Refugee Flows Research Articles

Ukrainian refugees of the period of the Russian-Ukrainian war in NATO countries: the geopolitical context of the military migration crisis

ABSTRACT The Russian-Ukrainian war is being waged on the territory of Ukraine, but it is of global importance. One of the aspects of the war is the mass migration of Ukrainians abroad. The causes and features of migration are explained in the global geopolitical context. In recent years, war refugees have become increasingly important in world migration flows. This testifies to the crisis of the world order that arose in the early 1990s. The uniqueness of the flow of refugees from Ukraine is its extraordinary size, speed of movement, gender and age imbalance, the predominance of urban residents with a high level of education. In the future, this prepares for Ukraine a demographic catastrophe and difficulties in the post-war reconstruction of the country. The author concludes that a solution to the Ukrainian military migration crisis can be found in the context of changes in the post-war world order.

Cities and migration

ABSTRACT As a prelude to the following essays on nine cities selected as strategic research sites, this introduction traces, in summary fashion, the linkages between migration and the development of the capitalist world economy, including, the rise of cities and their development. The history of migration during these five centuries encompasses the movement of European settlers to the new colonies, followed by three centuries of trans-Atlantic slave trade leading in turn, to deliberate labour recruitment in three continents and, eventually, to the contemporary self-driven flows of both labourers and refugees. A final diagram summarizes this evolution and seeks to situate the origin and development of the nine selected cities within it.

Poland: Political Developments and Data in 2022

AbstractThe Russian invasion of Ukraine caused a flow of refugees to Poland on a scale unprecedented in Europe since Second World War. Polish civil society, soon joined by government institutions, responded by offering the refugees, who counted in millions, shelter, material and social welfare assistance and legal accommodation. The war next door turned Poland into an EU and NATO frontline country, which led to more intense contacts between the Polish government and its Western partners, including the United States. This, however, did not help the government, which had marginalized itself within the EU by its own past actions, to resolve its disputes with the European Commission and the Court of Justice. Similarly, the uniform condemnation of the Russian aggression by all major political parties did not bridge the gap between the governing Law and Justice party and the opposition or even reduce the intensity of political conflicts.

Refugee Representations by the Greek Public Administration: A Critical Review of the Greek Institutional Discourse

This paper examines the political narratives employed in strategic communication between Greek authorities and the public administration during the refugee flows of 2015-2018. It also looks into the formation of images concerning refugees within the Greek political context and contributes to the existing literature on discursive representations of refugees. The study delves into the role of political rhetoric in strategic or non-strategic image formation, thus revealing the other side of media representations. It focuses on an overlooked aspect of political communication: the discourse of public administration institutions. The methodology uses qualitative content analysis with elements of discourse analysis, focusing on press releases from public administration institutions involved in the refugee crisis, as well as a selected corpus of public speeches from government members and local authorities. The institutions examined include the Ministry of Migration Policy, the Regional Administration of North Aegean, and the Regional Administration of South Aegean. The research covers the period from January 2015 to April 2018, encompassing a total of 159 press releases issued by the authorities under study regarding the refugee situation.

Comparative Analysis of Taliban Regimes to Assess the Global Challenges in Afghanistan: A Realist Perspective

This paper delves into the challenges faced by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, impacting their legitimacy and stability. These challenges encompass economic, humanitarian, and security issues similar to the previous Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001, along with new challenges arising from shifts in global security and politics. With a focus on international relations theory, specifically realism, the paper analyzes neighboring countries' responses to Taliban rule and their implications for regional security. Additionally, it examines potential spillover effects, such as increased terrorism and refugee flows. The paper advocates for a coordinated and multifaceted approach, considering the intricate political, social, and economic factors at play in Afghanistan. Emphasizing Pakistan's role due to its socio-cultural ties with Afghanistan, the paper encourages policymakers to involve governments, corporations, organizations, and international groups. Further research is necessary to develop effective strategies in addressing these challenges and promoting regional security and stability.

Approaches to the increasing linguistic diversity in Greek and Polish classrooms: Different contexts with similar problems

The paper discusses key educational issues related to the processes of decision-making and continuous teacher development at the level of the national (educational) authorities in Greece and Poland, regarding the urgency of the needs arising from the intensifying migration in the EU over the last two decades, and in view of the research conducted within the MaMLiSE project. The paper begins by reporting the official decisions and policies which laid the grounds for tackling the considerable linguistic variety that now characterises the school populations in each country, caused by the phenomenon of migration, and with refugee flows included. In addition, country-specific methods and resources used to produce educational materials for pupils from a migration background are presented. Finally, the available educational materials and their suitability to the specificity of each country’s current educational conditions are discussed. The concluding remarks are that a strong need is currently emerging for 1) nominating key-points in the pre- and in-service training of teachers with regard to multilingual classroom management, intercultural awareness and language sensitive subject teaching, 2) extrapolating common features necessary for the production of educational material (e.g. adaptability to new conditions, ease and flexibility of use in class, allowing translanguaging practices), and 3) negotiating shared educational principles (e.g. assessment framework, constructive use of language heritages at schools).

Pertimbangan Turki Dalam Menyetujui EU-Turkey Statement 2016: Penanggulangan Pengungsi dan Irregular Migrants di Eropa

In 2016, European Union and Turkey had EU-Turkey Statement partnership to manage refugees flow who involved in irregular migration to EU. This partnership required Turki to reduce the irregular migration rate and to bring those irregular migrants back to Turkey. Turkey agreed on this agreement despite hosting a huge amount of refugees and being host country with the largest number of refugees globally. This study aimed to analyze the consideration done by Turkey in agreeing the partnership. The research method used is qualitative with descriptive approach. This study was analyzed with national security policy conceptual framework which explains state behavior in policy-making by Paul R. Viotti and Mark V. Kauppi. There are four considerations in policy making process such as interests and objectives, opportunities, threats, and capabilities. Based on the concept used, this study found that Turkey considered three things in agreeing EU-Turkey Statement 2016. Firstly, the interests and objectives from political and economical aspect which are EU membership negotiation, visa liberalization, and EU financial aid for taking care of refugees in Turkey. Secondly, the opportunities for Turkey to leverage/uplift its bargaining power. Thirdly, consideration about its capabilities in facing refugee flow in political, social, and economical aspects.

The Bosnian War and Refugee Policy: Crisis Management and Migration Control

Based on research in the United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) archives in Geneva, this article aims to reflect, through an examination of UNHCR’s huge operation during the Bosnian war, on the major role played by the crisis paradigm in conflict management and related population movements, and on the construction and conceptualization over time of long-term forms of migration management. It analyses how the notion of “preventive protection” which emerges in the early 1990s illustrates a shift in the asylum regime, which concerns altogether the categories of its beneficiaries, the spaces, and the very nature of its application. The focus on humanitarian operations taking place as close as possible to the areas from which refugees are coming is at the origin of new patterns of emergency management which intend to contain and eventually hinder massive refugee flows and migration. This new approach of refugees flow was experimented during the Bosnian war; the UNHCR reflected on this experience and its learnings to build up long-term strategies for managing migration in a context of increased States’ hostility to the permanent welcoming of refugees. The continuity between wartime and peacetime for experimenting and enforcing new modes of migration management is emphasized, in order to show that the importance of the crisis paradigm symbolized by open conflicts and wars is thereafter used as a tool to manage migration flows in ordinary times.

Welcoming refugee children with a moral, rather than merely legal, right to education: Ideas for a cosmopolitan design of education

In this paper, we argue for the moral and not merely the legal right to education for refugee children. National education in many countries is challenged by refugee flows and influx of displaced people. However, there is a tendency to think of refugee flows as isolated events rather than parts of the dynamics of a world society that national education systems needs to respond responsibly to and build capacity for. Consequently, there is a gap between the legal right to education for refugee children and its practical realization, and granting refugee children access to national education systems is becoming part of the problem and not only a solution to the de-territorializing and cosmopolitan challenges of refugee flows and displaced people. We argue that education for children of refugees’ need to meet with a cosmopolitan design of education in order to respond responsibly to the right to education for refugee children. In the first part, we discuss the legal right to education for refugee children, and moral challenges with regard to its practical realization in nation-centred school systems and schools. In the second part, we discuss de-territorializing effects of refugees in education by reviewing research on refugee education, refugee children’s experiences of education and by discussing refugee education in Sweden as a case. In the final part, we discuss ideas for a cosmopolitan design of education. We argue for a moral commitment to the education of refugee children in order for us to respond responsibly to their legal and moral rights and situation, but also to the legal and moral rights, and situations of those affected in host countries. We also argue for the importance of critical cosmopolitan imagination in education that does not restrict education to norms of national loyalty and national integration, or to economic norms of competitiveness and effectiveness.

Kent çeperinde sosyal altyapı yoksunluğu: İstanbul’daki Esenler İlçesi Örneği

This paper emphasizes the significance of social infrastructure in understanding urban inequality. In addition to its economic opportunities, social infrastructure is one of the distinguishing characteristics of metropolitan areas. In cities of the 21st century, social infrastructure is not equally accessible to all residences. For the development and sustainability of urban life, social infrastructure is fundamental. In terms of establishing a sense of belonging and integration to contemporary urban life, social infrastructure is highly crucial especially for refugees and rural migrants who migrate to the periphery of big cities. By evaluating the findings of this study conducted in Esenler District, we aim to contribute to research dealing with urban inequalities in Istanbul from the perspective of social infrastructure.. To fill a gap in the literature, the social infrastructure of the Esenler District, which consists of rural-to-urban migration, refugee flow, and the working class in Istanbul's periphery, was analyzed by comparing it to other districts. The database created from various data sources and satellite images is presented with thematic maps. According to the findings, there is a significant divide between the central and peripheral districts of Istanbul in terms of social infrastructure. This inequality manifests itself in four ways: education, health, recreation, and fuel for housing. First, there are serious problems, such as the limited number of kindergartens, the high-class size in primary schools, and the poor quality of high schools in front of Esenler, which has a low education level. Second, there are only six healthcare centers in Esenler, where health services are inadequate compared to the central districts. Third, the green space cannot meet the recreational needs of the dense population in the district where unplanned and intensive construction has left no free space. Due to limited purchasing power, natural gas usage in Esenler is fairly low compared to central districts, despite the dense population. On the basis of these indicators, it has been concluded that the Esenler District, lacks the essential social infrastructure services necessary to maintain the city's health. Therefore, strengthening the social infrastructure on the urban periphery is a primary concern for developing a better understanding of urban inequalities, preventing problems, and making livable urban environments.

Do kapitala je – srednja klasa između kulture dobrodošlice i ukrajinske izbjegličke krize

Confused between their insatiable hunger for ‘self-realization,’ their enjoyment of petit bonheurs of life and an aggressive will to preserve their welfare position, for not going downhill and joining the 50% of the world population who own nothing, today’s middle-class individual seems to choose one of two ‘fronts of worldviews,’ of which the attitude toward ‘refugees’ constitutes a new ‘battlefield.’ So, with the flow of Ukrainian refugees after the Russian aggression against Ukraine, one of the most worrying questions in Germany has been if the experience of the ‘welcome culture’ of 2015, that is a severe shift from hospitality to hostility, would repeat. Statistics show that so far, it has not been the case. This paper addresses the question of what might differ in the experience of ‘the Ukrainian refugee wave’ from the ‘welcome culture’ of 2015. Tracing both hospitality and then the shift to hostility in 2015 back to its middle-class dynamics, the paper tries to conceptualize a difference in attitudes within the middle-class toward both ‘refugee crises.’

Repressing in the name of? Externalization dynamics in Turkey’s use of digital repression against refugees

ABSTRACT Over the last decades, Turkey has expanded its digital capabilities in various issue areas. At the same time, regime change under the Justice and Development Party has resulted in unprecedented state repression against various groups, which increasingly occurs via digitized channels. While Turkey has been building digital capabilities since the late 1990s, efforts to control the flow of refugees since 2015/16 have further resulted in the accumulation of such capabilities. Turkey’s partners, most notably the EU, have been pivotal in Turkey’s development in this sphere. We trace Turkey’s deployment of its newly gained digital repressive infrastructure and triangulate insights from open-source data (i.e. government data, newspaper reports, and other digital traces) to map processes of (mis)use. We argue that the AKP regime is not only deploying digital and AI technologies for the purpose of border and migration governance, but it is also misusing these technologies by engaging in digital repression against refugees. We further find that digital repression strategies employed against refugee populations largely overlap with strategies used to gain control over political opposition and civil society actors.

The rights of refugees from Ukraine in the Republic of Moldova

The refugee crisis in Ukraine generated by the intensity of military actions has highlighted the vulnerabilities faced by state institutions, affected by the large number of foreigners who have sought refuge on the territory of the Republic of Moldova. Both the Member States of the European Union and the Republic of Moldova have seen the security gaps that persist and must be removed. Change is a difficult and time-consuming process, and in the event of a massive influx of foreigners, it requires prompt and effective interventions. Actions in the management of the crisis situation put the authorities of the Republic of Moldova to the test. Thus, taking into account the effects of the refugee crisis in Ukraine, this paper consists in assessing national efforts in the context of the most efficient management of refugee flows seeking protection in the Republic of Moldova. This article aims to highlight the problem of the refugee crisis in Ukraine, the crisis conditioned by the Russo-Ukrainian war. The article also highlights the main issues regarding the granting by the Republic of Moldova of humanitarian aid to refugees from Ukraine, as well as respect for the rights of refugees in the Republic of Moldova.

INTEGRATION DYNAMICS: THE CASE OF IRAQI REFUGEES IN SYRIA

Civil wars, foreign interventions and political instability in the Middle East have caused mass refugee influx since the end of the Cold War. Therefore, how to integrate these refugees into host countries has become a critical question. To answer this question, the existing literature mainly focuses on ethnic and religious diversities, language barriers, and limited access to fundamental services and labor markets. However, there is little focus on case-specific factors to explain the integration dynamics of refugees. This article aims to fill this gap through the analysis of case-specific factors which play a significant role in understanding barriers to integration. This study classifies these factors as follows: geographical proximity, cultural threat, acceptance processes, political rent, and limited economic resources. To understand the influence of these factors, this study assesses refugee flow from Iraq to Syria since the Iraq war of 2003. This study demonstrates that even though Iraqi refugees in Syria were comparatively advantageous in terms of sharing a common language and residing in neighborhoods with common ethnic and religious backgrounds, they could not successfully have integrated into Syrian society. This research utilizes the sources of the IOM, UNDP, UNHCR, UNICEF, and WFP to provide a unique analysis.

Travelling abroad and geopolitical preferences – case of Kharkiv, Dnipro and Mariupol, Ukraine

The paper investigates the relationship between travel abroad experience and individual geopolitical preferences in three geopolitical fault-line cities in the eastern part of Ukraine. Employing binary logistic regression as a principal research method, we show that travel experience to European countries positively correlates with pro-European attitudes and corresponds to weaker pro-Soviet sentiments. On the contrary, travel experience to Russia is associated with somewhat weaker support for European geopolitical and cultural integration but stronger pro-Soviet sentiments. Travel experience to Russia is less important predictor of geopolitical preferences than visiting European countries. Pro-European attitudes, compared with pro-Soviet sentiments, are much more interlinked with international travel experience. The data on bilateral travellers evidences that possible effect of visiting European countries basically neutralises the effect of visiting Russia in terms of impact on geopolitical preferences. Although the relationship between travel abroad experience and geopolitical preferences is similar in all three cities under investigation, certain variations between them may be explained by different economic, socio-cultural and institutional background. The revealed correlations seem to cover both direct causal effect of travel abroad on geopolitical preferences and a reverse causality, namely self-selection of destination country according to personal pre-existing geopolitical views. The importance of discovered relationships for the integration of Ukrainian society into European civilization project is apparent not only considering visa-free regime between Ukraine and the European Union (EU), but also in view of the Russian military invasion in 2022 as a cause of flows of refugees from Ukraine to Europe.

Explaining refugee flows. Understanding the 2015 European refugee crisis through a real options lens.

In 2015 the unprecedented arrival of refugees in Europe posed serious challenges for the EU and its member countries on how to deal with such an influx. A key element in better managing refugee flows is to understand what drives these flows in a certain direction. A refugee who comes to Europe has to make trade-offs in terms of cost and benefits, duration, uncertainty and the multi-staged character of the journey. Real options models are a suitable tool for modelling these kind of decision dynamics. On the basis of a case-study, that compares three routes from Syria to Europe, we demonstrate how well the real options analysis is in line with the development of the refugee flows.

The European Union’s transformation after Russia’s attack on Ukraine

ABSTRACT Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 shattered any remaining illusions that closer economic integration with Europe would lead Russia, over time, towards democracy at home and peaceful coexistence with its neighbors abroad. It reinvigorated the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and jolted the European Union (EU) into cutting off trade and energy ties with Russia, while welcoming a massive flow of refugees from war-torn Ukraine. It empowered Central and East European states in the EU, reignited enlargement debates, and shifted NATO and Europe’s borders to the north and east. Introducing a special issue, this article argues that the EU’s peace through integration strategy has always existed side by side with NATO’s peace through strength approach, in a broader European project with blurred boundaries. This war may force the EU to solidify its borders between an internal zone of integration and an external zone of strength projection and geopolitics.

Gabrielle Fack discussion of: Teacher bias

The recent large flows of refugees from Ukraine in European countries, and in particular, the arrival of many children fleeing their homes since the Russian invasion stress again the key role that school systems play in the integration of migrants. It is therefore important to understand how school teachers interact with students of migrant origins, in order to detect potential biases and develop policies to address them. This paper tackles this question by studying how the local immigration context affects teacher’s attitudes towards children of foreign origin, using data from Italy. More precisely, the paper shows that, in areas that experience an increase in the immigrant share in the local population, grades given by teachers for an oral non-blind test to children of foreign origin are on average lower than grades given to natives, even after controlling for student’s grades in blind tests. The paper also shows that the effects are larger in smaller cities and for older teachers. Moreover, the effect seems to be driven by areas where negative sentiment towards immigrants is on average higher.

CHILDREN’S RIGHTS AND ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE

Children have the right to health, to life, to protection and to special care and attention from their parents and from the community in which they live. A number of international acts regulate and regulate these rights, and the national legislation in the country confirms and guarantees them.A pilot survey on children’s and their parents’ awareness of children’s rights in Bulgaria and their access to health care was conducted among 201 parents, in the period 01.12.2021-01.01.2022. Respondents were asked whether they were aware of children’s rights, whether they encountered obstacles to realizing their right to health, as well as whether, in their opinion, children have real access to health care in the country. More than 50% indicate that they are familiar with children’s rights, 64.7% answer that children in the country have real access to health care, but 44% share that they encountered certain obstacles when realizing their right to health.Issues concerning children, their rights and their access to health care affect the interests of individual families, of a given nation, but also of the entire society globally. There are positive trends around the world regarding children’s access to health care, but these rights depend not only on the individual and on national legislations, but also on global political decisions and natural disasters that cause refugee flows and put countries in front of new challenges.

India’s Partition through the lens of Gender: Trauma and Triumph interconnected

The horrible tragedy of modern Indian history is India’s Partition and the consequent refugee problem. A total of 18 million people were victims of this bloody incident; undoubtedly 10 million and more had been compelled by circumstances to abandon their homes. According to Ram Chandra Guha, author of India After Gandhi, nowhere in known history had the transfer of so many millions taken place in so few days. Women were the worst sufferers of Partition because their life was terribly affected by rape, murder, plunder and devastating bloodbath of communal riots. Prafulla Kumar Chakravarty in his book entitled Marginal Men depicted the fathomless trauma of uprooted people. Actually, refugee crisis was cause of severe headache of the newly created states. In the West the crisis did not take a never- ending shape and ended after a short while. The story of Eastern Frontier was quite different. According to Bipan Chandra, the flow of refugees did not stop upto 1971 in the Eastern Frontier and it can be added that the refugees from the East was an alarming problem for the Government of India. 
 Khwaja A. Khalique in his article entitled Genesis of Partition has rightly raised the pertinent issue that the unwanted incident of India’s Partition benefitted no one.
 Undoubtedly the Partition benefitted none but affected the life of women in both Eastern and Western Frontiers in the ghastliest manner. In this article I have tried my best to discuss its tremendous influence on womenfolk of our beloved motherland.