Geografie 2023, 128, 271-299
The admission of Ukrainian refugees from the perspective of municipalities in Czechia
, František Ochrana1, Michal Plaček2
1Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Sociological Studies, Department of Public and Social Policy, Prague, Czechia
2National Museum of Agriculture, Prague, Czechia
Received November 2022
Accepted April 2023
The article deals with the migration of 500,000 Ukrainian refugees to Czechia after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. The study examines the challenges municipalities had to deal with in connection with the reception of Ukrainian refugees. For this, a primary questionnaire survey, statistical analysis of the obtained data, and analysis of documents were conducted. An original historical-processual and retrograde approach was used to explain the genesis and development of the refugees’ reception. A two-dimensional model (matrix) was developed to find out how municipalities dealt with the reception of refugees. The main contribution of this study is the development of a typology of different approaches of actors in multilevel governance to dealing with the emergent situation and empirically supported conclusions as to how well municipalities have managed to coexist with the newly arrived Ukrainians. The study thus provides a unique insight into what issues municipalities are dealing with and how difficult it is for them to manage this rather unusual situation.
Keywords
migration, integration, refugees, municipalities, temporary protection.
Funding
This work was supported by MINTE project, supported by the Erasmus+ programme. The authors thank the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic for the initiative to investigate the situation of municipalities and for inviting them to carry out the research.
