On March 17, 2022, Oksana Piatkovska, Deputy Director of the International Institute of Education, Culture and Diaspora Relations, Lviv Polytechnic National University, moderated the panel discussion «Stand with Ukraine: Refugees». The event was organized and conducted by the Ukrainian Catholic University (School of Public Administration). Working language – English.
The keynote speaker was Franck Düvell, a well-known researcher and expert on migration and refugees, senior researcher, coordinator of the Consortium «Research on forced migration and refugees: network and knowledge transfer», the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies, Osnabrück University, Head of the Migration Department of the German Center for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM), Berlin (2018–2020); Senior Research Fellow and Associate Professor, the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), Oxford University (2006–2018).
Frank Düvell presented scientific achievements and research in the context of forced migration in the East «Forced Migration in the Global East – a neglected field of research». In his speech, he described the hostilities in the East that have led to mass influxes of forced migrants, and highlighted Russia’s key role as a country involved in hostilities, and thus the cause of millions of refugees.
Among the invited panelists there were Kateryna Pryschepa, Project Officer at the College of Europe, who is an active volunteer in Poland, helping Ukrainian refugees in the country, and students of the Ukrainian Catholic University who are seeking international protection in EU: Olena Yabchanka (Poland) and Nataliia Starodub (Germany).
Opening the discussion, Oksana Piatkovska stressed that «according to the UN Refugee Agency, in just the first week after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine (February 24, 2022), more than a million refugees from Ukraine crossed borders with neighboring countries. There are many more inside and outside our country. The latest statistics (as of March 16, 2022) show that there are almost 3.2 million Ukrainian refugees, more than 1.9 million of whom have stayed in Poland». With this in mind, the panel participants, based on their own experience, spoke about the flow of refugees from Ukraine to Poland and Germany, what are the challenges facing Ukrainians in these countries, and who provide real assistance to Ukrainian refugees. The issues of EU integration and migration policy were also discussed, including updated approaches, simplified border crossing procedures and requirements for staying in these countries, employment opportunities, social guarantees, as well as specific types of assistance from governments or local authorities.
Other IECDR employees also joined the event, namely: Yurii Marusyk, researcher, and Olha Dolinska, sociologist.