Polish society's initial responses to the arrival of forced migrants from Ukraine in early 2022

ABSTRACT

It has been over a year after Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine at the end of February 2022, which caused massive internal displacement in Ukraine and forced outmigration to neighboring countries on an unprecedented scale. From the beginning of the war, Poland has been the main host country, providing temporary protection to more than 1.5 million persons. The initial support for forced migrants was based on spontaneous actions and grassroots social initiatives. This article analyses the Polish society’s engagement in humanitarian and reception assistance to people fleeing Ukraine in the first months of the crisis, including various societal actors, from informal initiatives and volunteering by everyday people of different nationalities to more formalized civil society organizations. The paper is based on the analysis of quantitative data, the subject literature and official documents, and extensive participant observation by the authors of the public engagement in Poland in 2022.

RÉSUMÉ

Plus d'une année s'est écoulée depuis l'agression massive de la Russie contre l'Ukraine à la fin du mois de février 2022, qui a provoqué des déplacements massifs de population en Ukraine et une émigration forcée vers les pays voisins à une échelle sans précédent. Dès le début de la guerre, la Pologne a été le principal pays d'accueil, offrant une protection temporaire à plus de 1,5 million de personnes. Le soutien initial aux migrants forcés était fondé sur des actions spontanées et des initiatives sociales de base. Cet article examine l'engagement de la société polonaise dans l'aide humanitaire et l'accueil des personnes fuyant l'Ukraine dans les premiers mois de la crise, y compris les différents acteurs de la société, depuis les initiatives informelles et le bénévolat de personnes ordinaires de différentes nationalités jusqu'aux organisations plus formelles de la société civile. L'article est basé sur l'analyse de données quantitatives, de la littérature spécialisée et des documents officiels, de même que celle d'une observation participante approfondie par les auteurs de l'engagement du public en Pologne en 2022.

KEYWORDS:

• Poland
• Ukraine
• forced migration
• civil society organizations
• volunteers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joanna Fomina

Joanna Fomina is a professor of sociology at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw. Her academic interests include migration and migrant integration policies in the EU, EU integration, Euroscepticism and populism, and democratization processes in Central and Eastern Europe. Her recent book Political Dissent and Democratic Remittances The Activities of Russian Migrants in Europe (Routledge, 2022) explores the pro-democratic activities of post-2011 Russian political emigrants to the EU.

Marta Pachocka

Marta Pachocka, Ph.D., is an economist and political scientist. Assistant professor in the Department of Political Studies, the Institute of International Studies of the Collegium of Socio-Economics of SGH Warsaw School of Economics; researcher and co-coordinator of the Laboratory of Urban and Regional Migration Policies at the Centre of Migration Research (CMR) of the University of Warsaw (UW), and former Head of the Migration Policies Research Unit at CMR (2018-2022). Expert in migration studies.