Current attitudes towards Ukrainian refugees

• Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
• MPC: Migration Policy Centre
• Ukraine

This event will explore social cohesion in hosting societies and citizens' attitude towards the arrival of Ukrainian refugees

More than 5 million people have now been displaced by the war in Ukraine. Many have moved to neighbouring states and face uncertain futures. It seems highly likely that a large part of Ukrainian refugees will stay in the region for a longer period. The key for future social cohesion in the hosting societies are therefore the attitudes of citizens towards the newly arrived Ukrainian refugees and the perception of how governments are handling the new situation. To understand more about this, we surveyed nationally representative samples in eight countries: Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania and Slovakia between May and June 2022. We find strong support for people displaced by the war in Ukraine in all countries, but also that governments need to show that they have a plan to manage mass displacement otherwise these attitudes could change.

This event is organised by the Research Network on Ukrainian Migration, a collaboration launched by, initially, four institutions: Centre of Migration Research, University of Warsaw, Migration Policy Centre (EUI), University of Maastricht/UNU-MERIT.