive effects on the dynamics, such as the refugee flows and their territorial and time dynamic; (3) the long-term effects, i.e., the need to integrate the refugees in different fields of daily life.
The evolution of the migration and refugee crisis in Ukraine and in several European countries, due to the full-scale armed conflict which started on February 24th, 2022 is a relevant topic nowadays. This recent large scale migration event reflected in a severe humanitarian crisis and in high scale migratory flows inside Ukraine and towards Europe. With the aim to see the magnitude of the migration phenomena and their consequences, the internal migration in Ukraine and towards three Eastern European countries: Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria have been investigated during the first several months after the Russian invasion. All these countries welcomed the largest wave of refugees in their recent history and tried to adapt their policies for a successful integration of the Ukrainian refugees into their labour market and societies. The use of a methodology of quantitative and qualitative analysis, based on several official data sources, as well as the analysis of interviews with Ukrainian refugees during the field work in Bulgaria, confirm these findings, stating however that there are still problems for a better integration mainly due to economic and bureaucratic reasons. Some proposals have been discussed how to improve this situation.
Russian aggression against Ukraine and the associated sanctions from the side of the United States and the European Union resulted in gradual changes in the previous directions of the socio-economic linkages. Besides this global scale, the war in Ukraine has also influenced the linkages and the spatial structures on the regional or local levels. The purpose of the present article is to provide an initial identification of the development of new territorial differentiation in three dimensions: socio-demographic (migrations), economic (first of all the official trade exchange), as well as infrastructural (extension and use of transport networks). The focus here was on the potential consequences that can take place in Europe and in Poland (as a country bordering Ukraine and playing a very special role in both the social relations—the inflow of refugees, and in the economic ones—intermediation in the interactions between the European Union and Ukraine). Identification of spatial differentiation was performed on the basis of analysis of various statistical data, including, in particular, cross-border traffic data, Polish foreign trade at LAU1 level, inflow of refugees (official data of the Polish government), or the secondary data, resulting from project work (in particular, ESPON IRiE). The ultimate scale of the influence of war in Ukraine, neither on the society nor on the economy, cannot be established at this stage of the conflict. The studies performed confirm, however, that the consequences (in each of the dimensions analyzed) are highly territorially diversified. This diversification, though, does not concern only countries or even regions. It has also a local dimension and as such should be adequately perceived by the public authorities of different levels.
This study describes the first wave of the IAB-BiB/FReDA-BAMF-SOEP Survey on Ukrainian Refugees in Germany, a unique panel dataset based on over 11,000 interviews conducted between August and October 2022. The aim of the IAB-BiB/FReDA-BAMF-SOEP Survey is to provide a data-infrastructure for theory-driven and evidence-based research on various aspects of integration among Ukrainian refugees in Germany, the second most important destination country in the EU after Poland, hosting over a million people who arrived in Germany shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Based on the survey, this study also provides first insights into demographic, educational, linguistic, occupational, and social characteristics of this population. The analyses revealed that the refugee population comprised mostly young and educated individuals, with a significant proportion of females without partners and female-headed separated families. While German language skills were limited, about half of Ukrainian refugees had attended or were attending language courses. However, the integration process faced significant challenges, as the participation of children in day-care was relatively low, and the self-reported life satisfaction was markedly below the average of the German population. The study highlights the need for targeted policy measures to address such issues. Additionally, policies may aim at harnessing the high potential of the Ukrainian refugees for the German labor market. Given that a substantial proportion would like to stay in Germany permanently, policymakers should take note of these findings and aim to facilitate their long-term integration process to ensure that these refugees may thrive in Germany.
This study examines the evolution of Ukrainian refugees during the first year after the start of the full-scale armed conflict on 24 February 2022, which resulted in a severe humanitarian crisis and high levels of migration both within Ukraine and towards Europe. Using official statistics, the changes in border crossings from Ukraine to neighboring countries during the first year of the conflict are investigated. Additionally, surveys conducted with Ukrainian refugees in several European countries and author interviews conducted in Bulgaria, Spain, and Germany reveal the specific needs of refugees and the main challenges to successful integration into host labor markets and societies. The Temporary Protection Directives and other local protection programs are analyzed in this study, accompanied by a comprehensive discussion on similar initiatives. The primary conclusion drawn from this research affirms the presence of substantial challenges in the successful integration of Ukrainian refugees into host societies, despite the efforts made by the respective governments.
Refugees and asylum seekers often confront particular challenges when accessing essential services in host countries. The difficulties these vulnerable groups face in meeting educational needs are documented in numerous studies. Although Romania experienced mainly transit migration, it is recently becoming a destination for refugees and irregular migrants. Most people entering the country are young or minors, and access to education is crucial for their economic future and a successful integration process. The present paper primarily explores the challenges and difficulties asylum seekers and people with refugee backgrounds experience in accessing educational services in Romania. It is framed within an interpretive paradigm using qualitative interviews with asylum seekers, people with refugee backgrounds, and NGO representatives to collect data. This exploratory research is designed on thematic analysis: four themes and eight subthemes were identified, capturing participants’ perceptions about the Romanian education system and their barriers to accessing education programs. The findings suggest that access to education for refugees and asylum seekers was restricted primarily by language-related or bureaucratic and legal obstacles. Therefore, efforts should be made to raise awareness among the general population and specialised educational institutions. Additionally, creating more opportunities for interactions between people of different backgrounds can alleviate the persisting inequalities experienced by this vulnerable population.
The article challenges the common view of the Yugoslav space as an area producing rather than receiving refugees by providing an overview of the main historiographic works dealing with refugees within and into the territories of the former Yugoslavia. It identifies two main conceptual foci that revolve around the understanding of refugees as either “national” or “international.” In the case of “national refugees,” scholars have frequently stressed the ex-istence of supposedly pre-existing ethnic ties between the refugees and the territories where they found refuge, but the scholarship also explores the entanglement of diverse population movements—both compulsory and voluntary—in the multinational areas that experienced a process of unmixing of peoples since the second half of the nineteenth century. On the contrary, historiography on “international refugees” displays a more prominent interest in the management of refugees by both state and non-state actors, including their spatial distri-bution. Furthermore, these scholars have addressed the relationship between the refugee flows from abroad and the country’s geopolitical constellation, demon¬strating how foreign policy shapes the reception of refugees, but also how refugee influx reframes international allegiances. While the so-called “Balkan route” has put the region in the international spotlight as an important avenue of transit, an overview of historical thinking related to refu-gees into and within the former Yugoslavia provides tools to reflect upon the way people on the move have been and are conceptualized.
This article examines the exodus of migrants from Ukraine in the context of the Russian invasion, making use of the
conflict model of migration. We argue that Ukraine has long been characterized by insecurities which have already fueled
large waves of emigration from the country. Indeed, the most recent phase of Ukrainian emigration should be seen as a
continuation of the ongoing tendency of people residing in the country to seek escape from the overarching conditions of
insecurity there. Earlier migrations from Ukraine have also established a culture of migration which has mediated the
outflow of Ukrainians during the current crisis. Ukrainians who had already harboured inclinations to leave the country
and who were possessed of the necessary capabilities (i.e. social capital, financial capital, human capital and physical
ability) became mobile at the onset of the invasion in February, while many others were left behind. At the same time, the
welcoming attitude of many European states has been key to the fast and safe exodus of Ukrainian migrants thus far.
Keywords: Ukraine; international migration; conflict; human insecurity; culture of migration; capabilities
Traditionally a country of emigration, Romania recently experienced an increased migration influx, although it is more a country of transit than a destination for refugees and irregular migrants. Refugees often face difficulties when trying to meet their needs and access essential services. This study aims to explore the experiences and barriers of asylum seekers and people with refugee backgrounds in accessing healthcare services in Romania. It is an exploratory study with a qualitative research design, which uses an inductive and deductive approach, with thematic analysis being applied in order to grasp the difficulties and barriers that asylum seekers and people with refugee backgrounds experience in accessing essential social services. The research was based on seven in-depth interviews with representatives of significant national or international non-governmental organisations assisting refugees and asylum seekers in Romania and 129 semi-structured interviews with different categories of people with refugee backgrounds from Southwest Asia, Eastern Africa and Ukraine. One of the most salient themes we identified relates to accessing the healthcare system. Participants talked about what information they needed to access medical services, where they looked for this information, and what barriers they faced in the process. Cultural, linguistic, structural, and financial barriers were perceived as the most significant. Improved public awareness, a better understanding of asylum issues, and stronger community support are essential to addressing inequalities experienced by this vulnerable population.
Recent events in Ukraine led to a surge in refugee migration
originating from within Europe not seen since WWII. Using global data on daily news coverage, this research highlights that during the 8 weeks before the outbreak of open hostilities, there was no change in the relative interaction frequency between societal stakeholders and refugees. This changed dramatically in the 8 weeks thereafter: In neighbouring countries, the share of news reporting interactions with refugees rose from next to nothing to between 5 and 13%. In the rest of Europe, this share increased to
1% or 2%. Beyond governments, an event-study reveals inter-governmental organisations, civil societies and businesses as major societal forces driving not just the public discourse but levels of support for refugees. Initially, business actors displayed the strongest responsiveness to individuals in need: They became 25% points more likely to engage in material cooperation with refugees. Gradually fading support from non-government actors suggests that prolonged humanitarian crises may require a continuous near-real-time monitoring system and the coordination of various stakeholders' contributions to ensure an efficient provision of aid.
This study was created due to the need to predict the migration flows of refugees from Ukraine to the EU in the absence of official data. We present a descriptive analysis of Big Data sources, which are helpful in determining, as well as for estimating and forecasting refuge emigration flows from Ukraine and help crisis managers. The objective of this study was to test the usefulness of Big Data and Google Trends (GT) indexes to predict further forced migration from Ukraine to the EU (mainly to Germany). The primary methodological concept of our approach is to monitor the digital trace of Internet searches in Ukrainian, Russian and English with the GT analytical tool. The control mechanism for testing this sort of Big Data was performed by comparing those insights with the official databases from UNHCR and national governments, which were available two months later. All tested migration-related search queries (20) about emigration planning from Ukraine show a positive linear association between the Google index and data from official UNHCR statistics; R2 = 0.1211 for searches in Russian and R2 = 0.1831 for searches in Ukrainian. Increase in migration-related search activities in Ukraine, such as "граница" (Rus. border), кордону (Ukr. border); "Польща" (Poland); "Германия" (Rus. Germany), "Німеччина" (Ukr. Germany) and "Угорщина" and "Венгрия" (Hungary) correlate strongly with officially UNHCR data for externally displaced persons from Ukraine. The results show that one-fourth of all refugees will cross into Germany. According to Big Data insights, the estimated number of expected refugees until July 2022 is 5.9 Million refugees and mid-2023 Germany can expect 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in March 2022, Ukrainians have been displaced from their country in record pace and in massive numbers. Although some have been displaced within Ukraine, most have fled to Poland, Moldova, and other European countries. The European and American public’s reaction to these large refugee numbers has been overwhelmingly positive, with outpourings of humanitarianism and solidarity. This reaction stands in stark contrast with the apprehensive and rather negative reactions from Europeans toward Afghan refugees following the Taliban’s violent takeover in May 2021. In this IMR Dispatch from the Field, I reflect on the similarities and differences in reactions to Ukrainian refugees in the current crisis and Afghan refugees following the Taliban takeover in May 2021. Despite important similarities between these two refugee groups, there are, I argue, various reasons why the European and American public may feel closer to Ukrainian than Afghan refugees or why they perceive the former to be more deserving of aid. I highlight the role of symbolic threat, a conscience collective, and ethnicity. Furthermore, the looming fear of the aggressor in this conflict (Russia) may play a larger role in the European and American public’s reactions than in other refugee crises.
Our research aimed to study the ongoing phenomena of cross-border displacement of the Ukrainian population resulting from the Russian aggression that started on the 24th of February 2022. In the first stage of this research, we managed to get the opinions of over 500 refugees with a focus on their needs, concerns, plans, and expectations. Collected data also allowed a reconstruction of a particular social social-demographic profile of fleeing Ukrainian refugees. The preliminary outcomes are presented in the report.
To cite this report: Isański J., Michalski M.A., Nowak M., Sereda V., Vakhitova H. (2022): Social reception and inclusion of refugees from Ukraine. UKREF Research report 1(2022).
The outbreak of war in Ukraine has drastically changed the migratory situation in Central and Eastern Europe, especially Poland. This text attempts to estimate the possible future stocks of immigrants in the country and points out challenges. Regardless of developments on the front line, the number of Ukrainians in Poland will be significantly higher than at the beginning of 2022. Poland must be perceived as a new immigration country in Europe and in the global context.
Background
The Ukrainian refugee crisis shows a lack of reliable data about refugee flows, demographic structure, and integration. But those data are necessary for the UNHCR and governments in preparing high-quality projections for emergencies and the conditions for the integration of refugees who intend to stay in immigration societies. Although Facebook, Instagram and YouTube are social platforms with the most users, very few studies have been written about their potential for migration studies and integration.
Objective
The objective was to test the usefulness of Big Data insights from social network platforms to gain first demographic insights into refugees’ age and gender structure, migration flows, and integration trends.
Methods
The primary methodological concept of our approach is to monitor the so-called “digital trace” of refugees left on social networks Facebook, Instagram and YouTube and their geo-locations. We focus on users that use social network platforms in Ukrainian and Russian language. We sampled the data before and during the war outbreak, standardised the data and compared it with the first official data from UNHCR and national governments. We selected specific keywords, i.e. migration and integration-related queries, using YouTube insight tools. Using FB and Instagram, we collected our own data archive because Meta offers data only for the present day with the ability to compare this day with the average of the past 12 months. In the next step, we collected signals that indicate integration willingness.
Results
Our approach shows that the number of Facebook and Instagram users is growing rapidly in Ukrainian neighbouring countries and Germany after the war outbreak in Ukraine. Testing performed matches the trend of immigration of Ukrainian refugees in Poland and Germany, as well in the cities and the German Bundesländer . The tested correlation between the number of Ukrainian refugees in Poland and FB and Instagram users in Ukrainian in Poland shows that the increase in frequency index is correlated with stepped-up emigration from Ukraine. R2 is 0.1324 and shows a positive correlation, and a p-value is statistically significant. The analysis of the FB group of Ukrainian in the EU shows that those groups can be a valuable source for studying integration. Ukrainians are increasingly expressing interest in learning the German language, which is a good indication of integration willingness. One of the contributions of the second used method, YouTube insights, is that it shows that by searching for video material on the YouTube platform, the intention of users to migrate, or in this case, to flee from Ukraine, can be estimated.
Conclusion
The usefulness and the main advantage of this approach are enabling first insights into integration willingness and identification of trends in the movement and intentions of refugees when there is no official data. On the one side, this method allows governments to estimate how many refugees intend to enter the labour market and integrate into the immigration society and, on the other, better respond to the recent humanitarian crisis. Despite its beneficiaries, this approach has many limitations, and there is a need for many more studies to perfect this method.
Civil society has played an important role in meeting the challenges of refugee migration in recent years. This commentary documents the importance of civic engagement for the integration of refugees by linking individual survey data on refugees to a regional measure of civic engagement in Germany. Using the density of newly established civic associations at the county level as a measure of civic engagement, we exploit regional differences in civic engagement in order to estimate its association with refugee integration outcomes. We find that in regions with particularly high levels of civic engagement, refugees have significantly more frequent contact to Germans, higher life satisfaction, and better German language skills. This correlation is robust to regional contextual factors such as the local population structure, economic strength, and the state of the labor market. In terms of language acquisition, women and refugees with a low level of education benefit the most from high civic engagement. Moreover, refugees with university degrees find significantly better-paying jobs in areas with higher civic engagement. However, no direct correlation could be established between civic engagement and the likelihood that refugees are employed. Nonetheless, the results suggest that support from civil society translates into improved access to government benefits. Our findings highlight that local civic engagement is an important complement to public assistance services and policy makers should give a high priority to partnering with the civil society to improve refugees’ integration outcomes.
As part of the eastern border of the European Union, the Romanian-Ukrainian frontier is discontinuous and made up of two distinct sectors: the Carpathian one and the Danubian one. They are representative for the existence of cross-border ethnic communities as a result of specific historical and geopolitical circumstances. The paper aims to analyze the ethnic features of the cross-border, Carpathian territory that lies between Romania and Ukraine, in a historical and current context, as a premise for improving cross-border and regional cooperation.
This article offers a detailed analysis of the content characterising the geopolitical challenges and socio-economic changes that have been facing Ukraine in the years following the Revolution of Dignity, as well as interregional differences. The focus here is on administrative regions of Ukraine that border on to EU Member States, while the special emphasis is on the Ukrainian-Polish border regions, i.e. those in which the cooperation put in place can be regarded as most successful and intensive of all. Furthermore, as gaps to the availability of statistical data are present, the main emphasis has been on case studies, content and SWOT analysis, the search for good practice, and typical patterns of perception as markers of the dynamics present in social space.
Turkey currently hosts the largest amount of Syrian refugees with a population of around 3.9 million. Besides housing and health supports, Turkey has been doing its best to increase their schooling
ratio in the light of new legislation and laws. These efforts also include vocational education and training (VET) which has been a useful tool to ensure the adaptation of immigrants in many countries with flexible
solutions. In this study, we present and evaluate the VET projects carried out by the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) for adaptation of Syrian refugees, considering the best practices and recommendations of international organizations. The results show that the MoNE projects correspond with international criteria by informing refugees about VET, preparing them for the educational process, facilitating their participation, and supporting them throughout their experiences.
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The complexity and duration of the so-called 'European refugee crisis' created a climate of uncertainty, which left ample room for mass media to shape citizens' understanding of what the arrival of these refugees meant for their respective country. This study analyses the national media discourses in Hungary, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Spain for this time period. Applying Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modelling in five languages and based on N = 130,042 articles from 24 news outlets, we reveal country-specific media frames to track the overall course of the refugee debate and to uncover dynamics and shifts in discourses. While results show similarities across countries , due to media coverage responding to real-world developments, there are differences in media framing as well. Possible sources of these differences such as countries' geographic location or status as receiving country are discussed.
Background:
There is increasing attention paid to the arrival of migrants from outwith the EU region to the European countries. Healthcare that is universally and equably accessible needs to be provided for these migrants throughout the range of national contexts and in response to complex and evolving individual needs. It is important to look at the evidence available on provision and access to healthcare for migrants to identify barriers to accessing healthcare and better plan necessary changes.
Methods:
This review scoped 77 papers from nine European countries (Austria, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malta, Spain, and Sweden) in English and in country-specific languages in order to provide an overview of migrants' access to healthcare. The review aims at identifying what is known about access to healthcare as well as healthcare use of migrants and refugees in the EU member states. The evidence included documents from 2011 onwards.
Results:
The literature reviewed confirms that despite the aspiration to ensure equality of access to healthcare, there is evidence of persistent inequalities between migrants and non-migrants in access to healthcare services. The evidence shows unmet healthcare needs, especially when it comes to mental and dental health as well as the existence of legal barriers in accessing healthcare. Language and communication barriers, overuse of emergency services and underuse of primary healthcare services as well as discrimination are described.
Conclusions:
The European situation concerning migrants' and refugees' health status and access to healthcare is heterogeneous and it is difficult to compare and draw any firm conclusions due to the scant evidence. Different diseases are prioritised by different countries, although these priorities do not always correspond to the expressed needs or priorities of the migrants. Mental healthcare, preventive care (immunization) and long-term care in the presence of a growing migrant older population are identified as priorities that deserve greater attention. There is a need to improve the existing data on migrants' health status, needs and access to healthcare to be able to tailor care to the needs of migrants. To conduct research that highlights migrants' own views on their health and barriers to access to healthcare is key.
In-migration into the EU has become an important issue in recent decades, as an important component accounting for population changes in Europe. In contrast, it was after the fall of communism that out-migration grew into a major – but also relatively new – phenomenon affecting Romania. Especially after 2002, in which year Schengen visa requirements were waived, rapid growth in circular migration was encouraged; with a further migratory wave ensuing after 2007, due to free access to the European labour market. Against that background, work detailed in this paper has sought to provide insights into specific features of the process of out-migration, as this relates to social development. Use was made of statistical data available at NUTS2 (Development Regions) level, as provided by the National Institute of Statistics; as well as various further data and information from both the World Bank and EUROSTAT. To achieve the objective specified above, efforts have been made to select indicators shown to offer a broad and accurate picture of both out-migration (via an Out-migration Rate indicator) and levels of social developmental (via a Socially Disadvantaged Index). The effects of what mainly proves to be temporary out-migration are very important, as they drive temporary loss of human capital, with Romania appearing in statistics among the main sources of labour-migration flows.
In recent years, European media and public discourse have been increasingly categorising newcomers using terminology like ‘immigrants’ and ‘refugees’. The aim of this practice is to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate newcomers in the wake of the 2015 ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe. Drawing on data from an online survey in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Sweden (n = 6000) in September and October of 2017, this article investigates how the use of these categories relates to public opinion on ‘immigrants’ and ‘refugees’. Findings show that people hold more positive attitudes towards ‘refugees’ than towards ‘immigrants’, a process which is likely driven by media framing. Attitude discrepancies within ‘immigrant’ and ‘refugee’ categories are also investigated, as categorical fetishism causes further differentiation of attitudes within these groups. Public opinion differences within ‘immigrants’ and ‘refugees’ are found along three cleavages: ethnicity, the economic situation of the origin country, and region of origin. Newcomers with the same ethnicity (vs. a different ethnicity), from ‘rich’ countries (vs. ‘poor’ countries), and from European countries (vs. non-European countries) are preferred in both categories. With these findings, this article reveals important aspects of the influence of migrant categorizations on public opinion towards vulnerable groups of newcomers.
Abstract The article confronts comparative research outcomes on factors that helped or hindered the educational success of immigrant youth and second generation in the past decades in several European countries with the institutional responses of European educational systems to the challenges of integrating a substantial number of refugee and other newly arrived children since 2014. Especially studies on the second generation – mostly the offspring of labour migrants – have revealed substantial differences in the long-term effects of specific institutional arrangements in the different systems that can – and should – serve as lessons for the potentially detrimental effects of the ways schools and school systems have reacted to the new influx of immigrant children. In the light of the lessons that could be learned from previous experiences with immigrant children and children of immigrants the article analyses in which way the current responses of different European educational systems to the presence of refugee and other immigrant children reflect these lessons, but also do justice to the particular challenges and specific situations of refugee youth that generally place them at an even higher disadvantage than other migrants. On the other hand, some of the ad-hoc measures for refugee pupils may have the potential of becoming permanent features of the respective educational systems.
Schools function as a primary driver of integration and as a link to resources and assets that promote healthy development. Nevertheless, most research studies on school-based programs are conducted on mainstream students, and school professionals looking to deliver interventions serving refugee students are forced to choose between evidence-based programs designed for the mainstream and developing new programs in the cultural framework of their students. The purpose of this literature review is to provide a summary of recent research on successful, evidence-based programs as well as promising interventions and practice recommendations in five core practice areas in schools: school leadership and culture, teaching, mental health, after-school programming, and school-parent-community partnerships. These findings are presented drawing from theoretical frameworks of ecological systems, social capital, segmented assimilation, resilience, and trauma, and describe how such theories may be used to inform programs serving refugee children and youth. Additionally, this review describes the core components of successful programs across these practice areas to inform researchers and practitioners as they select and develop programs in their own school communities. Finally, this review concludes with a discussion of human rights in the education of refugee children and youth.
Assimilation theory has been subject to intensive critique for decades. Yet no other framework has provided the social science community with as deep a corpus of cumulative findings concerning the incorporation of immigrants and their descendants. We argue that assimilation theory has not lost its utility for the study of contemporary immigration to the United States. In making our case, we review critically the canonical account of assimilation provided by Milton Gordon and others; we refer to Shibutani and Kwan's theory of ethnic stratification to suggest some directions to take in reformulating assimilation theory. We also examine some of the arguments frequently made to distinguish between the earlier mass immigration of Europeans and the immigration of the contemporary era and find them to be inconclusive. Finally, we sift through some of the evidence about the socioeconomic and residential assimilation of recent immigrant groups. Though the record is clearly mixed, we find evidence consistent with the view that assimilation is taking place, albeit unevenly.
Focus group discussion is frequently used as a qualitative approach to gain an in‐depth understanding of social issues. The method aims to obtain data from a purposely selected group of individuals rather than from a statistically representative sample of a broader population. Even though the application of this method in conservation research has been extensive, there are no critical assessment of the application of the technique. In addition, there are no readily available guidelines for conservation researchers.
Here, we reviewed the applications of focus group discussion within biodiversity and conservation research between 1996 and April 2017. We begin with a brief explanation of the technique for first‐time users. We then discuss in detail the empirical applications of this technique in conservation based on a structured literature review (using Scopus).
The screening process resulted in 170 articles, the majority of which (67%, n = 114,) were published between 2011 and 2017. Rarely was the method used as a stand‐alone technique. The number of participants per focus group (where reported) ranged from 3 to 21 participants with a median of 10 participants. There were seven (median) focus group meetings per study. Focus group discussion sessions lasted for 90 (median) minutes. Four main themes emerged from the review: understanding of people's perspectives regarding conservation (32%), followed by the assessment of conservation and livelihoods practices (21%), examination of challenges and impacts of resource management interventions (19%) and documenting the value of indigenous knowledge systems (16%). Most of the studies were in Africa ( n = 76), followed by Asia ( n = 44), and Europe ( n = 30).
We noted serious gaps in the reporting of the methodological details in the reviewed papers. More than half of the studies ( n = 101) did not report the sample size and group size ( n = 93), whereas 54 studies did not mention the number of focus group discussion sessions while reporting results. Rarely have the studies provided any information on the rationale for choosing the technique. We have provided guidelines to improve the standard of reporting and future application of the technique for conservation.
Background
During the last years, Europe experienced an increase in immigration due to a variety of worldwide wars and conflicts, which in turn resulted in a greater number of physical and mental health issues present among the refugees. These factors place high demands not only on the refugees, but also on healthcare professionals who meet the refugees in different situations. Information about the refugees’ experiences of the healthcare systems in their host countries is urgently needed to improve the quality of healthcare delivered, as well as to provide opportunities for better access. The aim of this scoping review is to compile research about the experiences that the refugees have with the healthcare systems in their host countries. Methods
This study was conducted as a scoping review and the methodology is derived from Levac et al. and with inspiration from the framework of Arksey & O’Malley. A systematic article search was done in Medline, Cinahl and Psychinfo. A total of 619 articles were found in the search and finally 26 articles met the inclusion criteria and were included. ResultsThe results show that communication between healthcare professionals and refugees is important, however, insufficient language knowledge acts as an effective communication barrier. There is a need for more information to be given to the refugees about the reception country’s healthcare system in both oral and written formats, as well as the right to healthcare. Support from healthcare professionals is also important for refugees to have a positive experience with healthcare. In some of the studies included, refugees experienced discrimination due to low proficiency in the language of the host country, and/or because of their race or accent, which shows that culturally appropriate healthcare is needed for them. Conclusions
Since refugees are suffering from poor mental and physical health and could therefore be at a greater risk of morbidity and mortality in comparison to the rest of the population of the host country, there is an urgent need for improvements in communication, interpretation, support, and deliverance of culturally appropriate healthcare.
A trend has emerged of not defining education as a “human right” anymore, but of rather calling it a “human need”. This has paved the way for an ever increasing commercialisation of education, excluding the poor from access to education. A problem at a different level is that states often do not know what is expected of them when realising the right to education as protected by international law. This relates to the complex nature of this right, which is simultaneously a civil and political and an economic, social and cultural right. This book seeks to affirm education as a “human right” and to describe the various state duties flowing from the right to education. It refers to the provisions on the right to education found in instruments of international law and systematically analyses article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The book is of interest to students, teachers, researchers, legal practitioners and state and international officials dealing with international human rights law.
In late February 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine set‐off a tide of refugees
heading west. The paper discusses the scale of the refugee flow into Poland, its
distribution patterns and its influence on existing demographic structures (both
captured at a local LAU 1 scale). By studying refugee flows at three time‐points, the
study, on the one hand, offers a dynamic analysis and, on the other, identifies the
spatial patterns behind the movements of the successive waves of refugees.
Unexpected wave of recent immigration is likely to strengthen the demographic and
settlement processes observable in Poland. The above pertains to both the overall
concentration in major metropolitan areas, as well as to suburbanisation processes.
The areas with the highest depopulation (eastern Poland) have recorded a relatively
low influx of refugees. This implies that it cannot be expected that the immigration
may be of a compensatory nature and that it will be helpful in making up for
structural population losses in such areas.
Migration is one of the drivers of population change in Europe. Out-migration has become a relatively new phenomenon for Romania, especially after the fall of communism and the accession to the European Union. According to EUROSTAT, Romania ranks fifth in the out-migration hierarchy at EU level. The present study aims to provide an insight on the influence of social and technological development level on the out-migration flows by computing and correlating the Social and Technological Disadvantage Index to Out-migration Rate. The study is conducted based on the statistical data available provided by the National Institute of Statistics and by the Romania's representative body of clusters. The study is carried out at the level of 42 Romanian counties (NUTS3 level) for the 2018 timeline. The main findings of the study are related to the fact that the high magnitude of out-migration pertain, on the one hand, to a low level of the social and technological degree (a group of counties from Southern Romania) and, on the other hand, to a high level (such as the case of several counties from Western or Central Romania, Bucharest Municipality and thereabouts). A distinct situation is that of the Eastern counties, which are no longer an area for high emigration, compared to the 2002–2007 period.
The status of the refugee in international law, and of everyone entitled to protection, has always been precarious, not least in times of heightened and heated debate. People have always moved in search of safety, and they always will. This completely revised and updated edition casts new light on the refugee definition, the meaning of persecution, the role of gender and sexual orientation, the types of harm, and the protection due to refugees. The book reviews the fundamental principle of non-refoulement as a restraint on the conduct of States, even as States themselves seek new ways to prevent refugees and asylum seekers arriving. The book analyses related principles of protection—non-discrimination, due process, rescue at sea, and solutions—in light of what States, UNHCR, and treaty-monitoring bodies actually do, rather than merely deductively. It closely examines relevant treaty standards, and the role of UNHCR in providing protection, contributing to the development of international refugee law, and promoting solutions. New chapters bring into focus evolving protection demands in relation to nationality, statelessness, and displacement in the context of disasters and climate change. The book factors in the challenges posed by the movement of people across land and sea in search of refuge, and their interception, reception, and later treatment. The overall aim remains the same as in previous editions: to provide a sound basis for protection in international law, taking full account of State and community interests and recognizing the need to bridge gaps in the regime which now has 100 years of law and practice behind it.
We review psychological approaches of helping behavior in the context of refugee immigration. Refugee migration, compared to non-refugee migration, is characterized by greater forcedness and related perils. Taking into account perceptions of forcedness and perils, we examine potential helpers’ responses at each of four successive stages towards helping people in perilous, distressing, or emergency situations: (1) noticing and recognizing distressing, help-demanding conditions, (2) taking responsibility, (3) knowing how to help, and (4) transfer of one’s knowledge into action. In so doing, we discuss the role of different motives and functions of providing help (e.g., preserving refugees’ dependency or facilitating their autonomy), and implications of unequal power relations between help providers and refugees.
Following the expansion of NATO in 2004 and the EU in 2007, Romania has become the Eastern frontier of these structures, which lends Romanian borders a strategic role. The territorial development of a border area is influenced by the political, economic, socio-cultural, demographic characteristics of the neighbouring countries sharing the same border. The border areas of Romania include 898 Local Administrative Units (LAU), of which 88 are urban. Romania has a border line (2956.4 km, of which 63.5% is non-European Union border) with the following countries: Bulgaria, the Republic of Moldova, Serbia, Ukraine, Hungary. The current paper seeks to identify the territorial disparities in the urban development of the Romanian border areas by 3 secondary indexes in order to reflect the main territorial development aspects: competitiveness (TComp), cohesion (TCoh), and sustainability (TSust). Lastly, the authors were able to establish the Index of Territorial Development (ITD) revealing the levels of territorial development. Assessing the competitiveness, cohesion and sustainability levels of urban centres is a useful and necessary stage, done through this study, for establishing those socio-economic fields, those towns and border sectors which are less developed, requiring attention from the regional, national and local administrations, reflected in investments.
The global refugee crisis has posed severe challenges to social stability and sustainable development around the world. While the business sector is expected to shoulder social responsibility in crisis relief efforts, our initial assessment shows that refugee‐related corporate social responsibility (CSR) significantly diverged across the Global Fortune 500 corporations. To advance scholars and managers' understanding of this complex CSR issue, this study draws upon National Business System Theory to explore how country‐level factors influence the multinational corporations' CSR communication about the refugee issue. Specifically, the study focuses on the strategic cross‐sector alliances between corporations, NGOs, and IGOs. The analysis shows that in this controversial global crisis, the following factors of corporations' countries‐of‐origin can significantly affect the level of cross‐sector CSR alliances: democracy levels, economic inequality levels, and unemployment rates. Findings of this study provide practical guidelines that can help managers to anticipate societal expectations when dealing with controversial social issues in an international setting. Our findings could also assist policymakers, NGOs, and IGOs to better design strategies to mobilize the corporate resources.
Social media can be used not only for evaluating migration flows almost in real time and the degree of integration in the destination countries but also for the understanding of public opinion sentiment about immigration. Experiences based on scraping social media are reviewed, and the use of geo-located data and advertising platforms turns out to be the most promising opportunities supplied by these sources. The current challenge is to measure the sentiment of Italian-speaking twitterers toward migration.
The current study examines the following questions: (1) the extent to which individual basic human values are linked with attitudes towards immigration; (2) whether symbolic threat by immigration mediates this relation; and (3) whether cultural values moderate the relations between individual values, threat, and attitudes towards immigration. The empirical analysis relies on the 2014/2015 data from the immigration module of the European Social Survey (ESS) for West and East European countries. We find that universalistic individuals expressed lower threat due to immigration and higher support of immigration while conservative individuals displayed the opposite pattern. Symbolic threat mediated the association between values and immigration attitudes, but in most countries the mediation was partial. The associations between values, symbolic threat, and attitudes towards immigration were stronger in countries characterised by higher levels of intellectual and affective autonomy and weaker in countries characterised by higher levels of cultural embeddedness. The findings provide support for the centrality of human values in the formation of threat and attitudes towards immigration.
Europe has become a major destination for international migrants. By 2015, 34.3 million people living in an EU member state were born outside of the EU-28, and an additional 18.5 million persons had been born in another EU country than the one currently residing in. In this context of a growing foreign-born population, which is now at about 10% of the total European population, xenophobic attitudes against immigrants are generally perceived as having increased over the past decade across Europe. This study explores the extent to which anti-immigrant hostility is spatially dependent and has spread geographically across European regions of that period. Based on data from seven rounds (2002–2014) of the European Social Survey, analysed at sub-national (NUTS 2 regions) levels, we identify a significant spatial connectivity of anti-immigrant attitudes by showing that spatially more proximate European regions share similar in trends in anti-immigrant sentiments than we observe between more distant regions. The identification of a spatially dependent diffusion and clustering process of anti-immigrant attitudes has a significant bearing for the understanding of the rise and fall of populist movements across Europe and changing electoral support for xenophobic parties across European regions over time.
Refugees in Australia are not fully utilising the healthcare system for several reasons and this may be affecting their overall health outcomes. This qualitative systematic review examined the influence of the social determinants of health on refugees' access to healthcare services in Australia. Electronic databases were searched using terms relating to refugees, social determinants, healthcare services, barriers, enablers and Australia. Only peer-reviewed studies published in English since 2006, which focused on refugees and specifically discussed social determinants influencing refugees' access to healthcare services in Australia, were included. The studies were critically analysed using standard Critical Appraisal Skills Programme Tools. Eight studies were included in the review. Findings reveal multiple factors influence refugees' access to healthcare in Australia, and these can be conceptualised within a social-ecological model of health; that is, they operate across individual, interpersonal, environmental, organisational and policy levels. The novel finding of this review was the re-occurrence of similar influences across multiple healthcare service settings in Australia. The prevalence and re-occurring nature of the social determinants of health suggests that refugees are experiencing multilayered barriers to accessing Australian healthcare. All levels of a social-ecological model must be addressed in any attempt to break down these barriers.
Using Germany as an example, this qualitative study explores how refugees use their social capital within and outside organizations to enter their host countries' labor market. Following a grounded theory approach, we interviewed 36 Syrian refugees who had already secured employment in Germany. We aim to provide in-depth information regarding the available types, uses, and benefits of social capital with regard to their access and integration into the labor market. We found that refugees have access to different types of social capital and that these types can offer different forms of support to refugees during the labor market integration process. In addition, we identify subtle differences in the kinds of support offered through vertical and horizontal bonding and bridging social capital. More specifically, we found that vertical bridging social capital is a valuable source for securing adequate employment, whereas horizontal bonding social capital and independent job-searching methods may more often lead to low-skilled work or underemployment. Our findings provide new insights into how different forms of social capital can facilitate labor market integration of refugees at different stages.
There is limited evidence justifying the economic case for state education policy. Using new measures of workers’ cognitive skills that allow for selective internal migration and foreign immigration, we provide preliminary estimates of growth regressions that incorporate worker skills. Our descriptive models show that educational achievement predicts economic growth across US states over the past four decades. Projections from our growth models show the substantial potential scope for state economic development through improving school quality. While we consider the impact of a range of educational reforms, an improvement that moves each state to the best-state level would in the aggregate yield an estimated present value of long-run gains of 8 percent of discounted future GDP.
Placement of refugees and subsequent labour market integration within a host country represents a key challenge for policymakers and has emerged as one of the most divisive topics in the public debate. Immigration policy in Switzerland adopts random placement of asylum seekers across its different language regions. Hence, this policy allows to estimate the causal effect of language skills on employment chances, as refugees are exogenously placed across regions where the spoken language could either match or deviate from individual language skills. The results of this ‘natural experiment’ indicate substantially higher probabilities of finding employment when asylum seekers are placed in regions with a lingua franca that matches their individual language skills. Additionally, the findings suggest that language course participation can offset the reduced likelihood of employment in cases of a language mismatch. While random placement of refugees may be desirable for political reasons, it is detrimental to the economic integration process. Thereby, the study draws relevant conclusions for a larger European immigration policy.