On May 25, 2023, in the main building of Lviv Polytechnic National University, the International Institute of Education, Culture and Diaspora Relations held the International Scientific and Practical Conference «Ukrainian Forced Migrants: Integration, Identity, Return» within the framework of the launched discussion platform of the same name. 222 participants from Ukraine and other 24 countries registered to participate in the conference.
The event was opened by the IECDR Director, Iryna Kliuchkovska, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor, Honorary Professor of Lviv Polytechnic. The head of the Institute emphasized the relevance and practical orientation of the project. This will consist in developing a series of proposals for the Ukrainian authorities regarding the challenges and problems associated with the forced migration of our citizens since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia. The realization of this goal will be facilitated by the powerful scientific potential of registered participants from 24 countries of the world.
The First Vice-Rector of Lviv Polytechnic Oleh Matviikiv, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, gave a welcome speech. He noted that thanks to the initiative of IECDR, a platform for communication of leading specialists whose opinion is important for understanding modern migration processes has been created, and the University continues to be a place of leading scientific discussions and innovative solutions.
The conference was moderated by Oksana Piatkovska, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Deputy Director of IECDR.
In her speech, keynote speaker Ella Libanova, academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor, Honored Economist of Ukraine, Director of the Ptoukha Institute for Demography and Social Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, emphasized that depopulation for Ukraine is an inevitable but not catastrophic phenomenon, as it depends on the competence of the migration policy of the state. And therefore, thanks to the change in migration flows, it is possible to regulate the demographic situation. Professor also highlighted the peculiarities of the potential scale of Ukrainians returning home, focusing on such factors as:
- duration of hostilities on the territory of Ukraine,
- security guarantees,
- the level of integration of forced migrants into host societies,
- the place of family reunification.
