Self-Selection of Ukrainian Refugees into Austria and Poland

Lecture format: on site + online.
Room: 2R-EG-07 (lecture hall of the Institute for Eastern European History).
Street address: Spitalgasse 2,  Campus of the University of Vienna, Hof 3.

The Russian military invasion of Ukraine that commenced on the February 24, 2022, led to the largest forced migration flows in Europe since WWII and one of the largest forced displacement crises in the world today. UNHCR reports show that six months after the onset of the Russian invasion, nearly one-third of Ukrainians (over 13 million people) have been forced from their homes and almost seven million Ukrainians have fled the war and are residing mainly in European countries. At present, there is only scarce and limited information on who the Ukrainian refugees arriving in the various host countries are. Our comparative analysis builds on two large surveys that were conducted simultaneously between April and June in Kraków (Poland) and Vienna (Austria). Specifically, we analyze how Ukrainian refugees arriving in Austria and in Poland differ in terms of their sociodemographic background, choice of host country as well as their return and stay intentions. Preliminary evidence suggests a highly self-selective migration from Ukraine to host countries, having implications for labor market integration in host countries. The farther Ukrainian refugees moved to the West, the higher their socioeconomic background, and the likelier their permanent re-settlement. Reliance on community networks and dependence on financial and social resources constitute well-documented effects of refugees’ self-selection into Europe. In contrast, active choice of and familiarity with the host country are largely unique to the Ukrainian displacement, where previous cohorts of refugees from the Middle East or the Global South, while still self-selected in terms of education and social status, displayed much less knowledge and active choice of their host country. Host countries should be aware of the specifics of their refugee population and may want to adapt their integration policies accordingly, taking into account socioeconomic composition, intentions to return, and familiarity with the host society.

Judith Kohlenberger a post-doctoral researcher at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) working on forced migration and integration. She was a contributor to the Displaced Persons in Austria Survey (DiPAS), one of the first European studies on the human capital of refugees in the fall of 2015, which was awarded the Kurt-Rothschild-Prize. Her work has been published in international journals such PLOS One, Refugee Survey Quarterly and Health Policy. She is affiliated with the Wittgenstein Center for Demography and Global Human Capital and teaches in the WU masters’ program and at the University of Applied Sciences. She regularly publishes in the Austrian weekly FALTER and serves on the board of the Schumpeter Society Vienna and migrant.at. Her new book Wir was published in February 2021 with Kremayr & Scheriau.
 

First results of Dr. Judith Kohlenberger's and her colleagues' work are published at the LSE EUROPP blog:
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2022/09/07/what-the-self-selection-of-ukrainian-refugees-means-for-support-in-host-countries/

Back