Changes and Challenges: The Integration of Ukrainian Refugees in Romania

The challenges faced by refugees in their integration in the countries of residence have been widely documented in the literature. Much attention has been paid to the nature and consequences of such challenges in refugees’ personal and professional lives. However, we know relatively little about why the challenges differ across refugees. This paper seeks to address that gap in the literature and aims to identify why some Ukrainian refugees face challenges during their stay in neighbouring Romania. It distinguishes between challenges such as legal status, access to public services, access to education and access to the job market. The data comes from semi-structured interviews and a survey conducted in late 2024 and early 2025 with Ukrainian war refugees in Romania. We use a mixed-methods design that combines deductive thematic and quantitative statistical analyses. The results indicate the importance of migration expectations, social networks, activism, and ties with the home country in explaining the variation in the emergence of challenges.