Internal Displacement of the Ukrainians. Migration towards Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria

Abstract

The evolution of the migration and refugee crisis in Ukraine and in several European countries, due to the full-scale armed conflict which started on February 24th, 2022 is a relevant topic nowadays. This recent large scale migration event reflected in a severe humanitarian crisis and in high scale migratory flows inside Ukraine and towards Europe. With the aim to see the magnitude of the migration phenomena and their consequences, the internal migration in Ukraine and towards three Eastern European countries: Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria have been investigated during the first several months after the Russian invasion. All these countries welcomed the largest wave of refugees in their recent history and tried to adapt their policies for a successful integration of the Ukrainian refugees into their labour market and societies. The use of a methodology of quantitative and qualitative analysis, based on several official data sources, as well as the analysis of interviews with Ukrainian refugees during the field work in Bulgaria, confirm these findings, stating however that there are still problems for a better integration mainly due to economic and bureaucratic reasons. Some proposals have been discussed how to improve this situation.