Migration of War Refugees from Ukraine as a Challenge for Local Resilience from a Polish-German Perspective

Outline

Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine has led to a massive influx of Ukrainian refugees. The UNHCR estimates that by February 2025, 3.7 million people will be internally displaced in Ukraine, while a total of 6.3 million Ukrainian forced migrants will be registered in Europe (UNHCR 2025). This has not only triggered an unprecedented coordinated response at the European level, centred on the activation of the Temporary Protection Directive. It also had a profound impact on local migration governance. Municipalities had to quickly organise the accommodation of thousands of arriving refugees, a wave of solidarity reshaped civil societies and created new reception capacities, and in the context of the uncertain future of Ukrainian refugees, new perspectives for integration and participation were needed.

Against this background, the main objective of the research project is to analyse the reception of Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw and Leipzig. It focuses on the local network of city administrations, municipal actors, non-governmental organisations and the civil society that structured the governance of the arrival of Ukrainian forced migrants. It aims to identify modes of coordination, dynamics of cooperation and conflict, and to provide a perspective on governance arrangements as an essential condition for positive integration outcomes. By examining the limits and potential of local reception structures and by adopting a network-centred approach to the analysis of Ukrainian forced migration, the research project will also be able to contribute to a multidimensional conceptualisation of urban resilience in times of profound societal transformation.

The comparative perspective of the research project aims to highlight similarities and differences in the Polish and German responses to the influx of Ukrainian forced migrants, and to contribute to an understanding of the local dynamics of reception in Warsaw and Leipzig.