Commemorating World Refugee Day
Annually commemorated on June 20th, World Refugee Day plays a crucial role in raising global awareness about the challenges refugees encounter. Beyond awareness, it also celebrates refugees' resilience and their contributions to host communities.
World Refugee Day underscores the global responsibility to protect and support refugees, advocating for their human rights and legal protections. It seeks to ensure refugees are treated with dignity and provided opportunities to rebuild their lives in safety. This day also aims to challenge negative stereotypes and highlight refugees' potential and achievements despite adversity.
Košice, Poznań, Krakow, Brno, Miskolc, and Uzhhorod – Central Europe's New Destinations for War Refugees
World Refugee Day is also commemorated within our current project titled "Challenges Faced by Ukrainian Refugees in Secondary Cities in Central and Eastern Europe," supported by the International Visegrad Fund together with our team from:
- Institute of Social Sciences, CSPS, Slovak Academy of Sciences (Slovakia)
- Brno Lab of Intergroup Processes (Czech Republic)
- Jagiellonian University a Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland)
- University of Miskolc (Hungary)
- Uzhorod National University (Ukraine)
The project examines the challenges faced by Ukrainian refugees in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), particularly regarding social cohesion, integration, and discrimination. Rather than solely focusing on capital cities, our initiative explores the growing secondary cities in the region, where refugee reception is significant. These cities share historical migration experiences, similar civil society challenges, and dynamic migration patterns due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
A significant aspect of our project involves close collaboration with Uzhhorod National University in Ukraine, particularly focusing on the experiences of refugees and displaced persons within Ukraine itself, specifically in the city of Uzhhorod. This extension of our research includes internal displacement, shedding light on the experiences of those uprooted within Ukraine's borders.
The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.
For more information, we have prepared infographics following our desk research on the implementation of changes within the mentioned cities regarding the integration and support of Ukrainians.
More can be found here.
Report by Jana Papcunová
Infografika: Šimon Babej