Governing forced migration. Multilevel response to the 2022 arrival of forced migrants from Ukraine to Poland.

Abstract

The time indicated above is in GMT. Speakers Paweł Kaczmarczyk, University of Warsaw Karolina Łukasiewicz, University of Warsaw Marta Pachocka, University of Warsaw Following the large-scale forced migration from Ukraine to Poland in 2022, migration governance has occupied a vital role in public and academic discourses and politics at supranational, national, and local levels. This presentation aims at assessing the scale of 2022 forced migration from Ukraine to Poland, identifying varying modes of responses by public and private actors and factors that shaped the responses. Our analysis builds on administrative and survey data on forced migrants from Ukraine and qualitative semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders in Polish large, medium, and small-size cities. Our results indicate a unique demographic profile of forced migrants with an over representation of highly skilled women with children; and settlement patterns to the large cities. In response, various policies and programs were put in place at central and local levels. While an opportunity to develop systemic migration governance modes so far missing in Poland was created, the implementation of the policies often exacerbated pre-crisis challenges such as program under- and unstable funding, poor coordination, or service inequalities. Factors that shaped the response included conservative vs. liberal central-level administration political orientation, cities’ geopolitical situation, migration history, the migrant population including Ukrainian diaspora; pre-February 24th networks of cooperation established between local administration and civil society organizations, charismatic pro-migration city leadership, and finally, displaced people’ racial, ethnic and religious characteristics.